Reading Notes: Epified, Part D

Epified: Mahabharata

Part D

Draupadi's Swayamvar. Source: Wikimedia.

In the Part D videos of the Epified: Mahabharata series, the focus was more on Draupadi and her husbands. This was the part of the Mahabharata that I felt like things were picking up and the tension was starting to build, especially between the Pandavas and Kauravas.

I focused more of my attention on the character of Karna because I plan on writing this week's story on him. The part where Karna is mentioned is during Draupadi's Swayamvar and Karna's Humiliation. Karna feels like he is always tainted because he is a "soot-putra" or a charioteer's son. However, he still tries to win the challenge that Draupadi's dad put forward. Draupadi, however,  insults him by saying that he would never be worthy of marrying a princess because he is soot-putra. Karna returns to his seat with this fire of humiliation burning inside of him.

I have grown to show more sympathy for the character of Karna and for the character of Kunti, so I think in my story I can incorporate him being insults by Draupadi and show how he decided to be the bigger person and not fire any insults back.

Reading Notes: Epified, Part C

Epified: Mahabharata

Part C

Epified. Source: Viki.

For these next two weeks of reading, I'm going back to the Epified: Mahabharata videos to finish all of the parts. 

Part C starts off with the story of Karna and then moves on to the Pandavas. 

The video Karna's Quest. In this part, it gives a great introduction to Karna. Karna was born with the earrings and the armor and they grow with him as he grows. In the next 2 videos, it shows the stories of how Karna grows up, finds a guru to teach him and his interactions with the Pandavas. In the video, Karna becomes King, Karna and the Pandavas take part in a competition. When Karna tells the Pandavas about his lineage, he mentions how he was found in a basket floating down the river. Kunti upon hearing this faints because she realizes this is her first son. Duryodhan helps save Karna from more humiliation in this situation.

I wrote a story about Kunti having to leave her son Karna and what her thoughts would be on it. I think I can write a second part to that story, with like a big time leap into the adulthood of her kids and have her see Karna again at this competition. 

Tech Tip: Canvas Dashboard

Canvas Dashboard

I figured out how to change the names of classes on Canvas during last semester so I've changed the names on all of my class modules ever since. You can also change the color of the modules as well so I color coordinate the module color, my pen color for my planner, and my notebook for that class. Yes, I am weird but it works for me. 

Week 11 Story: The Secret Superhero, Part 2

The Secret Superhero: Part 2

Cards. Source: Pixabay.

When Krish got back to his apartment, he couldn’t help but think about his morning. He had used his power for the first time in a long while. He didn’t want to admit it, but it felt good to feel that power surge through him. The last time he had used his power, it hadn’t ended well.

For as long as he could remember, he was told to hide his power. Krish knew he couldn’t let anyone know. He recalled the one incident when he was younger that made his power known to his mother. 

His mother had been teaching Krish a new card game when she had seen a pot of milk boiling over on the stove. She had left him briefly to go attend to the milk, but those few moments of being left alone had made him so angry. He didn’t realize he was doing it but he saw the other pot of milk suddenly overturn itself. Krish had just stared at it with wide eyes. He couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

But his mother could. She knew what had happened. She had feared for the day his power would show up in full form. Thinking back to when he was a toddler and had unconsciously moved his toys around, she had hoped that he wouldn’t figure out about his ability until he was much older. She wasn’t ready to explain to him how he was special just yet.

“Mom, what just happened?” asked Krish. Yashi, his mother, was looking at him funny. 

“Krish, there is something I need to tell you but I need you to remain calm and not freak out, okay?” said Yashi.

“Okay, what is it?” questioned Krish. 

“Well, umm, there’s this thing. You have this power called telekinesis. It means you can move things with your mind, just like you did with the pot of milk.” 

“Wait, you mean to tell me, that was me? Idid that?” 

“Yes, but listen Krish. You cannot tell people about this ability. There are people in this world who don’t like people who are different, and I don’t want anything to happen to you. So promise me you won’t tell anyone,” said his mother.

