Week 10 Storytelling: A Family Reunited

Bhishma and his mother, Ganga, were together at the beginning of his life. They had to be separated, because he was cursed to live his existence on earth. He lived a long life of celibacy, and died in battle. Arjuna shot him from behind, which was fatal to Bhishma. Before his death, Bhishma talked to Yudhishthira about becoming king, and then asked him to return him to his mother.He needed to return to his family. Yudhishthira had Bhishma cremated on the shores of the Ganges. Ganga watched this event as it occurred, and she could not wait for her son to return to his true home.

Ganga was so pleased that her son could finally return to her. They had to spend their lives apart, because he was forced to live on earth. She hated that he had to die to be able to return to her, but it was the only way. She washed up onto the shore to take her son's ashes away from the wretched earth. They could return to heaven now.

Ganga took her son up to heaven. They finally got to speak to each other again.

"Oh my son, how I have missed you dearly," Ganga said.
"I have missed you too, mother," Bhishma said happily. "It was horrible to have to spend my life on earth without you."
"It was horrible for me, as well, Bhishma. Your brothers and I missed you so much," Ganga replied.
"Now we can all be together again. This time forever!" Bhishma said excitedly.

Ganga took Bhishma to his brothers. All seven of the brothers were so happy to see their brother. Bhishma was also pleased to see them. It had been so long. They talked for hours and hours filling each other in on what they had missed throughout the years. Now the whole family was reunited and they lived together happily in heaven forever.

The death of Bhishma

Author's Note:

I chose to tell the story of Ganga reuniting with her son because I was intrigued by their story in the beginning of The Ramayana. I thought that it would be interesting to explore Ganga's feelings about her son's death and his return to her. I retold the story of Bhishma's death from the book, and then added my own details about him reuniting with his mother and brothers. This part was not told in the book.

Bibliography:

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

Week 7 Strorytelling: The Poor Mongoose

I live in a small town with my mother, father, and brother. My mother loves to take care of my brother and me. We are a poor family and my father has to always go search for food. All of my family members look different than me, but it has never bothered me. I am a mongoose. They are human.They treat me as if I am one of them, so it doesn't bother me. They are my family.

One day I overheard my mother and father talking. My mother thought that I was going to hurt my brother. I was appalled! I would never hurt my sweet, innocent brother! He is just a baby.
My mother asked my father to watch us while she went to get water in the water jar. My father stayed for a minute, but then he was hungry. He left the house to go beg for food. My brother and I were alone.

We had never been alone before. Mother would always watch us and now I know why. She does not trust me. I don't know what I did to make her feel this way. I have never hurt my brother before. I want to do something to make her trust me! Now I just have to think of something to do.

As I was thinking, a huge black snake crawled out of a hole. This was in my room! It was crawling toward my baby brother's crib! I need to stop it!

I ran toward the baby's crib and pounced on the snake. The snake did not like this, but I didn't care. I was not going to let it hurt my baby brother! It tried to fight back, but I was too fast for it. I used my sharp teeth and tore the snake apart. There were pieces of the snake all over my room. Blood was everywhere. But I stopped the snake from hurting my brother!

After my shock wore off from what I had just done, I realized my mother could trust me now! She would know that I wouldn't let anything happen to my brother, because I saved him! I must find her immediately!

I ran outside to search for her. I ran toward the well that she went to for our water. I saw her and ran up to her as fast as I could. She saw me and looked horrified. I don't understand why she looked that way. She should be excited, right? I tried to explain to her what I had done, but she can't understand me. She started screaming at me telling me to get away from her and that she couldn't believe what I had done. She was so angry. Shouldn't she be happy? Then I realized that she thought that I killed my brother.

I had no time to explain. She dropped the water jar on my head, killing me instantly.

Author's Note: The story that I based this story off of is The Loyal Mongoose. As I was reading the original story, a narrator was telling the story. This was so the whole story could be told. I thought it would be interesting to see the mongoose's side and how it was feeling. I stayed with the original story line. The only difference is the story being in the mongoose's point of view.

Bibliography: The Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1925).

The Mongoose

Week 6 Storytelling: Never Trust a Lion

This story takes place in Benares, where the lion, Brahmadatta, is the king of the land. The lion was eating his meal for the day and he was in a rush. He was eating his food extremely fast. This caused him to accidentally get a bone lodged in his throat. Brahmadatta panicked. He had to find a way to get the bone out or else he was going to die. It was also hurting his throat really badly. He saw a crane named Bodhisatta passing by and decided to ask him for assistance.

