Week 14 Story: Sita: The Independent Woman

Sita: The Independent Woman

Sita got home from her long day of work and just slouched on her couch. She had been working hard for the last few months just to get her bills paid on time. Ever since her husband Ram had dumped her, she had had to move out of their apartment and find her own place. 

She still hadn’t forgotten about that day. Ram had dumped her in front of everyone at the hospital she had been working at then. He had asked her to move out of their apartment, as well as his life. She had cried for days on end after she had moved out.

Sita ended up moving in with a friend for almost three weeks until her friend’s roommate came back. She was lucky that she knew somebody who was moving out of that apartment building and she got his apartment. She continued working, taking double shifts so she could make more money. She considered herself lucky that her parents had raised her to be independent because she knew she would be able to make it on her own. 

When it had been a few weeks after their breakup, she found out she was pregnant. She was scared about what was going to happen. When she told her parents, they said they would support her completely. She hadn’t even told Rama yet but she knows it’s not going to go well. “Oh well,” she thought. “I’ll raise this baby on my own. I don’t need Ram.”

One day she went to one of her prenatal checkups and found out she was having twins. Ever since that day, she realized she was going to have to tell Ram now. She had gone to his apartment, their old apartment, and had a talk with him. At first, he was mad that she hadn’t told him when she had first found out. But nonetheless, he was ready to offer her any kind of support she needed. In that moment, Sita realized that she didn’t need him anymore. Over the past few months she had kept herself busy that she didn’t really think about Ram as much. 

Sita looked at Ram and said “Listen, I only came to tell you so you wouldn’t be blindsided one day if you found out from someone else. I didn’t come here to ask for your help.”

“But what about child support? You can’t handle two babies all by yourself with your salary,” said Ram.

“You don’t know what I can do now, Ram. I may have seemed dependent on you when we were together, but I have changed since then. I can and I will go through this all by myself. I already have enough support that I need from my family and friends,” said Sita. “Oh, and I want the divorce finalized now.”

And on that note, she left his apartment and his life. But this time, she left with her dignity intact and her head held high. 

Ram sees a pregnant Sita. Source: Youtube.

Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues. Nina Paley.

Author's Note: After watching Sita Sings the Blues, I realized how much I hated how clingy and dependent Sita was portrayed in the movie. I decided to write a modern day version of how Rama had exiled Sita even after she had gone through his Agnipariksha, the fire test, to prove that she was still pure. In this modern version, I wanted to give her a new personality and be independent, so I wrote about her having a job and being able to pay her bills all by herself. In the Ramayana, Rama doesn't know about Sita being pregnant until much later when he finds two boys singing about him. I wanted to change that up and show he does find out and offers Sita help, but she is independent and doesn't need his help. 

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part B

Sita Sings the Blues

by Nina Paley. 

Sita cries a river after Rama exiles her. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

I finished the rest of the movie for the Part B reading for this week. In my last reading post for this, I mentioned how I think Sita is shown as this desperate and clingy wife. I was thinking about writing a story for this week about Sita being the opposite of that. This second part of the movie gave me some good examples of how I could write her as this independent, strong woman I want to portray her as. 

• One part is where she goes into the forest after she is exiled by Rama. She stays alone and is pregnant while at it. I could do a modern day twist of her being this working woman who's determined to go through this pregnancy by herself. 
• Another part is when she's forced to do a test again to prove her purity to Rama. I can write about her doing the opposite of complying and being like "Yeah, no thanks. I don't need to prove myself." and then just walking off. 

However, there were some downright funny scenes that I just might end up writing about.

• The scene where Rama and Sita's sons are older, and they're singing praises about Rama. But in reality, they're lowkey dissing him at the same time. They sang something like "Rama set his wife ablaze, got her home, kicked her out," and then "duty first, Sita last." 
• Another part that was funny to me was after Rama asks Sita to go through a test again, she is like "If I'm truly impure, then may Mother Earth take me back into her womb." So Mother Earth comes, Sita starts to run to her, everyone else runs after Sita, and then when Sita tries to jump into "the womb", she pauses and the music does like scratch stop. I just thought that was pretty funny.