Coming back to his current situation, Krish felt conflicted about telling the kid at the park about his power. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told him,” thought Krish. 

He remembers not being able to tell his friends about his power as he was growing up. There was instances where he couldn’t control his ability and things happened, but he never knew how to explain it without not giving away his secret. So he kept quiet and let people think he was weird.

But he had to admit it. Telling someone about it had made him feel so much better. It made him feel more confident in a way.

“Maybe I shouldn’t hide it anymore,” he thought. “I need to be me now. No more hiding. I can use my power for good, like I did today.”

Author's Note: I wanted to continue on from my last superhero story and give some more information on why Krish wanted to Sri to not tell anyone about his power. In The Childhood of Krishna chapter of the Shri Krishna of Dwarka reading, I found a little part where he and his mother Yashoda are playing but she has to leave him and go inside for a few minutes to go attend to the milk that was boiling over. This makes Krishna angry and he goes and overturns another pot of milk. I thought that would be a perfect scene to tweak with and have him overturn the milk with his mind instead of him physically do it. That would be a perfect way for his power to show up. 

Bibliography:

The Childhood of Krishna by C.A. Kincaid.

Reading Notes: Shri Krishna of Dwarka, Part B

Shri Krishna of Dwarka

from Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C.A. Kincaid. 

The demon Sambara. Source: Wikimedia. 

In the Part B readings for this week, I finished up the Shri Krishna of Dwarka book. These readings unlike the Part A were more about the adventures of Krishna with other people. In my opinion, I think Krishna wasn't the main character of each chapter's focus. Although, he was a big part of them. 

In Chapter 9: Adventures of Balarama and Pradyumna, the story starts off with Balarama as he is going back to Vrindavan to visit his people. Then the story shifts to Pradyumna who is Krishna and Rukmini's eldest son. When he was six days old, he was flung into the sea by the demon Sambara. Sambara had been told that Pradyumna would kill him so he went to kill Pradyumna first. And then it goes on to tell the story of his life. 

Overall, these chapters were fun to read. I found some characters that I think I could incorporate into my story while doing the readings. 

Reading Notes: Shri Krishna of Dwarka, Part A

Shri Krishna of Dwarka

from Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C.A. Kincaid. 

Krishna with butter. Source: WordPress.

I decided to do more Krishna readings for two reasons. The first being I know different people write the same story in their own version so I wanted to see how this version would be. And secondly, I wanted to write a second part to my last Krishna story so I'm hoping I found some more adventures of Krishna that I can write and incorporate into my own story. 

In Chapter 2: The Childhood of Krishna, there is a part where Yashoda was taking care of Krishna who had just a toddler at that point. She briefly leaves Krishna to go attend to the pot of milk that was boiling over inside their house. Krishna being left alone outside was furious. He overturns he milk that she had been churning and then he crawls inside, climbs on a pot and starts to eat the butter that Yashoda had been. 

• I really liked this scene because in my last story about Krishna, I gave him the power of telekinesis. I feel like if I decide to write a part two to that story, I could have a flashback scene of this exact moment. Instead of him overturning the milk with his hands, I could have him do it with his mind but he wouldn't know that he's doing it. Same with him climbing on the pot and eating the butter. He could get the pot of butter to him instead of climbing on another pot to get to it. 

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I recently started using the Canvas app for phones again because I got so tired of having to go to Safari on my iPhone and having to use Canvas that way. I got it last year but didn't like it because there weren't many options to do things on their except look at grades, modules, etc. The app definitely makes it much easier to access classes and see stuff. I wish there was a way to download stuff onto the Canvas app for later use though because my app does crash sometimes.

Reading Notes- Epified: Krishna, Part B

Epified: Krishna

Radha Krishna. Source: Wikimedia. 

I missed the Part B reading during the week so I'm making it up by finishing it and using it as extra credit.

I continued watching the videos for Part B and right off the bat I could tell the illustrator for these videos was someone else. The drawings were much for intense and in-depth which is great. I think that adds great detail to the story.