"Hey, Bodhisatta," the lion croaked, "I am in need of your assistance."
"Yes, my dear friend. How may I help you?" replied Bodhisatta.
"I was eating too quickly and got a bone stuck in my throat. Can you get it out?" the lion asked.
"Well, friend, the only way I can think of to get the bone out is to climb in your throat. I am scared that you would eat me!" the crane exclaimed.
"Of course I would not eat you! You would be saving my life! Please help me. My throat is hurting very badly." replied the lion.
"I am still unsure.." the timid crane said nervously.
"I will make you a deal. If you get this bone out, I will owe you a favor!" the lion said surely.
"Okay, I will help you, my friend." the crane replied.
"Thank you!" the lion exclaimed. 

As Bodhisatta climbed into the lions throat, the lion was thinking. He was still very hungry and was out of food. He would have to hunt when Bodhisatta got the bone out of his throat...

Bodhisatta climbed into Brahmadatta's throat, and wiggled the bone free. As soon as Brahmadatta felt the bone being freed, he clamped down his mouth.

"You tricked me!" Bodhisatta yelled. "How could you do this to me?"

Brahmadatta ate Bodhisatta and made sure to eat slowly and carefully. He was finally full and glad that he did not have to hunt more for the day. It didn't bother him that he tricked the crane. He killed for his food. He could not have remorse.

The moral of the story is to be careful who you trust. Some people can not be trusted.

The lion

Author's Note: I decided to retell the story of The Lion and the Crane from my reading this week. I chose this story because it did not end the way that I expected it to. In the original, the lion did not kill the crane, but when the crane asked the lion for his favor, the lion wouldn't do it. The lion said the crane was lucky to be alive. I decided to change the end to the lion actually eating the crane. I also wanted to add a moral to the story. I always like to add those, because I feel they are a good thing to have in these stories.

Bibliography: "The Lion and the Crane" by Joseph Jacobs, from Indian Fairy Tales (1890). Web Source: Sacred Texts Archive.

Week 5 Storytelling: Bharata Goes to Rama in the Forest

Bharata had just returned from his grandmother's. His mother, Kaikeyi, had just told him about the death of his father and Rama's exile. He was now the king. He was so frustrated with his mother. How could she do this to him? How could she do that to his father? This was not the life that he wanted. Kaikeyi tried to comfort her son. She knew that he was hurting and that is was partially her fault.

"Stay away from me! I can not stand to look at you, horrible woman!" Bharata yelled at his mother. He knew that he was being disrespectful, but he couldn't stand to look at her. It was her fault that his father was dead.

Bharata wanted to make this right. His father wanted Rama to be king, not him. He decided that he must go find Rama in the forest. He hoped that he would be able to convince his brother to return to their kingdom and be their king. As soon as he thought of this plan, he ran outside to leave.
Rama had been exiled for a little while, so Bharata had no clue how far he and the others had gone. He was determined to find them. He walked many miles in search of his brother, the rightful king. Bharata was deep in the forest and finally saw Rama! Rama was sitting with Sita and Lakshmana. Bharata ran to them and hugged his brother.

"Rama, I must speak to you!" Bharata said.
"Okay, brother, let us go somewhere to talk." said Rama.

They walked away from Sita and Lakshmana so they could talk privately.

"Father is dead. He died of grief from my mother causing your exile." said Bharata.
"Oh, no. My heart is broken for the death of our father. Now you are king!" Rama said.
"No! You are our rightful king. You must return to the kingdom!" said Bharata.
"No! Father told me that I must be in exile for fourteen years and I will not break my word to him." Rama said.
"My mother is the cause of this and she will pay. You no longer have to do this, Rama!" Bharata pleaded.
"No, you will be king!" Rama yelled.
"Fine, I will be king for now. After your fourteen years of exile, you will return and be our king. You are our true king." Bharata said to his brother.
Rama agreed with Bharata and decided that was best. He did not want to cause his brother any more grief.
Bharata took Rama's sandals to put on the throne until he returned to rule their kingdom. He said goodbye to his brothers and Sita and then returned to rule the kingdom.

Bharata and Rama

Author's Note: I chose to tell the story of Bharata finding out about the death of his father and going to Rama because I feel like we don't hear as much about Bharata. The story's main focus is on Rama, so I wanted to focus on another character. I wanted to use my imagination to see how Bharata was feeling in this time and what his and Rama's conversation could have been.