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part A

Sita Sings the Blues

by Nina Paley. 

Sita sits by a tree after she is captured by Ravana. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

For this week's reading, I decided to watch the movie Sita Sings the Blues. I wish I had watched this earlier in the semester when we had free choice of Ramayana readings. But I'm also glad I got to watch it now because this was such a fun stress reliever. At first I thought it was just going to a long video of informational stuff, but it was actually really fun and some parts were downright hilarious. 

I think my favorite thing about the whole movie are the shadow puppets! They're the narrators and they're so funny! It's like, they're narrating but also they're just casually discussing it as if they're just sitting at home and just talking. 

From the readings I had done earlier in semester, I learned that Sita was a very devoted wife. Her devotion for her husband Rama can be seen from her actions. I feel like the movie made her seem like a very clingy, desperate wife. Especially the part where Rama saves her and he starts doubting her pureness. He thought since she had been in another man's house, she was impure. Eventually Rama forgives her after she goes the fire trial. Rama is like "will you forgive me Sita?" and she goes "of course Rama, I live only for you." That part kind of irked me. 

I think for a story I would make Sita this super independent woman who shows attitude and strength, instead of just crying all day and waiting for Rama to come save her from Ravana. 

Week 13 Review

I love Greek Mythology so I enjoyed watching this comparison video of both Indian and Greek Mythology. I like the comparisons that were made in this video. I knew a few things about both the Indian god/goddess and about the Greek god/goddess, so the comparisons made sense to me. I feel like if I had taken both this Epics of India and the Myth and Folklore class at the same time, then I would've been able to get a more clearer understanding of the comparison.

Whatever... I'm late anyway. Source: Class annoucements. 

I really liked this graphic because this is so me. I have moments where I'm early to things, but most of the time I'm late. I usually walk into my morning class at least 5-10 minutes later. One time I ended up being 20 minutes late that I had to sit on the ground because I couldn't find a seat. It's a good thing that the classroom had carpet and not tile.

Famous Last Words: Surviving these next few weeks

So here it is. The Sunday of Thanksgiving break, the end of this much, much needed break. My goal for this break was to finish up this class but that didn't happen sadly. However, I'm going to try to set that as my goal for this next week. I definitely want to finish before dead week. That just means I'm going to need to invest a whole lot of time into this class now.

However, this was my best week of class because I'm actually going to end up doing all of the assignments, meaning all of the regular and the extra credit. I'm lowkey proud of myself. I'm going to set the goal to do the same thing this next week too. Hopefully, I won't have to do all of the extra credits to reach my desired grade. I don't think I will have to but we'll see. The only thing I didn't really like was my story I wrote this week. It wasn't my best because I really couldn't come up with anything. I kind of just threw some thoughts around and it into a story.

This week I got to do some fun readings. For the regular readings, I finished up the Epified: Mahabharata videos I had started. For the extra credit readings, I read some Jataka Tales and they were fun to read. I have found other videos from the same channel that I will use as extra credit readings. I started watching the Sita Sings the Blues movie for this week's reading and I'm already enjoying it so much. I'm so excited to finish it! It's honestly the best thing I've watched in this class. I don't know how I'll write a story for it because it is already so awesome itself, but I think I'll be able to come up with something.

I'm honestly so stressed about all of my classes, but I'm glad I have this class as a bit of break from all of the hard classes. I actually look forward to doing the readings for this class, especially for this week.

Meme I made. Woody's face describes me perfectly. Source: ImgFlip.

Learning Challenge: Read an Article about Empathy

Learning By H.E.A.R.T.

I decided to read an article about empathy for a learning challenge. I picked the article "3 Little Tricks to Deal With People Who Offend You" by Leo Babauta. This was a really fun article to read. I decided to read this article because I feel like I do take some things to heart, especially things that I really shouldn't and I get offended. It's not really the everyday things that the author wrote about in the article. It's the mean words that people say that I take to heart. I read this article in hopes that I might find a way to not do that.