The one video I found very interesting was the The Savior of Dharma. This is the part of Krishna's story where he finds out who he really is from the family priest, Garg Acharya. Garg Acharya tells him that he can't marry Radha because his destiny was something else. Krishna finds out he is the savior of dharma in this world. He even finds out his birth parents are Yashoda and Nand. This made him so sad. He thought so much about his destiny and finally decided to accept it.

Another video I really liked was Krishna's Farewell. This is when Krishna and his brother Balram set out on their journey to fulfill Krishna's destiny. The people of Vindravan are initially really sad and try to convince him to stay back but he tells him that he can't stay back because he has a destiny that he cannot just ignore.

I really like that both of the videos had emotional moments in them. I've gotten really good at writing stories that have inner thoughts portrayed or a lot of dialogue so I think I could use one of these two parts as reference for a story.

Wikipedia Trail: From Devaki to Koh-i-Noor

Wikipedia Trails: From Devaki to Koh-i-Noor

The palatial office of Goa Inquisition. Source: Wikimedia. 

I started the trail off with Devaki. I was curious to know more about her besides what I all learned from the Krishna readings. I feel like not a lot is known about Devaki considering she isn't a prominent part of Krishna's life except in the beginning. I got to learn that in the Indian state of Goa, there is a temple that is dedicated to not just Krishna, but Devaki as well. During the Goa Inquisition, the deities from the temple were moved to city of Bicholim to avoid persecution. 

From there I went to the article about the Goa Inquisition. I was very curious to learn about this because I have heard about the Spanish Inquisition before, but never have I heard about the Goa Inquisition. The Goa Inquisition was a colonial era Portuguese institution established by the Roman Catholic Holy Office between the 16th- and 19th- century. It was proposed by Francis Xavier in a letter to King John III of Portugal in 1546. The Inquisition persecuted anyone in the state of Goa that was Hindu and Muslim. The Inquisition ended in 1820 but the persecution of Hindus and Muslims by the Portuguese Christian government with something called the Xenddi tax which is a religious tax. I have always wondered why Goa had such a huge Catholic background but never really researched into but I'm glad I know more about it now.

The next article I went to is an article about Alauddin Khalji. I was curious about him because in a recent Bollywood movie, Padmaavat, Alauddin Khalji was the main antagonist. The movie is an epic period drama so his character was obviously dramatized. I wanted to read up more on him so I could compared and see how his character in the movie differed from the real life Khalji. He definitely did seem like the villain he was portrayed as in the movie. He wanted to become the next Alexander the Great, so he conquered many Kingdoms across India. 

Finally, the last article in the trail is the Koh-i-Noor. For me it's weird to spell it like that because I've always read it as a full word like Kohinoor. I was curious about this because this is a famous diamond that I've always heard was stolen from India by the British. It is widely believed to from the Kollur Mine which is in Andhra Pradesh, India. The diamond is one of the largest cut diamonds and it weighs 105.6 carats. The diamond is currently on display at the Jewel House at the Tower of London. 

Week 10 Story: The Secret Superhero

The Secret Superhero

Trees in a park. Source: Public Domain Pictures. 

“Help! Please, someone help me!” screamed the boy from the top of the tree. Sri was holding on tightly to the biggest branch he could find. He knew the branch could break any moment now, and he was afraid of falling to ground and breaking a limb. His friend had dared him to climb the tallest tree to prove he wasn’t scared of heights. Sri had to prove to them he wasn’t scared but he didn’t want to look like a loser either so he took the challenge. Now here he was, about to fall from 50 feet up.

From a few feet away, Krish heard the call for help. He was on his daily jog through the park. He ran faster towards the voice. He soon found the source of the voice. Hidden in between many trees, he saw something in one of them. As he looked closer, he could see that it was a little boy hanging from a tree branch.

He rushed to the boy. “Let go, I’ll catch you,” he called to the boy. The boy looked down and shook his head. “No, I’m scared!” Sri screamed.