Bibliography: 
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Week 4 Storytelling: Diary Entries

Dasaratha's Diary:
The Night of the Sacrifice:
I went to my priest, Vasishtha, about my wives and their inability to give me an heir.
"It is so disappointing that I have no successor to my throne. I have three wives! Why can't just one of my wives give me a son?" I exclaimed in agony.
Vasishtha had an idea for a sacrifice. At nightfall, we went out into the night and started a fire. Vasishtha and Sumantra were chanting in unison. A big black giant appeared out of the fire with a gleaming, golden bowl. The bowl was filled with rice. The giant handed this bowl to me and told me to feed it to my wives. This would give me sons!
 I rushed home to my beautiful wives. I had told them previously of the sacrifice, and they were ready for it to be done. I gave half of the rice to my first wife, Kausalya. She ate her portion, then I gave Sumitra half of the remaining rice. I gave Kaikeyi half of what Sumitra had left. I thought that Sumitra needed more rice, though. So, I took some of what I gave to Kaikeyi and gave it back to Sumitra. I could not wait for my sons to be born!

Dasaratha accepting the rice sacrifice

The Births:
After nine long months of waiting, my first wife Kausalya went into labor. She gave birth to my first born son, Rama. This pleased me greatly. Soon after, Kaikeyi gave birth to Bharata. Even later in the day, Sumitra gave birth to Lakshmana and Satrughna.
I now have four sons! Sumitra even bore me twin boys! I now have an heir to my throne and my kingdom will continue to be reigned by my own blood!

Kausalya's Diary:
The Sacrifice:
I was so pleased when Dasaratha found a way for us to give him his heirs! He came home the night of the sacrifice so excited that we would finally be able to be pregnant. He gave us the rice from the sacrifice, and I got the biggest portion. This is because I am his first wife. I will be the one to give him the heir to the throne. My son will be our new king! The rice tasted so sweet, and was so good. I am ready to experience being pregnant. I want to give our kingdom their next king!

Author's Note:
I chose to explore the thoughts of Dasaratha and his first wife, Kausalya, through the process of the rice sacrifice and the birth of the sons. The story doesn't go into much detail about their feelings in that time, so I thought it would be interesting to see what they could have been thinking.

Bibliography:
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Week 3 Storytelling: Ravana and the Decapitated Head

Ravana was desperate. He was trying to find a way to make Sita his. He thought that if he got her away from Rama and she was with him, then she would fall madly in love with him. This plan failed. Sita stayed true to Rama all through the time with Ravana. Ravana brought her to his home and tried to flatter her with gifts and compliments, but this failed to work. Ravana was angry! He could not think of anything else to do to make Sita fall in love with him. He sent her out to the Ashoka Vana pleasure garden and guarded her with demons. Ravana could not stand to look at her beauty anymore. He was mesmerized by her beauty, but could not convince her to be his. He was not used to not being able to have anything and everything that he wanted.
Ravana came up with one last plan! He thought that maybe if Sita thought that Rama was dead, then she would want to be with him. "Maybe she is just a faithful wife," Ravana thought. "Maybe if Rama is dead, she will be mine." Ravana went to a sorcerer and got him to make a fake decapitated head of Rama. He took this head from the sorcerer and rushed to Sita in the garden.
Sita had been very depressed since she had been captured by Ravana. She missed Rama and longed to be with him. She believed that Rama would come to rescue her. As days passed, she was starting to lose hope. She cried constantly, even though she was in a beautiful garden. She did not like being guarded by demons. They scared her. She saw Ravana walk into the garden with a decapitated head. This scared her, but she wondered what he was up to.
He told her that Rama had been killed and showed her the decapitated head. At first, Sita was very sad. Then she thought that Ravana was trying to trick her. She knew that Rama would defeat Ravana in a battle. She believed in her husband. Ravana's trick did not work on her!
Ravana was angered that his final plan did not win over Sita. He realized that she would never be his, but he was not going to give her up! He left her in the garden guarded by the demons. He planned to keep her there forever. He no longer cared if he had Sita. He just did not want Rama to have her back.

Ravana and Sita

Author's Note: I chose this story because it seemed very brief in our reading. I thought that it would be interesting to add more detail and background to this story. I feel like the readers learning more about Ravana and Sita would be interesting for them. Sita and Rama have a great love and I wanted to show that Sita believed in Rama. She would not give up on him or lose hope in him. The good people always win and triumph over the bad people. Ravana thought it would be easy for Sita to be his, and he was wrong. He did not want to work to win her and that is what you must do for love. Sita knew that Ravana was deceiving and a liar. That is why she did not fall for him showing her the decapitated head of Rama. I feel that the image I chose fits well with this story. Sita is sitting in the grass next to a tree and Ravana is coming to her. I assume that he was going to her to try to deceive her and make her fall in love with him. She refuses to even look at him and will not fall for his tricks.

Bibliography: Narayan, R,K. (1972) The Ramayana.

