Epics of India - Vinay Kalvacherla

The jungle is a hard place to live. The bugs are after the grass, the insects after the bugs, the lizards after the insects, the birds after the lizards, the mongooses after the lizards, the bobcats after the mongooses...it's a competitive world, and the cost of losing is death. At every moment in time, everything - and I mean everything - is about survival. One slow step under the eyes of a leopard or tiger and you're dead. The lions lived in their own den on one side of the jungle, the tigers on another side, and the monkeys high up in the trees. Everyone lived segregated, and creatures rarely interacted with animals outside their species. You never know who's the predator and who's the prey in any situation. Even at common-ground water holes, no one went for a drink haphazardly or alone. I like to think of it as a war. A tense, prolonged war that began at the inception of the universe and which will never have an ending. It's the war of life. This war had...

Telling the story of how Brahma decided to mess with Krishna from the point of Brahma would be interesting  Perhaps some kind of interesting drama between Brahma and Vishnu can be cooked up in the story  Describing Krishna's sadness through his point of view at him learning that he was the savior of Dharma would be interesting  Could delve into the inner workings of Vishnu here The sadness is vividly apparent when Krishna leaves the Yadavas; Akrur sees Vishnu in his true form  Krishna healing Trivakra is very interesting...nice story to tell from here. Could even add in Harry Potter elements  Krishna brings about the end of Kamsa  Krishna moved Mathura to Dwaraka to avoid attack - thinking of alternates here would be interesting  An image depicting Krishna in his kingdom of Dwaraka.  Source. Bibliography:  Krishna by Epified, Link to Story

Crafting the story to make it seem as if Kamsa ruled harshly because Krishna had planned for it to be that way - the deaths of the first six of Devaki's children would have been predestined  A story about the celebrations as people realized that Vishnu was coming to Earth (as Krishna) would be interesting to explore  Comparing Vasudeva's experience with the Yamuna to Jesus's experience walking on water would be very interesting  An interesting take on the interactions of the Goddess and Vishnu: talk about Maya's interactions with Kamsa The perspective of Putana would be interesting - perhaps writing a story making it seem like a predestined fate (like was expressed earlier in the idea about Kamsa) would be worthwhile  The universe is seen in Krishna's mouth - would be cool to incorporate the Goddess into the power of Krishna here The love between Radha and Krishna could be compared to that of Rama and Sita - perhaps written from the view that Krishna knew ab...

A possibility for a story or exploration is to tell a story from the point of view of Gandhari, who, according to some legends, chose to blindfold herself in order to emulate her blind husband's day-to-day life  What is Karna's point of view on all of this? As the son of the Sun, doesn't he have an elevated demigod status? Writing a story from the point of his view and giving him a degree of omniscience would be interesting - it would make it seem like what happened was all predestined  Dhritarashtra has 100 sons (the Kauravas), but some stories say that of those 100 children, 99 were sons and there was actually 1 daughter. It would be interesting to explore that  Drona is a very interesting character throughout the Mahabharatha as a whole - he is involved with both the Kauravas and Pandavas, but also has that side story of Ekalavya. And, he chooses to fight for the Kauravas in the final war. Why so? Perhaps that could be the source of future exploration Artwork...

'Twas a joyous occasion. The three contenders for the throne of Hastinapur were born: Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura. The throne would not go unoccupied! The people of the city celebrated with music, drink, and food for three days and three nights straight. They thanked the gods for their generosity in ensuring that Hastinapur's royal legacy passed on. However, there were problems. Prince Dhritarashtra was born blind, and Prince Pandu was always sickly thin and pale. Of the three, the wisest and healthiest was Vidura. This persisted even as the three princes grew up. Dhritarashtra was always fair and just in his judgment, using his sense of hearing to make up for his lack of vision. Pandu was a good warrior, but got tired very easily. Vidura, however, was both just and valiant. No one beat him in the warrior training grounds, and even the court elders looked up to his fair judgment. The people absolutely loved him. The time came for one of the princes to be crowned King...

What if Queen Ganga decided not to drown their children, but instead made them denizens of the river? Since she herself is the Goddess of a river, then that adds a new twist to the story  One possible plot twist could be making the story of Devavrata similar to that of Karna, in which he fights against his own kin, Shantanu, bringing interesting parallels/foreshadowing  The story of Shantanu and the fisherman's wife could be twisted into a story of a "test" for Shantanu A thought question: what if Devavrata never took the vow of celibacy that made him become Bhishma? What if he just chose to subdue the fisherman? A potential story line could also be one in which Amba and her two sisters fight back against Bhishma, or agree to his commands with the goal of usurping all the power for themselves Amba also goes to Parushurama - another avatar of Vishnu - to resolve her issue with Bhishma  I could also write a story from the perspective of Vyas, the loyal son of Saty...

I think, looking back, that I have made good progress so far and that I am happy with my level of learning and growth. I have a pretty set weekly routine as far as finishing the assignments goes, and I really enjoy the storytelling option the best of all of them. However, I think my grade points-wise is lower than I want it to be because I had to skip a few assignments in the second week to take the MCAT and just haven't gotten around to doing enough extra credit to make up for it yet. I did do some of growth-mindset extra credit last week, though, and really enjoyed it, so I am planning to do more of those this week to help me. Looking forward, I think I want to be more proactive on finishing the blog comments and project comments so that I have more time for the extra credit. A meme depicting Shia LeBeouf yelling "just do it," borrowed from one of his YouTube videos. Source.

