Epics of India MLLL 4993

Find this story on my Indian Epics Portfolio blog:  Link Image source:  Wikipedia There once were two cocks, one older than the other, born near a school for young brahmins. The Bodhisattva was the master of this school, and he had five hundred disciples. The older of these cocks had been taken by the school as a chick. He grew up with the brahmins and was taught how to crow only in the morning so that the young boys knew when to wake for their studies. This cock had learned quickly and pleased both the Bodhisattva and all of the disciples. The cock who lived with the young boys was great friends with the other young cock who lived on the outskirts of the school. When the trained cock was available, he would go talk to his friend. He often tried to persuade the young cock to learn the art of crowing so that he too could one day please the brahmins. “Young friend”, said the old cock, “You must let me teach you how to crow properly so that the Bodh...

Illustration by W. Robinson.            I found the concept of the Jataka to be fascinating. That each "Jataka" is a different life of the Buddha is highly interesting, and I want to continue reading these stories. They are almost exactly like Aesop's fables, which are always short, fun, and have an important lesson at the end. Many of the Jataka followed similar structure, were the same length, and some began with "Once on a time". I like these consistencies, because each piece has almost the same feeling, but a different truth to be learned at the end. I chose the stories of the Rabbit and the Crab for their similarities, although the main characters reach different ends. In the tale of the Rabbit, the Rabbit it a fool who gets other animals to blindly follow him. The King Lion thinks this is ridiculous, and uses logic to solve the problem. This one character who stands out saves the other animals from running forever. In the tale of the Crab, a Cra...

Cakrabyuha from the Mahabharata, source:  Wikipedia I think the span of material available for both this course and Mythology and Folklore is amazing. Students have the ability to choose more of what they want to read, especially in the second half of the semester for this course. Allowing students to make those kinds of decisions for themselves insures that they will not become bored with coursework and that they have more of a voice in their assignments. It will also make class projects more interesting, as students are allowed the opportunity to explore and experiment. Indian Comic Books While browsing the reading options, I found it very funny that OU has an Indian mythology comic book selection. In my mind, mythology doesn’t go with comic books, probably because I think of Spiderman or outlandish illustrations. The link to the online comic books is fun, because you’re given a random comic every time you refresh the page. I will be referring back to this link f...

Image source:  Pinterest For the Time Strategies readings, I read Four Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination by Peter Banerjea and 11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time by Aine Cain. I chose these articles for two reasons. First of all, they are both set up as lists. For some reason I really love lists. It’s easier to find the things that relate to you personally than reading a winded article that might be hit and miss. Also, both of these articles deal with procrastination. This is something I’ve dealt with a lot, especially in my first three semesters at OU. There was a point that I got so stressed out that I wouldn’t even begin assignments. So, Banerjea’s article resonated with me more. In Four Questions , Banerjea states that sometimes the hardest part of any project is simply beginning. I have found this to be true, and for the last couple of years have tried to not wait until the last minute to get things done. For example, a lot ...

Image source:  Wikipedia I have to be honest and say that I’m a bit overwhelmed by all of the content for Mythology and Folklore and Epics of India. However, I am getting used to where everything is. I’m glad I took the opportunity to start these classes a week early! I have two other online classes and need to get used to those, as well. Creating bookmark folders in my browser for all of my classes was a great idea. I have so many links for each course, I didn’t even realize how many there were until I grouped them all together. Now they sit nicely at the top of my screen and I am feeling a little less all over the place. :’-D I had not heard of a lot of these tools before, but it will be interesting attempting to use them. I do use Google Docs all the time, though, and I highly encourage everyone check it out. It’s great for taking class notes, making a resume, writing essays, etc. I used to use Word for all of my writing assignments, but Google will automati...

