Storytelling Week 10- Draupadi's Thoughts

How can this be? Where are my husbands? They said that they would always protect me. If only we had lived out the final year in the woods this would have never happened. They were warned that if they didn’t keep a close eye on me there would be others that would lust after me.

How could Yudhishthira just ignore me when I came to speak with him. I told him what Kickaka was trying. They all ignored me, except for Bhisma. He told me that he would protect me no matter the cost. Bhisma confronted Kickaka. Once I heard that Kickaka had died, I knew that it was because of Bhima. I wish that Bhima hadn’t killed him. If he hadn’t killed him I wouldn’t be on my way to be burned alive.

Everyone seems to be gathered around the prye. They are lined down the street waiting for me to be burned alive. Why are all these people here to watch me die? What did I ever do to them to make them hate me so much that they want to see me burned alive? If only Yudhishthira hadn’t gambled away our freedom, I wouldn’t be in this mess. How could he just gamble us away like we were nothing. After all this time I had hoped that being in the wilderness would make him more helpful. After I found out that the people wanted to kill me, I approached Yudhishthira about helping me, and all he did was say he would try to help me. Again I approached my other husbands and they all said the same thing as Yudhishthira. Thankful the gods allowed me to marry a real man. Bhima was the only one of my husbands that said he would protect me.

Where could Bhima be? I am almost to the prye. If he doesn’t hurry I will be burned to death. All of the people want me to die. I can see it in their eyes. They believe me to be some demon. They are afraid that I will bring about the destruction of their kingdom. Wait what was that movement up ahead? I swore there was someone in hiding in the shadows. Why is there a cart across the road? There he is! It is Bhima! He has come to save me! He takes out my escort like they are nothing but twigs. Thank the gods that I have a true husband like Bhisma.

Author’s Note- I decided to write about Draupadi being dragged to Kickaka funeral prye. I thought this was a great topic to write about because the book doesn’t go into much detail about this situation. So this allowed me to expand the thoughts of Draupadi in whatever way I wanted.

Draupadi. Source

Reading Diary B: Week 10- The Final Battle

Pgs. 132-179

• I thought it was interesting that the Pandava’s want try and avoid war at all cost. They know what it will cost if they go to war.
• Though the younger brothers want to go to war.
• Krishna isn’t afraid of being captured. He is the avatar of Vishnu.
• The final battle has started. I thought that the war would be short because of the power of the Pandava’s.
• I am surprised at how little Yudhistria actually participated in the actual battle.
• I liked that we were able to follow around Arjuna during the battle. He was an unstoppable force.
• I was sad to see Bhisma fall.  I wish that he didn’t have to fall, but he was able to pass away in his own time.
• I was shocked to see Yudhistria tricked Drona into being defeated. I was sad to see their master die.
• I am glad Bhima was able to fulfill his promise to crush Duyrodhana leg.

Bhisma on the bed of arrows. Source

Storytelling Week 9- Bhishma's Upbringing

“Gather around children and listen to the story of my upbringing. You may only think of me as your uncle Bhishma, but what you may not know is that I am the son of the Goddess Ganga.  My mother took on human form, and my father fell madly in love with her. I was the eighth child. My mother drowned the other seven. My father finally stopped my mother from drowning. My mother finally revealed to my father who she was. She then took me away to be trained from Vasishtha.”

“Growing up I never knew who my father was. I always wondered if he ever thought about me. Having Vasishtha as a mentor was an interesting experience. He taught me many different things. He taught me how to speak to another royalty, how to pray to the gods, how to go into a deep meditation, how to perform a purification ritual. But the thing I excelled in the most was fighting and weaponry. From an early age I seemed to excel at the bow. Vasishtha was a very impressed at my skill. Vasishtha had me shot with a blindfold over my eyes. He would take the target as far as the eye could see and make me shoot it. Finally Vasishtha had nothing left to teach me so we traveled to the different lands of the gods.”

