Week 11 EC Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

The Monkey-Bridge: From the beginning I'm struck with how articulate the verbs are in these Jatakas- in paragraph one alone: ruled, streamed, bubbling, bore, destroyed, plucked. I can utilize this insight in my own writing by making use of an online thesaurus and doing my best to avoid re-using the same words. The King "played with the little sunrays" and even if he ends up being a villain that sentence alone made me love him a little bit more. I also like how a similar dream sequence is used to heighten the tension- now that I think of it, this is done very frequently in books and movies, probably because of how effective it is. (and because the director/writers can get away with anything by putting it in a dream- they can explore the impact of killing a main character, only to write it off as a terror of the night). Moral Time: "It is not your sword which makes you a king; it is love alone. Forget not that your life is but little to give if in giving you secure the happiness of your people." Beautiful.
The Guilty Dogs: A lesson in justice.
The Tortoise and the Geese: I've read the basic version of this before, with just the Tortoise and the Geese, but this time there was another layer of the Tortoise's untimely demise being used to teach a lesson to an over-talkative king. It's almost meta, to have the moral of the story used inside of the story to teach someone at the same time the tale can be used to learn the lesson of the value of holding your tongue. Also, this one ends with a happy ever after, an ending which evidently never goes out of style.
Banyan Deer: "Jewel eyes, piercing shadows, silver crescents, pearl hoofs" at this point in the class I've encountered many tales describing the Golden Deer, but this one certainly ranks up there in terms of sheer gorgeous imagery from the start. Numberless is a new word. I've read a version of this one before, and again I'm struck by how selfless the leader of the deer was to sacrifice himself for the sake of a mother in the other herd. I'm also surprised still that the King essentially vowed that his entire kingdom would become vegetarians.
The Fairy and the Hare: This story addresses the reader as "My Children", which is simultaneously familiar and warm. It sets a tone of the tale being told by a wise elder or someone similar, and gives the lesson aspect more credibility. I appreciate the lesson in this one: it boils down to selflessness but I felt it was a double of both not getting too caught up in your own achievements and being willing to give all you have (also it cautions against mooching off of other people). I hadn't yet encountered a fairy in a Jataka tale, but enjoyed the inclusion of this one, and also appreciated the friendship of animals which in other stories/situations would feast upon each other instead. Also, this tale had the natural facet of explaining the shape of a moon crater (a rabbit?). I love it when these stories do that- it reminds me of First Peoples' creation myths.
The Golden Feathers: Moral: Don't be greedy! (I'd read this one before).
The Young Parrot: This tale included a single stanza of poetry as an explanation towards the end- it was cute but almost not enough to justify the change to rhyme and back (I thought). The moral of caring for your elders is still present from the last time I encountered this jataka,and the side moral of caring for others/not abandoning your leader maybe deserves more emphasis.
The Empty Lake: This was a short one, but noteworthy because it was written in the form of a story inside a story- fishes are telling a myth inside a myth, and it was an interesting read because of it. This way to start might be a fun diversion from my standard single-layer weekly storytelling.
The Swan Kingdom: I know the intended moral of the story includes an emphasis on the value of loyalty and companionship, but as I was reading it I saw more of a lesson in how better communication could resolve issues before they start- if the King had just gone to the lake and asked to meet the swan instead of setting a trap, he could have avoided traumatizing the entire 60,000.
The Master's Test: This was a good moral: remember that you must always watch yourself.

Image Info: A picture of the author, Noor Inayat Khan, in her British Special Operations Executive uniform.
Source: Wikipedia. Link.

Bibliography: Inayat (Khan), Noor. Twenty Jataka Tales. 1939.

Tech Tip Week 11: Google Map

Embedded below is a Google Map of Texas Tech's Jones AT&T Stadium, where I went with a Pride Pep Band to cheer on the Sooners this weekend. This was a fun Tech Tip to learn, and I love how the embedded map is interactive and has click-and-drag capabilities as well!

Famous Last Words Week 11: Let's Go Beat Those Tortilla Bois! (Red Raiders)

Well, this is it! For my last couple of points in the class I figured a Famous Last Words would be apt- it’s been a fun ride and adding to this blog and my Indian Epics/general life knowledge has been a welcome break from the rest of my academic semester. This past week was fairly test-free, but still pretty crazy- despite my best efforts to keep the immune system aloft, I’ve been swamped with the standard sore throat/cold bug, and staying out in the cold for the duration of the ridiculously long Texas Tech game last night definitely did not help (but it was a great time nonetheless, even with the overnight bus ride back from Lubbock). Another highlight was catching Norman's Sooner Theatre's annual Halloween showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show- it's a tradition with some close friends. We dress up every year and it's always a blast. The culture is so fun, and getting to participate is treat!