Image source:  Pxhere Mythology and Folklore and Epics of India are two courses unlike any that I have taken before. I have never run a blog and had never even read any blogs before this past week. Online classes can be a bit overwhelming for me simply because it takes me forever to find things. I definitely prefer having notebooks and textbooks, and I usually stay away from technology when I can. By the end of these two classes, I expect to feel a lot more comfortable using computers for coursework. I can tell Ms. Gibbs has put a lot of time and effort into these two classes and is a very interactive professor. I usually have professors who delay putting grades in online and give very minimal feedback. This is another big change for me. While looking at the extra credit opportunities, I was surprised to find that there are so many. This reminds me of my favorite professor, Dr. Logan Whalen. I had him for four classes at OU, and he is always looking out for h...

Image source:  AzQuotes I had never heard of Carol Dweck before this assignment, but found her to be a compelling woman. I agree that our outlooks on life greatly affect our success and happiness, and I have personally experienced the struggles relevant to her work. There were a lot of things for me to overcome in my first three semesters at OU. I had a lot of family problems and was working in a job that should not have been stressful, but was, due to incompetent employees and management. Eventually, I realized that I had let anger and stress control me for a long time, and that it was having a horrible impact on my success in college and my relationships. I took steps to eliminate unnecessary stress from my life, as college is stressful enough on its own. I got a job at the OU Union Starbucks, changed my major to an area that I was doing better in, and decided to have a good time. These big changes happened two summer ago, and I was taking two summer courses at the time....

Personal image, Carlie and me Personal image, Yat Fan and me        Hello! My name is Bridget Clayton and I am a French major and Music minor at the University of Oklahoma. I am currently taking my last semester completely online, as I have already finished my French courses and gone through Capstone. I’m just finishing up some upper-division credits.        I was originally a Music major because I love playing clarinet. Throughout high school, clarinet was the most important part of my life. However, I went through a lot of personal and familial issues during my first two years at OU, and I was struggling in some key music courses, like music theory. French had been my minor, but I realized that I was doing exceptionally well in my language classes, and as I did not want to teach music, I switched my major and minor. My last semester was a big success. I was taking four French courses, including Capstone, and was in one of the bands at ...

The Girls of Spring Narcissus by John William Waterhouse from Wikipedia        The Girls of Spring incorporates both Persephone, a Greek goddess who I had heard of before, and Sita, who I had not. Sita is the wife of Rama, from the Indian epic Ramayana. The title did not make me think that the story would be about a Greek goddess and an Indian princess who are each trying to overcome being taken from their homelands. However, I understand the author’s title choice, as both characters’ names and stories deal with springtime. It would have been better, in my opinion, to paint them as women instead of girls.       The introduction did not go into much detail about the origin stories of each character, but some sections had author’s notes, and it was easy to keep up with the plot. It was nice to see the author making her own correlations between these stories from different mythologies and combining them into one. The layout and design of the page a...

In December 2016 - January 2017, I took a ten day trip with my boyfriend, Yat Fan, and his mom, Winnie. We drove up to New York City and then on to Boston before heading home. The drive up was actually pretty grey and boring, but once we hit Pennsylvania. it got pretty fun. We ate lunch overlooking Pittsburgh, and later in the day, before exiting the state, the weather cleared and we drove on the Lincoln highway for some pretty incredible scenery. Driving through New Jersey into New York was an interesting experience. I'd never been up to that part of the country and didn't understood the layout of NYC. It's basically isolated and surrounded by water (well, I felt isolated, anyway), and I never knew. :'-D Since we stayed in Queens, we had to take the subway, and it was my first experience riding one. Not very fun and not very clean. At all. We bought a City Pass for NYC, and I'll go into more detail about all those things later in this post. After New York, we dro...

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe Pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind Possessing and caressing me Jai guru deva om Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes They call me on and on across the universe Thoughts meander like a restless wind Inside a letter box they Stumble blindly as they make their way Across the universe Jai guru deva om Nothing's gonna change my world Sounds of laughter shades of life are ringing Through my open ears inciting and inviting me Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns And calls me on and on across the universe Jai guru deva om Nothing's gonna change my world Jai guru deva Across the Universe John Lennon and Paul McCartney