Storytelling Week 3: It Ain't Easy Being Me

Hanuman, from The Divine India

"You know what it's like to be me? Awful. Terrible. I do so much for these humans and Gods, it's ridiculous. Me, a monkey, just answering their every beck and call with no reward. It doesn't feel good. Sometimes I wonder how I keep doing all this, why I don't just give up, you know?"

Hanuman sighed and tapped his fingers on the table for a few seconds before continuing his story.

"I suppose my life hit the low point when Rama was hanging around. The man claimed to be a God in human form, but I never saw him do anything by himself. Maybe all his tricks were just smoke and mirrors. Anyways, when he starts poking around our neck of the woods, Sugriva tells me to go check this guy out. He goes on and on about how his wife has been kidnapped by Ravana, and he needs help finding her. I say whatever, not our problem, but he and Sugriva make a deal. Rama would kill Vali, and Sugriva would be king again. Then Sugriva would personally help Rama find his wife. As if Sugriva would ever do anything personally."

Hanuman laughed and then sighed again. He drew in breath, and then picked up right where he left off.

"So Rama hides in the jungle until Vali comes past, and then he shoots him with an arrow, like a coward. Real 'God-like' behavior. So after this, Rama wants his reward. Which means all of us have to go out and find Sita while Rama and Sugriva sit back, waiting for us to find her so they can swoop in and claim all the credit. This group of bears and I head south, towards Sri Lanka. Of course when we get to the sea, nobody knows how to swim. So, I jump across the ocean and kill a demon on my way over for good measure. After I find Sita, she refuses to come back with me so she doesn't hurt her husband's honor. Not that that mattered in the end. So, after I burn the city down to make our invasion easier, I jump back across the ocean and tell Rama and Sugriva that she didn't wanna come. So these two geniuses decide that we should build a bridge over the ocean instead of, you know, a boat."

Hanuman had a look of pure contempt on his face at this point.

"So we spend forever building this bridge. And what do you know, when we finish there is an army waiting for us. We win, but we get beat up so bad that most of our army is lying on the ground crying and whining about being hurt. Much as you would suspect from incompetent leaders, Rama and Sugriva didn't even bring enough medicine to heal us. So I jump back across the ocean to the Himalayas and pick a mountain covered in medicinal herbs out of the ground like it was a flower. I bring it back to these crybabies, and they were all like 'Hunaman our savior,' but they didn't mean it. I know they didn't."

Hanuman was close to yelling at this point, with his eyes bulging out of his head.

"Then our high command goes and gets itself captured, and guess who was on the hook to rescue them. That's right, this guy. Just another day in the life. So after I rescue the bumbling idiots, they go to fight Ravana. Despite Rama claiming to be a God this whole time, it takes the intervention of a real God so that he can win. Indra himself has to send down his chariot so that Rama could beat Ravana, and Rama already had weapons made by the Gods specifically for this fight. Why people believed this guy, no idea. Then we rescue his wife, just so he can dump her. It's ridiculous the way these humans act. Rama kept going on about Sita being unfaithful to him, and of course she denied it. Same old story, it never changes."

Hanuman finally stood up and yelled, "And after all that they just sent me back to the jungle like a piece of trash. Seriously, I couldn't believe it. Last time I ever work with any so-called God."

Author's Note: 
     For this story, I was inspired how it seems that Hanuman continually saves the day in the latter half of The Ramayana, but receives what I felt was little recognition relative to the feats he performed. I decided to write a story about his frustrations from being overlooked. I have glossed over some of the praise and recognition he received in the original, but the basic events and story line remain the same from the Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana. Additionally, at no point does Hanuman display the attitude he displays in this story. His emotions in this story are very exaggerated. 
     In this story, Hanuman is simply going on a rant to a silent audience. I decided to make this story more humorous than the other story in my portfolio, I wanted to try and master a different style and tone of writing. Mostly, I want the readers to laugh, and enjoy reading a lighthearted story. As a second goal, I also want readers to realize how much Hanuman does to keep the plot moving in the Ramayana. The image I choose was simply an image of Hanuman, so that my readers would have an idea of who was telling the story to them. 

Bibliography:

"Ramayana: Public Domain Edition" by multiple authors. Source.

Week 3 Reading Diary Continued: Ramayana Public Domain Edition

The Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana is compiled from many authors, here is the version I am using.  This post will cover Part D.  

