Week 6 Story: The Trophy

It was a new start to the year and the men's golf team had a incoming class of 5 freshman. While these 5 kids were all different in their respective personalities they acted like brothers ready to take on the world. While each freshman was not the best player in country as a whole they were able to achieve great dominance and power in the world of college golf. They believed in each other just as much as they believed in themselves and this combination of confidence and belief is lethal in a sport like golf. They all had their sights set on the national championship but it was unheard of for 5 freshman to go on to win a national championship. They wanted to achieve the title everyone was fighting for but it would be a long and difficult road for the 5 freshman also known as the Pandavas.  The year started with many different teams from around the country and it was not an easy road at the start for the Pandavas. They were defeated often in the start to the season but with battle and tournament experience as they went a long they started to get stronger as a core leading to success leading up to the National Championship. The National Championship is a long week over the course of nine days and having to play the best players in the world to win the very expensive and elusive National Championship trophy. The only bad part of wining the trophy is that they have to share it between the 5 of them but they have never had a problem with sharing before. As the week went on they continued to impress the crowds with their great play all the way up to the final match. Waiting for them in the finals was the defending champions from the year before and they too had their sights on winning another national championship. The day went on and the Pandavas had one of the best days of golf they have ever played. They went on to win the National Championship and win the Trophy to bring back to their University.

(The national championship trophy)

The Trophy

This story is in reference to the actual group of 5 brothers that are the sons of Pandu and wives Kunti and Madri. They were known to be great warriors and won many battles. They were all married to one wife Draupadi after Arjuna, one of the brothers, wins her in a contest. He agrees to share his wife with the 4 other brothers. They were known as the Pandavas as well. Draupadi is obviously the trophy that the brothers are trying to win in the story I wrote.

Mahabharat, Slavitt, David R., and Henry L, Part A

Reading Notes: Part B

The pandavas were under pressure from many people as they were under fire about their recent marriage but a few of these people are scared because they know as a core set of 5 the pandavas are strong especially with their special weapons to go along with it. One of the ways they can see the demise of the Pandavas is by playing a game of dice and tricking the Pandavas. they can not pass down on a challenge. Yudhisthira is playing the dice game and starts to lose everything and will not stop till he wins. He eventually bets away his brothers and himself and even goes as far as to bet and lose his wife. The brothers and their wife are taken in and stripped completely all of their belongings. Yudhisthira and his brothers are let go but that makes Duryodhana furious and invites them all back for a rematch but this time the stakes are more steep as years of exile are involved in the punishment. Once again Yudhisthira loses and he and his brothers go into exile. they are given a copper bowl and a endless food supply so they are able to eat while they are away. Arjuna rejects a woman that falls in love with him and a curse it put on him but it will lead to benefit later in life. He also acquires weapons from the gods and this makes the Pandavas very happy.

Mahabharat,Slavitt, David R., and Henry L, Part B

(The five brothers and their wife)

Pandavas

Reading Notes: Week 6 part A

This story already starts off a little different because of how the women ins this story is killing babies by drowning them in a river. There is a lot of different people marrying others and switching throughout this first part of the story. A lot of the couples are summoned because one person does not want to sleep with someone so they tell someone below them in the hierarchy chain to sleep with that person. This continues all the way till a more important character comes into play named Pandu. Pandu is born looking very pale and is not allowed to have children because of a curse put on him. He has two wives though. Pandu is hunting one day and kills a deer as it is having sex but he is curse again that he too will have to die while having sex the same way. Panda ends up having 5 sons by the help of a God, Yama, but ends up dying while having sex later on. His wife Kunti has to take their 5 sons with her to Pandu brother house so that they will have a place to live. The 5 boys also known as Pandavas are loved by the new people and Pandu brother kids start to resent them for it. They want to have the Pandavas exiled from their land. Eventually they build a trap for the Pandavas in this house of joy built for them. It is made of very flammable material so it will catch on fire when they are in it. They narrowly escape but everyone else thinks they are dead. Through a contest in the woods one of the Pandavas is able to win and makes Draupadi the wife of Arjuna but Kanti always says that the 5 brothers must share everything they win. This means Draupadi is now the wife to 5 husbands. This was not the first time this has happened to Draupadi however as once in a different lifetime she was married to a sage that would make love to her through 5 different men. Once her husband left her she prayed to shiva that she would have those 5 men again.