I think the comments that I am receiving from other people in the class are rather constructive, and I appreciate the "human" aspect of these comments. Realizing that it may be difficult to connect with others in the class, since this is an online class, I like that I get to see some new comments each week on my introduction. I think the quality of feedback that I have been giving out has also steadily gotten better as I have gone through the class. Reading other peoples' work and giving them feedback helps me understand areas where I can improve my own writing, and realizing what kind of feedback I would like for myself helps me improve the feedback-writing process process. As for blog comments, as I mentioned before, I am quite happy with receiving new blog comments each week, and like that I get to meet new people that way. To make feedback assignments more useful to me and for others in the future, I think I would try spending more time on each piece that I am offerin...

I think that, overall, the reading and writing assignments have been working very well for me, so far. I got the experiences that I had desired to get out the class through the reading, and have thoroughly enjoyed both reading the Mahabharatha and Ramayana so far and also writing stories about them. I am quite happy with the state of my class project, as well, and take pride in having taken inspiration from a relatively minor aspect of the Ramayana. My biggest achievement for my writing in this class is the development of my ability to craft characters in fiction writing. It has been several years since I wrote any kind of fiction for schoolwork prior to this class, and I am thankful to have the opportunity to have grown and learned to write better fiction through this class. A picture depicting Varaha (an avatar of Vishnu as a boar) carrying Earth on his tusks to protect her from a demon.  Source. My favorite picture that I have used for stories thus far is the one above....

I actually tried the Pomodoro strategy this week with my blog comments, project feedback, and project work, and was quite surprised by my level of productivity! I think that having a timer like the Pomodoro really helped me realize how much time I was spending procrastinating and wasting my time previously, and helped me really focus and pace my work. Setting up a time and knowing when I would have my next break really helped me focus for the entirety of the time. It was little difficult the first sets of time (because, evidently, I was not used to working for 25 minutes straight at a time), but I got used to it and am getting better at it. I hope to keep trying this throughout the week and next week with my assignments, too, because it's a great tool to help improve my efficiency! A meme depicting the lack of efficiency that I initially had when I tried this technique.  Source. 

Today, I spoke to a friend about what I learned about growth mindset in my Epics of India class. Basically, he had a really important deadline coming up for this one group that he was part of, and he was keen on making the project that he was submitting for them as perfect as possible. He was expecting feedback for it, but I knew that he wanted as little feedback as possible, since, ideally, it would be perfected in the first draft itself. However, I told him that, even if he gets more feedback and his project advisors find more areas of improvement than he had anticipated, it's best to take on a growth mindset and learn from his strengths to tackle his weaknesses. I think it really helped him stress out less about the project and be more open to feedback he may receive - a success, I'd say! A great visual that I showed my friend to explain the growth mindset.  Source. 

The Bhagavad Gita: Revised Arjuna looked out at the battlefield, eyeing his enemies across from him. He caught sight of Bhishma, Drona, Duryodhana, Dussahsana...all his cousins whom he had grown up with. They had been raised as brothers under the same roof and eating the same food. How unfortunate it was, he thought, that now they get ready to spill each others' blood.  It was overwhelming. The thought of having to spill the blood of his teachers and brothers in order to acquire rule of a kingdom seemed so petty in that instant. Arjuna couldn't do it.  He put his sacred bow down and removed his crown.  "Krishna," he said to his divine charioteer, "I cannot fight. These are my teachers and brothers; I cannot bring myself to kill them." Krishna drove the chariot out into the middle of the battlefield, between the two armies. Everyone stopped and stared, confused at what was happening. "If you don't want to fight," replied Krish...

Bhishma is wounded, Arjuna lays him a bed of arrows; it is Amba's revenge Drona becomes the commander of the Kauravas Arjuna's son Abhimanyu is slain; Arjuna seeks revenge by killing Jayadhratha (with Krishna's help) Next, Ghatotkacha is slain by the dart given to Karna by Indra  Drona is killed through trickery; the Pandavas kill an elephant named Ashwatthama (the name of Drona's son), and Drona basically resigns upon hearing that The Pandavas cut off his head  Karna takes command Dussahsana is killed by Bhima (rather gorily), Bhima drinks his blood (as he had vowed to do) Arjuna and Karna fight; Karna has a wheel stuck in the ground, Arjuna seizes that opportunity to kill him The Kauravas are losing; Duryodhana hides in a lake, but the Pandavas find him and fight him Bhima breaks his knee, which is apparently breaking battle rules, and kills Duryodhana Ashwatthama tries to kill the Pandavas in their sleep after praying to Shiva Arjuna, instead of ki...

Pandavas now in exile  The Pandavas (especially Bhima and Draupadi) were angry at Yudhistira, and they call for war, saying it is the duty of a Kshatriya to do so  Arjuna goes on solo adventures again, acquiring weapons from Shiva so that the Pandavas can fight the Kauravas  Also goes to Indraprastha and acquires weapons from Indra, learns arts, destroys demons  Rest of the Pandavas go on a trip to Kamakhya, where they are met by Arjuna and where they meet the sage Markandeya Bhima meets Hanuman, they discuss caste The Kauravas run into the Pandavas again, and the Kauravas say they will perform an imperial sacrifice Karna vows to kill Arjuna  Karna gains access to a powerful dart from Indra after giving up his armor Jayadhratha, King of Sindhu, kidnapped Draupadi and carried her away, but she is rescued by the Pandavas Both Arjuna and Duryodhana try to solicit the alliance of Krishna; Arjuna picks just Krishna, Duryodhana picks Krishna's army...