Epics of India MLLL 4993

Einstein on Flickr The first article I read was Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head by Sabina Nawaz. I was intrigued by the title, because I tend to focus on the negative aspects in my life rather than the positive. She cites work stating that people who focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses are more productive and engaged with their work. She also suggests asking what your peers or superiors like about your work in addition to what they don’t. I think that this is a good idea, as anyone who truly wants to help you be more successful is bound to be honest with you. Nawaz also states, “Believe the positive, and act as if it were true”. This means that if someone gives you positive feedback, don’t assume that they are just being nice or that they might have a sneaky reason for telling you good things in order to lead you astray. She suggests obtaining feedback from people who you know for sure want to help you succeed. For me, that might be my profe...

Ganesha on Wikimedia I thought that Hindu Creation Myths would be an interesting research topic for me because I always question how things came to be. Although I am not religious, I do consider myself agnostic and allow for possible Creator(s). Last semester, I took Sociology of Religion and learned about various ways different people experience religion. Studying Hindu creation stories would give me a better look into why people believe what they do and how they practice. I found a little animated video introduction into Hindu Creationism, which you can access here: link . I learned that Hindus believe in the possibility of countless universes, which I have wondered about myself. I chose to look into Hindu funeral rituals , because I really only know about American customs in regards to death. Even then, I have been fortunate to only deal with a few funerals myself. In my research, I learned that at a funeral, it is preferred that attendees wear white, which is different than ...

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...