• One thing that was confirmed for me in this article was what they wrote in the second point. The comparison they used was really good. They described you and other drivers on the road to you in a raft and twigs floating down the river. They twigs aren't really trying to get in your way. They're just there, just like how other drivers aren't purposely trying to bother you on the road. I realized that I'm not so easily offended by that. I kind of just mind my own business and don't get bothered unless people are being obnoxious and annoying.

• One thing that the author mentioned they do is give people a mental hug when they think someone is using rudeness as a coping mechanism. I think that's something new I'll try. I myself am usually so stressed all the time that I feel like I've unconsciously been rude before. Since finals are coming up, I know how stressed out the population of OU is going to be so I'm going to mentally hug someone when I see them being rude.

Mental hug. Source: Flickr.

• One thing that I'm curious to explore is the Get Big theory. Get Big means to get the bigger perspective about a situation. I think I do that anyway, but not as often as I should. I do tend to act like a brat sometimes. I need to learn to see the bigger perspective of a small problem.

Extra Reading: Babbitt Jataka Tales

Jataka Tales 

by Ellen C. Babbitt. 1912.

For extra credit reading, I read through Part A of the Babbitt Jataka Tales. 

The one I really liked was the How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. In this one, there are little princes that had a lake in the courtyard that their dad, the king, had made for them. The king had asked some men to put fishes in it. The princes were looking at the fishes when they saw the Turtle. They had never seen one before so they were scared and though it as a demon. They ran to their father and told them there was a demon in their lake. The king ordered his men to catch the demon and bring it to him. When the turtle was brought in, the king ordered his men to kill. The men started giving out ideas on how to kill the turtle. Then one old man who was afraid of the water said to throw it into the lake where it flows by the rocks in to the river. When the turtle heard the old man, he said to the King something like "what did I do that you would even think about doing such a dreadful thing to me? The other plans were bad, but to throw me into the lake?" So when the king heard the turtle, he ordered his men to throw the turtle into the lake immediately. The turtle laughed to himself once he was in the water because he knew the king and his men didn't know how safe he actually was in the water.

Turtle swimming. Source: Wikimedia.

I really liked this one because it had good old-fashioned psychology and trickery. The Turtle was the smartest one out of all of them.

Tech Tip: Meme Generator

Tech Tip: Meme Generator

I used the ImgFlip meme generator to make a meme for another blog post and now I feel like I'm going to keep making memes because I love memes. 

The meme I created for the Growth Mindset blog post. Source: ImgFlip.

Growth Mindset: Trying New Things

Growth Mindset: Trying New Things

The Growth Mindset challenge I did was the "Learn from Other Students" one. For the challenge, I was to find quotes from former students that would show me something new, like a different way of thinking. So I went to the Padlet and started looking. Initially, I thought I wouldn't find much and have to do another challenge because I had already heard the same old inspiring quotes that most everyone will have in their Instagram bios or retweet on Twitter. But I was actually shocked when I started finding some that were so unique and different, things that I wouldn't even think about. Here are a few of the my favorite ones I found.

NEVER BE COMPLACENT

I like this one because it really speaks to me. I was never the complacent child that I would just accept things the way they were. I always asked questions and always wondered why I had to do this and that. Even today, I still question many things about society and culture and why girls are expected to be a certain way and etc. I think this will be a good reminder to me to never stop questioning, to never just be. I think the fact that I question many things helps me grow as a person.

R.U.N. Rejoice Under Negativity. 
I don't have a problem with taking negative feedback from people, but I do sometimes tend to just ignore it. I realize that doing that doesn't make it just disappear or go away. That feedback, that opinion of theirs will still be there, and it's up to me to take it in good stride and change it.

WHAT I AIM AT
Over the last few years, I have definitely strayed off track a few times. I have forgotten what my goals are and what I need to achieve because of stress. I have given up many times and felt like a failure. But I've also picked myself up so many times so this really spoke to me. This will be a great reminder to remember that I have so many goals I'm aiming to achieve and I need to not give up so easily when times get rough.