 In this class I’ve been going for the 410 point mark and inching closer each week, but realized on Thursday that it would be a shame to leave my Project Portfolio unfinished, so I added two stories and intend to revise them up despite my completion of the class. I’ve really enjoyed the Jatakas, and set up two more weeks of reading posts for the women-centric stories that I still intend to read, just on days with more down time rather than as part of a large lineup of homework. Though I’d like to stay in the class and keep doing assignments, I really need to take the time I’d generally use for it to study up on Physical Chemistry and work on my lab reports, as I’m definitely struggling harder in those areas than in this one.

With the return of the cold weather comes the return of my hat-knitting habits- the seven hour bus ride down to TTech yielded three hats (and I’m so happy I crammed the loom into my bag, because I might have frozen solid without the grey-knit beanie I made on the way). The game was crazy long and had over a hundred penalty yards, but the time was well-spent with some of my closest friends. I’ve included two personal pictures with this post: one of I and my two roommates, epically photobombed by our director, Mr. Britt; and one of the pep-edition mellophone sub-section, where you can see the tortillas we brought (for show- we’re not allowed to toss them down, but lived vicariously through the OU fans in the rest of the stadium doing so often throughout the duration of the game). 

Image Info: Personal Photo of me, my roommates, and our director at Texas Tech.
(from left: Mr. Britt, Kaleigh, me, and Meagan)
11/3/18

Image Info: Personal Photo of the TX Tech mellophones.
(from left: Maddie, Cole, Sterling, Meagan, Kaleigh, and me!)
11/3/18

Week 11 Story: Satyavati's Smarts

Even from a young age, Satyavati was unusually bookish. Ethereal beauty could only get her so far in the popularity department when she smelled like a week-old fisherman’s wharf. After seven years of one-woman kickball and getting shafted from birthday celebrations, she discovered the key to growing accustomed to the solitude: literature. Books didn’t have the sentience nor the olfactory organs to care about Satyavati’s unfortunate ever-present odor. They could accompany her through the lengthy days and would wait for her to finish her chores like no friends ever had. The only snag was finding them.

Books could be expensive, and difficult to come by. Fortunately, young Satyavati, though socially inept, had the gift of a good mind, and went to great lengths to keep her personal library well-furnished. From befriending fellow bibliophiles to performing odds and ends tasks for the townspeople’s spare change, Satyavati had both the network and the inclination to indulge herself in her newfound reading hobby. One day, a local man paid her a hefty sum to lend his clothes her aroma so as to convince his wife that his day had been spent working the River rather than gambling in a nearby saloon.

As she grew older, Satyavati acquired books and additional responsibilities alike. As chief runner of the Yamuna River ferry, she was used to meeting unexpected clients of a…high profile nature. Nothing could quite have prepared her, however, for Parashara. He seemed fairly standard for a rishi, with a nice build and a certain conversational eloquence made no less impressive by his fervent and unrelenting demands that they have intercourse right then and there on her ferry.

Satyavati considered her options: she could rebuff Parashara and proceed as normal- there was a decent chance he could lay a curse on her or some nonsense but she’d taken her chances before and come out none the worse for wear. Or…she could accept his offer. Honestly, he was a pretty good-looking individual, and for whatever reason the whole “smelling-like-fish-as-an-anti-aphrodisiac” didn’t seem to be working on him. She could take a work break, have some fun, and move on with her life…and, if she played her cards right, she could get something else in return.

There were many books in the local tax collector’s lair centered around a general theme of business ideals. As a result, the concepts of give and take and general consumerism were ingrained in Satyavati’s brain. Given the degree that her emphatic passenger seemed to want to desecrate her workplace, she knew she had a reasonable amount of room to make demands. First: privacy. Next: no loss of virginity. Last (and furthest from the least), she wanted to be free of the odiferous affliction that had plagued her since birth.

Later that day, after giving birth, cleaning up, going out on the town, relishing in the lack of smell-recoil, and tucking in with some good epic poetry, Satyavati couldn’t help but think that she’d gotten the better end of the deal. She smiled as she opened to the chapter she’d left off in that morning, thinking wryly that old habits die hard.

Author's Note: The story of Satyavati intrigued me from the start of the Mahabharata- though cursed from the start with an unfortunate fishy odor as a result of her in-fish conception, she managed to use her smarts to organize a deal which not only rid her of the smell but set her up well for a future with particularly prolific progeny. In my Story I wanted to explore a little bit of what her childhood would look like as a smelly social outcast, and to highlight how she was able to use her intelligence to find a way to make herself a better life.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata. Vyasa and Ganesha. Link.

Image Info: A picture of the plant often called the Song of India. I imagine Satyavati encountered this plant on her young reading getaways in the forest.
Source: YouTube. Link.