“I can catch you, I promise,” Krish told the. But Sri adamantly refused. 

Krish looked around to make sure no one was watching and concentrated on the boy. Before him he saw the boy floating down to the ground. In a matter of a few seconds, the boy stood right in front of him.

“How did you do that!” exclaimed Sri at Krish. “Are you a magician?”

Krish laughed at that. “No, I’m not. But I do have this secret superpower. I can get things to move with my mind. It’s called telekinesis. But you can’t tell anyone about what just happened, okay? No one can know,” said Krish.

“Why not? You’re a superhero! Everyone should know,” said Sri. He looked so confused as to why this man wouldn’t want to tell everyone about his powers.

“Because… people won’t understand. People think I’m weird anyway. But just promise me you won’t tell anyone,” Krish looked at the boy with pleading eyes. 

“Okay. I promise I won’t,” Sri told Krish. Krish breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the boy and said, “thank you, I appreciate that.” 

"Um, can you show me what else you can move with your mind?" Sri asked Krish. "Well, I guess I'll show you just once and that's it."

"Okay!" smiled an excited Sri. He watched as Krish looked attentively at a big log. He saw the log start to float. Krish looked at the boy through the corner of his eye and smiled as he saw the boy's eyes get bigger. Krish used his power to throw the log almost 25 feet away. 

"Wow! That was so cool! Can you do that again?" asked Sri. "I really can't, I have to be somewhere now. Sorry kid. You need to get back to your friends anyway," said Krish. 

“Oh okay. By the way, what’s your name mister?” asked Sri. Krish smiled at the boy. “I’m Krish, what’s your name?” 

“Sridhama, but you can call me Sri. Everyone calls me that.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Sri. Now try not getting stuck in a tree again. Who knows, I won’t be around to save you next time,” laughed Krish.

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t ever make that mistake again. But at least now that I know you’re a superhero, you’ll come help me if I ever need help again right?” asked Sri.

Krish laughed again. “Sure kid. But remember, you can’t tell anyone else.” 

“I know I know. Thanks for saving me, Krish!” And with that, Sri ran back to his friends thinking about his new superhero friend Krish.  

Author's Note: Krishna is known for being this divine being who has all these kinds of powers that he uses to help people. I thought it would be cool to give him a modern day superpower like telekinesis. I got the idea of him having powers from different Epified videos that show him being almost like a superhero.

Bibliography:

Dreams and Music.  

Krishna Humbles Brahma.

Reading Notes- Epified: Krishna, Part A

Epified: Krishna

Krishna dancing on Kaliya's head. Source: Wikimedia.

For this week's Krishna/Jataka tales readings, I decided to go back to the Epified series for their Krishna videos. I decided to read up on Krishna because he is the Hindu god that my family prays to daily. My mom has always told me stories about Krishna, but I wanted to read up more on him and see that differs from what my mom has told me.

I learned quite a lot just through this Part A of the videos. Right off the bat, I learned that Krishna's mother, Devaki, would have eight children. I never knew that. Krishna's uncle, Kansa, was told that Devaki's eighth child would be the dead of him. This made him so angry that he threw Devaki and Vasudev into jail and would kill each of her newborns. Devaki's seventh child was transferred into Vasudev's first wife, Rohini's womb. Krishna was born as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. 

Something else I liked watching was the part where Krishna's adoptive mother, Yashoda, looks into his mouth and sees the universe. This is when she realizes that her son isn't just a normal boy, but a god. 

Also, another part I really liked is when Krishna is by the lake with his friends. This lake is poisoned by a snake named Kaliya, and the poison had managed to kill his friends. Krishna challenged the snake that Kaliya had to revive everyone that had died because of the poison. Krishna started playing his flute and he started dancing on Kaliya's head. The snake got so annoyed that he withdrew back into the water and the water was cleaned from the poison. The village people started seeing Krishna as a god as well.

I think for a story it would be cool to imagine Krishna has a superhero but in modern times. Because that is basically how he was portrayed in Dreams and Music part.