Reading Diary B: Published Domain Ramayana

In Bharata Returns, I found it surprising that Bharata didn't share his mother's perspective on his good fortune on becoming the crowned prince. In fact, he was so depressed that his older brother was exiled that he called his own mother an "evil-hearted woman." I found it noble that Bharata was willing to find his brother in the jungle and return him to his rightful place on the throne. This appeals to me because I am a huge believer in brotherhood and siblingship since I am close to my younger brother.

I also liked the story of Viradha because it's like the two musketeers rescuing the third musketeer. Rama and Lakshmana have to defeat the demon, Viradha aka Tumburu, who abducted Sita. Rama and Lakshmana could not defeat Viradha with sharp weapons so they buried him into a pit. However, when they buried the demon, a curse was broken. Viradha was cursed by Kubera and the only way to break the curse was to have Rama defeat him. Oddly, the demon found salvation in his death. This reminds me of some religious beliefs that life itself is suffering and death is the salvation that leads to heaven.

The story of Shurpanakha and Rama was peculiar because a female demon named Shurpanakha falls in love with Rama. I never imagined a demon falling in love a human... Even worse she tried to convince Rama to leave Sita. Shurpanakha was really adamant of having Rama as her husband. She said "I have chose thee for my husband, and thou shalt rule over my great empire.... I must devour Sita and thy brother, so that er may range the jungle together and visit the lofty hills." What's crazy is that Rama practically tells the demon Hey I'm taken but my brother isn't! This doesn't sit well with Shurpanakha so she tries to attack Sita.The demon lady also calls on her brother Khara to capture the three royals.

Rama is so devoted to Sita that he attempts to capture the golden deer for her. The golden deer, however, is Maricha in disguise. Maricha diguises his voice by imitating Rama and calls out to Sita and Lakshmana. Rama successfully slays Maricha, but Sita is worried about Rama. She fears that he might be and trouble: "If Rama is slain I will die by drowning, or by poison, or else by the noose. I cannot live without Rama." Her devotion to Rama is beautiful and rare.

Rama and the Golden Deer. Source.

Google Timer Tech Tip

This is really useful! I used to use my phone as a timer, but I use my phone for everything else (music, emails, etc.) so my phone battery would drain. Using Google timer reminds me to take breaks which is great for maintaining my sanity. I really like how simple it is. I don't have to download an app or make an account. I just google "set timer for..." and it pops up! I currently have a timer running to limit my time blogging for this class. This allows me to prioritize my tasks instead of spending two hours on a post. I will definitely be using this time on a daily basis.

Reading Diary A: Public Domain Ramayana

A story that caught my attention was the story about Ahalya. Ahalya was Gautama's beautiful wife, and the god Indra fell in love with her. In order to seduce Ahalya, Indra disguised himself as Gautama. Outraged by the betrayal, Gautama cursed his wife and Indra. So Ahalya turns into stone (according to some versions). I understand that Gautama was outraged by his wife's infidelity, but the fact that she was tricked by a god makes me pity her. Was she really at fault?

On chapter that I did like was the story of Sita. It seems like fate that the avatar of Vishnu and the avatar of Sita found each other and fell in love. It reminds me of the theory that my mother believes in about soul mates. She believes that love transcends through time and different lives. So if two people were to meet for the first time and experience love at first sight, it is because in their past lives they were together. My favorite quote was when Rama compared Sita's beauty to the moon: "The queen of night is not so fair as Sita." Of course he wins her hand in marriage by bending the bow of the god Shiva.

Everything seems to be going great for Rama. He married Sita. He is announced as heir to the throne. But then the servant Manthara convinces the youngest wife Kaikeyi that Bharata should be the crown prince. Dasharatha and Kaikeyi have a huge argument about which son is to be prince. Dasharatha promised Kaikeyi two favors, or two boons. With these boons, she requested her son Bharata to be the heir and to banish Rama for fourteen years. Like a dagger to his heart, Dasharatha could not bear the pain of his wife's favors. He said, "Have I dreamed a fearsome dream? Do demons torture me? Is my mind clouded with madness?" He scorns Kaikeyi. He feels betrayed that she would not only replace the heir but also banish his favorite son.

"Traitress, wouldst thou bring ruin to my family? Rama hath never wronged thee; why dost thou seek to injure him? O Kaikeyi, whom I have loved and taken to my bosom, thou hast crept into my house like a poisonous snake to accomplish my ruin. It is death to me to part with my brave and noble Rama, now that I am old and feeble. Have pity on me and ask for other boons.”

She threatens suicide if he does not grant her the wishes. With a heavy heart, Dasharatha keeps his word, but he promises to hate her and her son forever. “I grant the boons, but I reject thee for ever and thy son Bharata also.” Tricky situation. I was always taught that the only thing that I truly possess in the world in my word, so to use it wisely. If I make a promise, I must keep it. Dasharatha was cornered into banishing his son. I wonder if he ever forgave himself.

Although Rama was the only one banished, Sita and his brother Lakshmana accompaned him. I thought this was really noble, and it reminded me of my brother and my cousin. If I was ever banished, I know that the two people closest to me wouldn't allow me to travel alone. My favorite line of that story was "Thereafter Rama and Sita and Lakshmana went together, walking barefoot..."