(Pandavas and their wife)

brothers and wife

Mahabharat,Slavitt, David R., and Henry L, Part A

Reading Notes: Week 5

I decided to read another comic book for the part two reading and this one was Rama and his sons. This opens with Rama exiling Sita even though she was pregnant with their child. Valmiki helps raise the children that Sita gives birth too. She gives birth to twin brothers and they are raised in the image of their father and his accomplishments but do not know that Rama is their father. While Rama is the king of his country he is preparing for a sacred horse ritual that will sacrifice the fallen horse but not after his sons capture the horse. Rama sends a man to save the sacred horse but he is killed by the sons as well. Soon after Lakshama is sent to retrieve the horse but he is challenged to a duel and

Story Week 5

We open this story with the freshest face in all of golf. He is the new comer of the year for the state of Texas and his name is Garett Reband. He has soured to the top of the golf junior rankings while only having a mother to support him. His father had left his mother before he was born and went on his own journey of life. Garett never knew who is father was and did not know if he ever would. He used all of his pent up anger to play great golf and demolish all of his opponents on the golf course. He was still very young but he had his sights set on beating the number one player in the world and would not let anyone stop him. The best player in the world at this time was Quade Cummins from a small town in Oklahoma and while his journey to the top was a lonely one he was still the best. Little did people know that this new upcoming player was the son of the famous Quade Cummins. Quade was the man that left his girlfriend to pursue his golf career and did not want any distractions because he knew he could be the best. As the season continued Garett continued to progress in the rankings on to the top but knew beating the best player in the world would be no small feat. All this time Garett's mom and at one time Quade's girlfriend knew that these two would meet up one day and she was dreading their encounter. She had never told Garett that Quade was his dad but knew she would have to. She sat Garett down one day and explained to him where he came from and where he got his ability as a golfer. This really upset him and he wanted to quit the sport that had given him so much because of who his dad was but his mother instructed him otherwise. He continued his way until the day came where he would play Quade for the best player in the world. Quade at this time still did not know that Garett was his son and Garett waited until the first tee to tell him who he was. Garett introduced himself as Quade's son and Quade could not believe it. His head started racing as he never knew that this was his son and it completely killed his game for the day. Quade played awful and Garett breezed to victory to become the best player in the world and overcome his dad that left him so long ago.

(Quade walking off the final hole)
quade walking off











 Rama exiles Sita even though she was pregnant with their child. Valmiki helps raise the children that Sita gives birth too. She gives birth to twin brothers and they are raised in the image of their father and his accomplishments but do not know that Rama is their father. Rama later comes to find out that these two boys are his sons and he can't believe it.

Reading Notes: Week 5

I decided to choose the comic books for my reading and my first one was Rama retold from the Ramayana and it mainly focused on the Rama side of the story to the Ramayana. It talked through how Rama became who he was and it started out in his younger years. He was born with his brother and they continue to talk about the same story that we read last week. Rama and Lackshmana being training and fighting opponents that become no match for them. They are defeating many opponents and that starts to create some bad guys that don't like the pair. As they are making enemies of others that list keeps growing by talk amongst the people. This is where Ravana comes with the golden deer to sucker Sita into the trap by making Rama leave her side. Hanuman is guarding Sita but his tail is caught on fire making Lanka catch on fire. This forces the whole town to go into turmoil and making it possible for Sita to be saved after she was kidnapped by Ravana. Ravana refuses a peace offering sent by Rama and this leads to Rama coming in with full force to save his wife. Rama is finally able to kill Ravana by shooting him in his naval and thus killing him completely. Rama is finally made king after all and he has won his battles.

(Sita and Rama)

Sita and Rama


Comic Book Ramayana

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Week 4 story

The Final Putt

We start back with our golf team and have another special day of qualifying. One of the young freshman has to play against the powerful senior for the last spot going to the national championship. This is the biggest tournament of the year and everyone wants to be on the traveling team. To make the last spot the senior and freshman will play 18 holes for the coveted last spot. The freshman is defiantly behind the 8 ball because the senior defiantly has the advantage and experience to win the final spot. However, the freshman has a secret weapon that he will have to use at the right time to take down the senior. As the two start their round they are neck and neck through the first nine holes. The coach wants it to be a close race all the way till the end so he can see who will perform best under the pressure to make the team but he doesn't know that the freshman has a secret weapon. Only the freshman has this secret weapon and it is a special putter given to him by his swing coach from back at home. He was told that this putter would make any putt from anywhere but it would only work for one putt so he needed to use it wisely. As the round is coming down the stretch the freshman is hanging in with the powerful senior and waiting for his time to use the powerful putter. They come to the last hole and they are all square. The senior thinks he will win for sure because it is is favorite hole on the course. Both players hit their drives in the fairway and then both on the green about 20 feet away. The freshman is just slightly closer than the senior so the senior putts for his birdie first and just barely misses. The senior thinks the freshman will miss his putt for sure and they will have to go to a playoff. The freshman knows it is his time to pull out the putter and make this final putt. He putts the putter out of the bag and everyone is confused. Why would he use a different putter on the most important putt of the day when he had been putting so good already. The freshman however knows what he is doing as he lines up the last putt. He hits the putt right at the hole and it of course goes right in the middle to beat the senior and win the final spot on the team.

(the final putt)

Final putt

This story is similar to how Rama used his special weapons to defeat Ravana and gain his wife, Sita, back. He would of never been able to defeat Ravana without the help of his special weapons and he used them at the perfect time so that he was for sured to win. 