• Building abridge seems similar to Moses splitting the seas to me. Both are relatively impossible tasks(Monkeys would have some serious trouble actually building a bridge across a sea), and demonstrate the power of those accomplishing the task. 
• I often forget there are others Gods in this world while reading this story. Their occasional appearance makes the story feel smaller in scale, like this is just one part of a larger world.  
• Hanuman seems more and more like the true hero in this story. Carrying a whole mountain is not something that can be realistically accomplished, even when impatient and frustrated. 
• Once again, Rama reaches a low point as Indrajit shows him images of Sita dead. I feel that this story is very quickly coming to a climax. 
• Things like multiple gods and warriors riding on chariots remind me very much of Greek/Roman mythology. I wonder if both cultures developed chariots individually, or there was communication between them at the time these stories were written. Chariots, along with the appearance of war elephants, feel very grounded and realistic to me. Maybe the story of Rama is just based on exaggerations of actual events passed down in an oral tradition. 
• I find it odd that the Gods planned for Rama to defeat Ravana, yet Rama's success is dependent on their further intervention. It seems like their plan wasn't perfect.  
• Mandodari mourning her husband does a good job of reminding me that even the bad guys have some emotion beyond the desire to be evil. It adds more depth to the story.  
• Rama rejecting Sita is a twist for me. If he was gonna dump her, why did he bother rescuing her? Just to prove that he could? It doesn't make much sense to me. If Rama really did it just to show how powerful he was, that strikes me as very selfish.  
• Sita proves herself and Rama takes her back. It seems like this part of the story only exists to remind women of their duty to their husbands, and they must be willing to die instead of disloyal to their husbands.  



The Pushpaka, courtesy of Quora

• The Pushpaka serves as a good reminder of everything that has happened. By concluding many story lines, the characters can start the nest phase of their lives.  
• Exiling Sita appears to have been the worse move Rama could make. I think the moral is that if your wife is faithful to you, you must be faithful to her.  

That concludes the Ramayana, thanks for reading. 

Week 3 Reading Diary: Ramayana Public Domain Edition

The Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana is compiled from many authors, here is the version I am using.  This post will cover Part C. 

• I think the fact that characters are no animals with human characteristics is interesting. It's not a huge leap from having spirits and demons occupy the world, but I'm not familiar with any other religious texts (Bible, etc.) that have talking and thinking animals.  
• This is a surprisingly human tale for monkeys. A king, thought to be dead, returns home to find his brother on the throne. I wonder why they decided to tell this story with monkeys, it would make just as much since with humans. These monkeys clearly have an advanced society, they even have different classes of monkey (warrior, ruler, etc.). Maybe it makes more since to find a monkey kingdom in the jungle than a human one. 
• The ambush is odd, it does not fit with what I have read about Rama's character. But, nowhere does it say Rama is a perfect human being, without flaws (such as cowardice). I think it adds some depth to his character, this could be a low point in his arc. 
• Rama waiting in the jungle during his rainy season could be compared to Jesus spending 40 days in the desert. But I think the whole exile of Rama could be compared to Jesus spending 40 days in the desert. Exile seems to be a common element in many heroes tales (The Odyssey for instance). 
• The story of the birds flying to high initially seems to be similar to the tale of Icarus. But this one involves a bird sacrificing his wings to save his brother, not a tale of hubris. Similar settings, but I think they ultimately have a different point. I think the point of this story is that even when we are hurt, we have to keep moving forward, because it gets better in the end. 



Hanuman, courtesy of Shiv Mandir Vancouver

• I think the Hanuman story is a great story about how you have to find your own inner strength. 

Week 2 Review

Map of the Internet, by Jay Simons. Link.

I thought that this was an interesting post from this weeks announcements. Simons clearly spent a long time on this, and I think it deserves some recognition. There is more stuff on this map than I knew existed on the internet. I would say I should try and become more familiar with it, but I'm trying to do well in school. Thanks for reading this week guys, be on the lookout for more posts soon. 

Famous Last Words: Week 2

For my reading this week I read the first half (Part A and B) of the Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana. Check it out here. I thought the story was interesting, but I found it hard to read initially. It took me a while to learn how to read the prevalent style of writing, it also didn't help that some of the stories had different authors, and therefore different writing styles. Still, I enjoyed reading it all the while. I look forward to wrapping it up in Week 3.

For my extra credit reading this week I read Part A of Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. Here is the link. I liked these more than the Ramayana, I found the stories easier to follow. I also liked how many of the characters were plants and animals. For example, when Buddha was born as a tree, I knew that he would be strong and patient. It made the themes and points of the stories stand alone from the characters, much like the Parables in the Bible. I think that it also helped that I am more familiar with the story of Buddha than the story of Rama. I look forward to continuing reading this as the semester continues.

In this class I would have to say SusieBookworm wrote easily the most unique story I saw this week. Updates from Exile  covers the story of Rama and his exile in the forest through a series of Facebook posts.

The first post in Updates from Exile

As far as other classes are concerned, this was the first real week of school. Homework was assigned, quizzes were taken, and test dates are already looming. My lab for the semester also started, and that is sure to take up a good portion of my time this coming semester.

Thanks for reading guys, keep checking for more work soon.

Learning Challenges: Pomodoro Technique

Directions for Pomodoro Technique, courtesy of Laura Gibbs

 

I have been trying out the Pomodoro technique to help with some of my studying at the beginning of this semester. It is essentially a method that incentives you to study by having scheduled breaks. I was skeptical at first, because with my problems focusing I was worried that once I went on break I would never return to studying. However, I'm happy to say that I think it's working for me, and I plan on using this technique as the semester progresses. Finally, instead of a real timer I have been using Google Timer, which you can read about here.

Tech Tip: Google Timer

I have been using the Google Timer feature in addition with the "Pomodoro" study technique to help with studying so far this semester. It has been helping me, I suggest everyone give it a try.