Week 8 Reading and Writing

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 appreciate it not only for its wonderful, detailed artwork, but also for the fact that Vishnu has interesting dynamic with Goddess Bhumi through his avatar of Varaha. I thought it was an interesting paradox that he saves Bhumi as Varaha, but causes her pain as Rama, since he acts poorly toward Sita. 

Looking forward, I think that trying to read the stories through multiple perspective (and perhaps imagining writing them through several perspectives) can help me improve my writing experiences for the class. I feel like I grow as a writer when I write through unique, unconventional points of view, and trying to read the stories through such points of view can help me write that way.