Meme I made using the ImgFlip meme generator. Source: ImgFlip.

Week 13 Story: Arjun and Subha's Relaxing Evening

Arjun and Subha's Relaxing Evening

Abhimanyu fighting in the Chakravyuha. Source: Wikimedia.

It is a warm, summer evening. A couple can be seen sitting on a bench in their backyard, talking animatedly. The husband rubs the wife’s stomach, trying to feel their baby kick. 

“I can’t wait till he gets here,” says Arjun the husband. 

“I know, me neither. I just want to not look so big anymore,” says the wife, Subha. 

Arjun laughed at his wife’s whining. Ever since they found out she was pregnant, he felt much happier every day. He couldn’t wait until his son arrived in this world. They had already picked out a named. They were going to name him Abhimanyu. 

“Tell me a story, Arjun,” said Subha.

“About what,” asked Arjun.

“Anything. I’m just in the mood for a story or something. I want the baby to hear too,” said Subha.

“Hmm. What story should I tell her,” thought Arjun. He kept thinking and thinking until he finally settled on telling her about the Chakravyuha. 

“Subha, do you know what the Chakravyuha is,” asked Arjun. “No,” answered his wife. 

“Well, then prepare yourself for a little history lesson. When I was little, my dad would always tell me stories about wars and battles,” said Arjun. “I got to learn a lot of old-timey war strategies such as formations. One of my favorite formations he told me about was the Chakravyuha. It’s a multi-tiered defensive formation that looks like a blooming lotus if you look at it from above. The warriors would be places in positions where it would be tough to fight and tough to leave. It was used in the battle of Kurukshetra. That was a battle between the Kauravas and Pandavas from the Mahabharata. You know what’s a big coincidence?”

“What,” asked Subha.

“One of the great warriors who died in the Chakravyuha, his name was also Abhimanyu. He fought everyone in that Chakravyuha all by himself. He was courageous and literally fought till his death.”

“Oh, really?” questioned Subha.

“Yes,” exclaimed Arjun. “When our boy grows up, I’m going to tell him stories about this great warrior Abhimanyu and the war stories I know. I hope the stories will inspire him to be just as courageous as his namesake.”

Little did they know, their son was listening to everything they said from the womb. 

Bibliography:

Birth of Abhimanyu. Epified: Mahabharata.

Chakravyuha. Wikipedia.

Author's Note: I watched an Epified: Mahabharata video where more of Arjuna and Subhadra's relationship is shown. There's a part where she is pregnant and the narrator says that Arjuna used to tell Subhadra stories, and Abhimanyu would be listening from the womb. One of them included the strategy of the Chakravyuha. I thought to write a story about how I think an interaction between them would be like. I also had to look up some more on the Chakravyuha so I could actually describe it. 

Wikipedia Trails: From Hastinapur to Qutb Minar

Wikipedia Trails: From Hastinapur to Qutb Minar

I started the trail off with the article about Hastinapur. I was curious to learn more about it because it is one of the kingdoms mentioned in the Mahabharata. I wanted to learn about how modern-day Hastinapur is and how the culture is in that city now.

From that article, I went to the article about the Mughal Empire. I was curious about the Mughal Empire because a few years ago I watched an Indian movie based on a Mughal emperor who took over India. I wanted to learn how long the empire lasted in India and who all the emperors were. 

The next article I went to from that article is the article about the Delhi Sultanate. I wanted to learn more about this because I got to learn a little bit about it when I went to India in 2015. The tour guide would give us some info about the sites we were visiting but I don't remember much of what he said so decided to look more into it. 

The last article I went to was the one about the Qutb Minar. I actually got to visit the Qutb Minar when I went to India in 2015. The whole area is called the Qutub Minar Complex and it is filled with Indo-Islamic architecture that is partially preserved and partially deteriorated. It was really cool to see in person and I wanted to learn more about its history. 

Image Information: personal photo of the Qutb Minar I took.
Photo from January 2015.

Image Information: personal photo of the Qutb Minar with Parso-Arabic and Nagari characters.
Photo from January 2015.