Reading Notes: Jataka Tales- Stories of Courage

The Brave Pig

There once was a carpenter who lived in a village. On his daily walk he found a pig that had been left for dead and decided to help this pig. He raised the pig as his pet and even trained it to help him work. One day his wife pointed out that other people may see this fat pet pig and decide they want to kill it for food. After hearing this the man decided to let the pig go back in the woods. After a few days the pig found himself a group of pigs to live with but they were all skinny due to their fear of a mean tiger that attacked them every morning. The pig that was raised by humans, we will call him Bill, thought of a plan to fight back against the tiger. He made the pigs all get into a formation to scare the tiger. When the tiger came in the morning he was scared by this at first and left the pigs alone. As the tiger walked through the woods he saw a man he brings pig meat to and the man convinced the tiger to go back. When the tiger got back he figured out that Bill was the fattest pig and also the leader so he decided to kill bill first. He dove at Bill but he ducked and the tiger fell into a pit the pigs had made and the pigs stoned the tiger.

Cover of Jataka Tales of Valour and Victory from the reserves at the Bizzell Memorial Library at the University of Oklahoma

By: Margie Sastry, Chandrakant Rane, and Anant Pai

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales- Elephant Stories

The Greedy Forester

This story is about an elephant that was born white and wise. As he grew up he realized how cruel and selfish his peers where so he decided to leave the elephant civilization in favor for a life on his own. After the white elephant left the civilization he began offering his advice to other animals who were in tough situations. Once the white elephant had been doing this for a while he became known as "Good King Elephant." One day a man came walking through the woods who was distraught because he had been lost for a few days and could not find his way to his destination. The white elephant saw the man and went to help him but the man thought the white elephant would hurt him so he ran away. After a while the man realized that the wise white elephant was not there to hurt him so he stopped to talk. The elephant heard the mans predicament and offered to let the man stay with him a few days then help the man get going the right way. The man agreed to this and a few days later he was on his way to Varanas where he would meet an ivory bazaar. It was here the man learned the monetary value of ivory and thought of a plan to get ivory from the white elephant. He went back and told the white elephant the he needed his tusks in order to pay off his debts but he had intentions of selling them for selfish profit. He sold the tusks and realized he wanted more money so he went back to the white elephant. He told the white elephant that he needed more tusk in order to have money to live. The white elephant allowed the man to take the remainder of the tusk knowing the tusk was the secret to his knowledge. The man took them but was then take up by the earth and fire which was condemning the man for being selfish. After this the white elephant was able to live peacefully for the rest of his days.

Photo of a scene from Jataka tales of Nobility: Elephant Stories found in the reserves in the Bizzell Memorial Library on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

 By: Lakshmi Lal, Ashok Dongre, and Anant Pai

Jataka Tales: Bird Stories

Bird Stories

The Value of Friends

A hawk once lived alone at a large lake. Until, one day a lady hawk came and he asked her to be his wife. She told him she would but that he needed to make friends first. So the guy hawk went out and made friends with a tortoise, osprey, and a lion. After they became friends the two hawks decided to start a family on an island they thought would be excluded from all people. It turns out this island was not far enough away and one day two men came along to camp on the hawks' island. The men were planning to catch the hawks' babies so the guy hawk went and got his friend the osprey. The osprey came and detoured the two men for quite some time. Then the hawk got the tortoise and the men tried to catch him but he dragged them back into the lake. Finally, the hawk went to get the lion who was able to scare away the two men for good. The wife hawk then said that was the reason she forced him to make friends. The moral of the story is to be kind to people because you never know when you may find yourself in a situation in which a friend could save your life. 

Jataka Tales Comic Books by: Kamala Chandrakant, Ashok Dongre, and Anant Pai from the Reserves at the Bizzell Memorial Library

Jataka Tales: Battle of Wits

Battle of Wits

This comic was about a young boy who was born into a rich family after the king dreamt of a large flame. The Kings people told him that the flame represented a special boy who would be born and come to be smarter than the four of the kings people combined. As the boy grows up he shows some examples of being intellectually superior to his peers. Eventually word of this boy gets back to the king and the king decides to do some surveillance on this boy. Overtime one of the kings men comes back with a story regarding this boys actions they conjure up a reason as to why this is just normal behavior. The king senses that his men are trying to cover something up so he goes to meet the boy himself. When the king finally gets to meet the boy he tells him to sit down. The boys father stands up and the boy sits where he was. The king takes this as offensive however the boy was doing it to prove his point that age does not correlate to wisdom.

Battle of Wits By Yagya Sharma, Ram Waeerkar, and Anant Pai from the reserves at the Bizzell Memorial Library

Reading Notes: Krishna Comic Book

Krishna

This story begins with Krishna's parents getting married. His dad was Vasudeva and his mother was Princess Devaki of Mathura. Vasudeva's cousin Prince Kamsa was a feared man and he was the one that drove the newly married couple home. On the way home he was told by a heavenly voice that the couples eighth child would kill him. He got scared and proceeded to kill every child of theirs until the time Krishna, number eight, was born and Vasudeva hid him. Krishna ends up growing up and is doing special things that amaze all around him. In many ways this comic makes Krishna sound similar in some aspects to many stories from the Christian bible. He was seen healing people and escaping from precarious situations. Krishna ends up killing Prince Kamsa after a long series of events and returns the princes crown to the king. There are many different parts of this story that I could use to retell for my story. I like the similarities to the bible that this provides and I think that may be an interesting approach to this story.