Week 2 Storytelling: Ganga Bedtime Story

Rama and Sita were putting their children to bed one night. The children ask them for a bedtime story and Rama and Sita gave in. The children squealed with delight.

"How about I tell you a story of our ancestors?" Rama asked. He started the story of his ancestors and Ganga.

Ganga flows through our land and everywhere she touches is holy. People can attain salvation from her. She wasn't always in our land, though. She had to be brought down from the sky.
Sakara, an ancestor of ours, ruled the earth a long time ago. He was very successful when he was ruling the earth, but he wanted to expand his kingdom. He planned to do this with a sacrifice that would make him supreme lord of the earth. It was called The Horse Sacrifice. A decorated horse was freed to roam the lands of many kingdoms. The kingdoms that let the horse roam through accepted the plans of Sakara. When people stop the horse this causes a war. When the horse finally returns back to the kingdom of Sakara, the sacrifice is done.
These plans make the gods very nervous, because they don't want a king to have that much power. They keep watch for plans like these and try to stop them. One of the gods, Indra, stole the horse and hid it underground. He guarded the horse with Sage Kapila. When the people found out about this, Sakara's sons started to dig underground for the horse. When the boys found the horse they were mean to Sage Kapila and took back the horse. Sage Kapila was angered with them and turned them to ash. Only one survived: a grandson. He apologized for their actions and returned to Sakara's kingdom to help complete the horse sacrifice.
The grandson's son, Bhagiratha, learned of his ancestor's fate many years later. It upset him that his ancestors did not get salvation, so he made it his goal to attain salvation for them. He prayed to Brahma who was the creator for thousands of years. Brahma advised him to ask for the help of Shiva to help Ganga descend to the earth. He prayed to Shiva for thousands of years and then Ganga for thousands of years. Finally, Shiva gave in and helped him to bring Ganga down to the earth. Bhagiratha attained salvation for his ancestors and also helped everyone on earth for the future.

Sita added, "I think a lesson you can all learn from this story is to never give up on what you believe in and what you want. If you work hard enough and believe, then you can achieve it."

The two parents kissed their children goodnight and left them to sleep peacefully.

Author's Note: For this story, I decided to make it a bedtime story based off of Ganga's Story from our reading this week. I got the idea from storytelling prompts that we were given. I decided that Rama and Sita should be the ones to tell the story since they are a huge part of our reading. I changed the story into my own words and took out a few little details. For example, the challenges Bhagiratha went through with Ganga and Shiva.

Bibliography:
"Ganga's Story" by Narayan, R.K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Image of a river

Week 1 Storytelling: The Real Story of Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

(traditional nursery rhyme)

Jack and Jill were the best of friends. Jack was very outgoing and rowdy. Jill was very quiet and shy. They had lived next door to each other for their whole lives. They were still young, just ten years old, and are in the same class at school. All of their classmates made fun of them for being friends. The girls told Jill that Jack is gross and dumb because “he’s a boy.” The boys told Jack that Jill has cooties and that he shouldn't be seen with her. They still wanted to be friends though and ignored what their friends were telling them. They didn't see any reason to stop being friends since they had been friends for so long.

One day after school, Jack’s mother asked him to go up the hill and get her a pail of water from the well. Jack ran next door to Jill’s house and asked her to come along with him. Jack asked Jill to go with him because he didn't want to go alone and wanted to spend time with Jill. They talked as they walked up the hill. They couldn't understand why their friends didn't want them to speak to each other. It made them both of them very sad.

When they reached the top of the hill, Jack filled the pail with water. He told Jill that he will always be her friend no matter what any of their friends said. He didn't care what anyone else thought. This made Jill smile, but then Jack tried to kiss her. “Gross!” she screamed as she shoved Jack down the hill. Jill was embarrassed that Jack had tried to kiss her and she didn't understand why he did since they were best friends. She ran back home and never spoke to Jack again.

Jack and Jill falling down the hill illustrated by William Wallace Denslow. Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill." It is quoted at the beginning of this post. This nursery rhyme can be found in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897). This was one of my favorite nursery rhymes when I was younger, so I chose to retell this story for my storytelling post. I wanted to create a background story for Jack and Jill to make the story more interesting. I always pictured Jack and Jill as children when I heard this story. I wanted them to be friends and not siblings, because that fit the story line I wanted to tell. I remember in elementary school when kids were made fun of for hanging out with a kid that was not the same gender. That seemed like a good plot to add into the retelling of this story.I wanted to add the funny twist of Jill pushing Jack down the hill. I chose this ending because I knew that in the original they both fell down the hill and I wanted the ending to be more humorous. I feel like Jack trying to kiss Jill and her shoving him was an appropriate reaction.