“First we went to see Indra. The kingdom of Indra was like nothing I had ever seen in my entire life. Imagine the finest kingdom you have ever seen. This would look like dirty compared to Indra’s kingdom. Everything was made from the finest jewels. The streets seemed to glow like the sun. I came to Indra to learn mantras that would help me when I made my return back to my father. Indra taught me how to burn an object by just looking at it. He warned me that this mantra was a great responsibility. If I used this against an inferior opponent, the mantra would backfire, and burn me alive. After staying with Indra for a little while longer, we continued our travels.”

“We traveled to countless kingdoms so that I could learn different mantras from the gods. After many years of traveling I was finally able to complete my studies. I had finally become the man that could help lead this world into a better future. I was finally able to go to my father, and I have been here ever since.”

Author’s Note- I chose to write about the time that Bhishma spent away from his father growing up. I decided that I wanted this to be a story that Bhishma is telling all of his nephews when they were younger. Also I decided that I wanted Bhishma to travel to the different kingdom of the gods so that he could learn different mantras that he could eventually teach to his nephews.

Bibliography-Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.

Bhishma with his family. Source

Reading Diary B: Week 9- Yudhistira Gambling

Pgs. 40-83

• I am surprised that their Uncle would allow them to come home. I definitely could see that being a trap.
• It actually wasn’t a trap. It was nice to see that their uncle definitely wants them all get along, but I can see that there will be some problems in the future by dividing up the kingdom. I can see the Pandavas cousins getting jealous.
• I am glad to see that the Pandavas are able to turn a desert wasteland into a majestic kingdom.
• Like I said the Pandavas cousins become jealous of their wealth. Duryodhana becomes jealous of his cousins and plans to destroy their kingdom.
• I can’t believe that Yudhistira has that bad of a gambling problem. He gambles away everything, including his brothers.
• I am glad to see that Vikarna was able to stand up to everyone and say that Draupadi wasn’t a slave.
• But of course someone says that he is too young to be able to address the elders.

The Pandavas. Source

Reading Diary A: Week 9- The Mahabharata

Pgs 1-39

• Santanu seems to fall in love very easily. The young maiden is very brave to ask that she can be free to do whatever she likes, and that he cannot question what she is doing or they will no longer be married.
• To top it all off the young maiden drowns the first, second third, fourth,fifth,sixth, and seventh children. Santanu stops her from drowning the eighth.
• Upon stopping his wife he finds out she is the Ganga, the deity of the river. She took the form of a maiden so she could punish the eight vasus.
• King Santanu finally gets to have his son come home with him after he trained and learned  from Sage Vasishta.
• Santanu falls for another maiden in the woods.
• Both of the sons of the new wife die. Leaving only Bhishma, who is supposed to stay celibate.
• Satyavathi orders her eldest son Vyasa, a sage, to conceive a child with her son’s wives.
• Vyasa conceives three children. One will be blind, one will be pale, and the other will be normal.
• The eldest brother is blind, and surrenders his right to rule to the second brother.
• Pandu, the second son, was cursed for killing a deer in the act of love making.

Bhishma. Source

Commenting Review Week 8

I really enjoy commenting on other people’s blogs in class. The main reason I like this is because it allows me to read other people’s stories. I find it amazing how people reading the same stories can come up with such different stories. Even when people write over the same topic it is interesting that the stories can be so different.  I really like having other people comment on my storybook because it is very helpful getting other people’s opinions on the story. Also I like it because I have a problem with grammar sometimes so having people point out my grammar mistakes is great. The comments that I have received in this class have been very helpful to my overall writing because it points out my mistakes so that I won’t make those same mistakes again.

Lord Brahma. Source

Writing Review Week 8

This class has been one of the more challenging to write about. I was able to write different kind of stories in the Myths and Folklore class, but that was because of the multitude of stories that we read. For this class since we have only been reading one book so far the stories have to be much more thought out. I have enjoyed writing for this class though. It has challenged me to become a better writer. I am looking forward to the next opportunity to being able to read the Un-textbook because I will be able to write a different kind of story then I have so far. I have really enjoyed writing for my storybook! I really like the ideas that I have, and I am excited to finish it soon!

Rama and Sita. Source