Rama and Sita on exile. Source: Indi Samarajiva

Famous Last Words Week 1

I have really enjoyed my assignments in this class so far. Honestly, I have never been in a class that was structured like this one. Although there are guidelines, I am able to be myself and write how I want to write. I miss writing, and this class really brought it back to me. Any writing that I have to do in my other classes have to be scientific and..well.. dull. Don't get me wrong. Science is a remarkable discipline, but sometimes writing 30 pages about an enzyme can be such a drag. One thing that I didn't expect was the time it takes for me to publish a post. I take my dear sweet time trying to make my post interesting and making sure I carefully proofread, but before I know it, a couple of hours have already past! I really have to focus on my time management with this class. Since I enjoy these homework assignments more than writing my lab reports, I try to finish the homework for this class first. That tends to hinder me because I spend way too much time on this class and not enough time on my science courses. Another aspect that I like about this class is that I can read other people's writing. Therefore, I am able to connect to other people and share ideas with them. It's interesting to meet people with all sorts of majors and backgrounds. My honors professor once told me to take advantage of college because it is the one place where I can immerse myself with a diverse group of people. I always keep that in mind when I read other blogs.

In short, I think this class is too much fun! I can't wait to see what other projects or stories that we will be assigned. Hopefully by that time, I would already have the hang of limiting my time spent on these blogs!

Yoda is so wise. Source: Chuckles Network

Week 1 Curation

My life has changed! I have always kept multiple tabs opened to keep track of my online sources which made my browser really congested. As a science major, I have to write several formal lab reports, and each lab report requires multiple sources to introduce the topic and the hypothesis in question. Once I found appropriate scientific papers, I never wanted to close the tabs because I feared that I would never find the article again! Therefore, I kept all of my tabs opened all the time until I turned in my lab report. My "solution" to the problem was to copy and past the URLs into a word document. Then I'd open the word document and click on all the links again in separate tabs. However, I felt like this solution caused me to do more work, so I went back to keeping all of my tabs opened...UNTIL TODAY! All I have to do is bookmark my sources and organize them in their appropriate bookmark folder. I already have a lab folder created for my future bookmarks! For the first time, my browser doesn't have 20+ tabs opened. This is my first experience with a curation technique, and I was not disappointed!

Never in my life did I expect that Pinterest would be part of my homework! My favorite Pinterest board is titled Imagination. It includes a whole range of art such as street art, surrealism, photography, sculptures, watercolor and anything that captures my attention. Here is one of my favorite Imagination pin:

Harikrishnan Panicker and Deepti Nair create cut paper shadow boxes, illuminated with battery powered lights. Source.

I find it fascinating that people can take a simple material, such as copy paper, and transform it into a delicate artwork! I never really been a social media person because it can be distracting, but I enjoy Pinterest since it focuses on sharing ideas rather than updating statuses.

Growth Mindset

I have never heard of Dr. Carol Dweck before, but I really believe in her concept of a growth mindset. It's frustrating to see your grades that say failure or whenever you attempt an online assignment and the word "incorrect" appears repeatedly. In fact, it's so aggravating that I give up. I become so discouraged that I would rather have someone tell me the answer than to learn what I am doing wrong. However, I had a math professor who didn't grade our homework assignments based on the correct answer. He graded our effort to complete each problem, then he explained where we made a mistake. I learned much more quickly and more effectively with this method. I wasn't afraid to calculate the wrong answer anymore. Instead, I attempted each problem. Sometimes my answers were bizarre, so I recalculated my answer. I would redo each problem until I felt that this could be a reasonable answer. The point is that I continued trying because that's what mattered to my professor. Over the course of the semester, I began to understand how to solve the calculus problems and was calculating the right answers. It was much more encouraging to hear my professor say, "Nicole, great job you were on the right track!" than to hear "No sorry that answer is wrong." I am definitely excited about learning more about the growth mindset because I feel like there are students just like me who learn better in this manner.

The growth mindset challenges are stimulating! I actually started the "Talking About Mindset" challenge today without knowing it was a challenge! I was so intrigued by Dr. Dweck's Ted talk that I turned to my friend next to me and asked her if she has ever heard about growth mindset. It was a fascinating conversation, and we share very similar ideas about the concept. I can't wait to hear other people's opinions about growth mindset.

I also began to look at mindset memes. The one below really stood out to me because I quote the same Japanese proverb all the time! It's a great way to say never give up.

Fall down seven times, get up eight. Source: Laura Gibbs, Proverb Laboratory

Storybook Favorites

All the storybooks were very creative and amusing, but the first storybook that caught my attention was Tales of Lingering Souls. I love reading horror stories even though I can't sleep later that night due to fear. The storybook consists of tales of souls of different people and objects. The most interesting chapter was the Soul of a Sobbing Man. It was about the soul of a man who is desperately seeking for his son who was kidnapped from him. The author posted the wife's diary entries that gave insight to the plot which I thought was a creative touch on the story. I didn't have the chance to read through the other chapters yet but their titles sound eerie such as the Soul of the Dying. The introduction didn't explain the chapters, in fact there was no introduction, but I prefer it that way because it adds mystery.

Tales of Lingering Souls by Hoang Truong

Another storybook that was interesting was named 1000 Ways to Die: Demon Edition which appealed to me because I used to watch that show! It was a guilty pressure, but it was a show that intrigued both my brother and me. Back to the storybook, the introduction began with the same introduction from the show, and I thought that was pretty funny. The author wrote about the Asuras and Rakshasas also known as demons that tormented people. Each chapter tells a story about how each demon dies because the "good guys", Rama and Bhima, destroys the demon. In general, the storybook's main theme is good vs. evil, a theme that is as old as time yet never boring.

Spy vs. Spy by Brad Kozak. This is what I imagined for good vs. evil.

The last story that I thought was fascinating was formatted as a radio station called 102.6 BTRL Radio. The channel was targeted specifically towards listeners who have been hurt by other people through betrayal. For example, one of the chapters is about a queen named Kaikeyi who was betrayed by her maid. Another chapter is about Vibhishana who is actually the betrayer and not the betrayed. Reading a story from two different perspectives was an interesting aspect.