Cover Of the Comic Book Vol 501 from the Bizzell Memorial Library at the University of Oklahoma
Scripted by: Anant Pai
Illustrations by: Ram Waeerkar
Edited by: Anant Pai

Week 8 Growth Mindset

One of my main weaknesses in life is not living up to my potential. In life many things have been easy for me and I haven't had to try very hard to be successful. As I grow older I find that more and more ofter this is not the case. The things that I once thought i was the best at or even good at for that sake have grow few and farther between. I find that the more I work towards something the better the outcome will be usually. This presents a challenge to me to change my mindset. I have struggled to change from a laissez faire mindset to one with more of a growth mentality. One quote that really sticks out to me is "Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best." -Tim Duncan. This quote speaks to the person that Tim was to always have the mentality to get better at his craft. Tim was is the NBA for twenty years and was considered one of the best to ever put on a jersey long before he considered retirement, yet he still went after every practice with the mindset to get better. I strive to live my life in the same way. I try to get up everyday and get better at what I am doing while maintaining a growth mindset. I need to bring that mindset into this course in the second half in order to grow myself as a person even thought this may not be the most interesting material for me. I can use the rest of this class to attempt to improve on my writing abilities.

One of my favorite quotes from one of the best to ever play the game!

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part D

Death of Drona
It was known that Drona would never be defeated until his son, Ashwatthaman, was still alive. Bhima was desperate to defeat Drona so he thought up a plan to fake the death of Ashwatthaman and trick Drona. I think this idea was quite cowardly of Bhima to do but I guess thats what it took to win. Brim got an elephant named Ashwatthaman and killed it. After doing so he ran to the king's gates screaming that Ashwatthaman had died. Drona did not believe this at first so he asked his truth teller Yudhishthira if this was true. Three times Yud told Drona that Ash had died but he whispered "the elephant"afterwards. Drona did not hear that part and Yud had his chariot put on the ground, instead of flying, as punishment for lying.Drona lost the ability to use his special weapons so he was unable to fight Bhima. the general of the opposing army came to fight Drona but ended up just cutting his head off. However, before Drona's head was cut off his spirit left his body.

I thought this story was very tragic in a sense because the lesser person won. By Bhima resorting to trickery he lost respect and still is not considered a better fighter in my mind even though he won.

Death of Drona

Source: http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/pde-mahabharata-death-of-drona.html

Portfolio: A Man Named Stan

The Man Named Stan

There once was a man named Stan. He was a spry young man that used to live in a van until one day he heard of this incredible challenge. King Charles of England issued the challenge. The challenge was to all the men of England to win the honor to marry the king’s daughter, Princess Liz, and inherit the throne from King Charles. This proposition was intriguing to the people because inheriting the throne meant that their families would become the heirs to the throne and be forever wealthy. The king issued this challenge because he was getting old and never was able to have a son who could inherit the throne. This contest would be mediated by the king to find who he thought the most suitable bachelor was for his daughter. In order to decide this the king arranged for many contests to take place. The contests were fencing, archery, pop culture, history, and a political debate. The message of this contest spread throughout the land and stirred up curiosity and ill-fated hope in many men. Stan was one of the men that heard of this and he believed that he could win.The next day Stan packed up his van and drove to the palace. Once he got to the palace Stan somehow passed the preliminary checks and was told that he was one of the one hundred men who would get the honor of competing to marry Princess Liz. When Stan got the news he was elated because he had always heard that he was destined to marry a special woman. 

When the day for the first contest, fencing, came Stan demolished all his adversaries and was placed first out of the remaining men after the king sent twenty prospects home.

The second contest was archery which Stan excelled at because he spent so many years hunting deer by the river he lived near. Stan won this contest and thirty more men were sent home because they could not even string their bows.

The third day was the history test.  Stan knew he would do well in this because he often read books about history when he was bored in his van. Due to the fact that it was so hard only ten men moved on after this challenge.

The fourth day was a game-show-style test of the men’s knowledge of pop culture because everyone wants a leader who understands his people. Stan excelled in this challenge as well because he often talked to the rich people who came down the river on their yachts about what was going on with society. This stage of the contest left only three men for the final stage, the political debate.

King Charles decided to have his parliament attend this portion of the challenge to help him decide which bachelor would be the best king. The three contestants came onto the stage in their sharpest suits and were prosed hot button questions from King Charles. Each contestant was asked the same group of questions and after the question period the contestants debated their political ideas. Just to be sure of his decision after the debate King Charles called a meeting with parliament and asked them who they thought would be the best heir to his throne. The winner of this vote and the king’s favorite man was Stan. Stan won the honor of marrying Princess Liz and together they lived happily ever after.

Rama and Lakshamana

This story was based off the story "Rama Wins' Sita" where Rama must bend the bow in order to win the right to marry the kings' daughter. The king sets up a challenge to find a man good enough to marry his daughter. Many men fail to bend the bow that the king has provided. When it comes time for Rama to bend the bow, he does so effortlessly and thus wins the right to marry the girl of his dreams, Princess Sita. The changes I made were that the main characters' name was Stan instead of Rama. I also added a series of competitions as apposed to the single competition that Rama had to complete. I did this because I thought the original story could have been more entertaining had there been multiple events. I chose to use the image that was with the original story because I like it and I thought it would bring the story back full circle. My motivation for this story came to me as I read "Rama Wins Sita" because when I saw that there was a competition to win something my mind automatically thought of the movie "Billy Madison" which is where I got my idea for the multiple events. In the movie "Billy Madison" the son of a hotel owner has to compete against an employee of the hotel in an academic decathlon for the rights to become the next owner. Learn more about "Billy Madison" here!

Bibliography: King Janaka by Donald A. Mackenzie Original Story