Reading Notes: Part D

Ravana continues to use his special powers to one up Rama and hide Sita from him. This obviously still does not stop the pursuit of Sita by Rama. Garuda comes into the story and plays a big role for Rama being the healer. This could be huge of their group because he can help Rama's wounded soldiers gain their health again. Ravana continues to play mind games with Rama and make him feel like Sita has already been killed but Rama gets a tip from Vibhishana to find the right attacking point to find Ravana at his weakest. Ravana only wants to avenge his son's death in battle and will not stop till he finds Lakshmana. Rama and Ravana square off in the final fight but it has been plans the entire time that Ravana was gong to die at the hands of Rama. This would be a good story to write about as it was always in the destiny that Ravana was going to die and Rama got the help of the gods to do it. Rama finally becomes king after his fourteen years of exile. Sita is ended up in exile and it is weird ending to the story because she was why everyone worked so hard to gain in the first place. Rama realizes his time has come and he ends up going back heaven to be with his brother.

(Statue of Ravana)

Ravana

Kamban / R. K. Narayan, Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic Guide D

Reading Notes: part C

I completed the reading and published a blog post with my notes


Part three opens up with some new characters and the traveling of existing characters. Rama gets a leader of his fan club with the new leader Sugriva but has to wait for the right season to go after his wife Sita. Finally they start on their quest to find Sita but it obviously is not going to be easy. Sita is finally found but it will not be easy to regain her from Ravana as he is trying to pursuade Sita to drop Rama. Hanuman has to find a time to talk to Sita but Sita is weary to talk because she does not know if Hanuman is just Ravana in a different form. Hanuman used the things Rama gave to show Sita that Rama was looking for her. Hanuman gets caught by Ravana and his people leading to ways they would get rid of Hanuman. Hanuman finally gets away from Ravana and goes back to Rama to tell of the news and to get a group to return to save Sita from Ravana. This is tough for Ravana because he knows war is coming if he does not give Sita back and this leads to turmoil in his close knit group. His brother ends up leaving him to ally with Rama and now there will be war over the wife of Rama, Sita.

(Picture of Hanuman)Hanuman

Kamban / R. K. Narayan, Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic Guide C

Topic Research

I want to continue to incorporate the stories from my team into my writing and I think  either the battles or the children's stories will be the easiest way to incorporate my stories to the ones I am reading. It makes it fun to write about something that is close to you and easy to relate to. Writing is fun when your heart is in it and I think that writing about my team will make it possible for me. There are many different children's stories that I can relate my team to. Wisdom is a war, this is one story I am sure will be able to relate to our team. We are constantly learning from our head coach and I know I have gained so much wisdom from him after just two years of being on the ream.Greedy mother in law , greed is often a story that is heard way too often in our sport. We often get way too greedy whenever we are playing golf with each other. If we are playing for something then no one wants to lose and if they do then they often don't live up to their side of the bet. Greed has started plenty of fights on our team and this could easily translate to the battles in the epics as well. True Friends is another great way to wrap up the comics that relate to my team. We defiantly have our fights and go through tough times but we always end up loving each other. We always know that we are each others true friends and would do  anything for each other if they needed it. That is really what I love about our team as a brother hood.

(Friends)

friends

Feedback Stratagies

Looking at the different strategies one of my favorite things I read was when it was talking about being a mirror in the article, How to craft constructive feedback. To be a mirror it takes asking two major questions, "What stood out for you? and Was there anything you wanted more of?". I liked this part of the graph because I think asking yourself these questions make it easy to see how you really feel about the thing you are reading. It is sometimes hard to find a way to help someone with criticism but these questions can defiantly give you a jump start. Another bit of good advice that I will use talked about not being vague, confusing, or general. It shows that if you are going to give constructive criticism then make it constructive and not something that you are writing just to write. This was in the article, how to give specific feedback, and it was full of good advice. It advised to make sure your comments about their writing are fixable. Sometimes people comment without knowing a backstory or aren't grasping the full message and this is saying that if you are commenting on their writing to make it better then make sure that changing their words are possible and not just you writing blindly.

(reminding to be a mirror)

mirror picture

Week 3 Story

The first day of practice for the golf team came and there were some new clubs up for grabs. These clubs were the nicest ever made and everyone on the team wanted them. The coach knew that everyone wanted these clubs because they were minted in gold and had a special look about them but he knew that whoever got them would be their demise rather than a treasure. Coach knew that if you got these golf clubs you would begin to think you were too good for practice and would end up ruining your game along the way. The winner of the qualifying would end up receiving the clubs and all the guys on the team were  willing to do anything to win the set of golden golf clubs. A few of the guys practiced really hard day and night to make sure they were ready when the qualifying came around. Some of the guys thought of ways they could cheat the game and make their score better without them having to practice as much. The days of qualifying came around and everyone was ready to compete for the golden golf clubs over the four days of competition. After the first three days everyone was right around even with each other and it was going to come down to the last day to see who the eventual winner is. The final round was completed and a young sophomore played the round of his life to end up winning the set of clubs over the two seniors who were really close. He was so excited about the clubs and so proud of his great accomplishment but the coach knew what was going to happen. The clubs were so nice that the young sophomore didn't want to hit them and stopped practicing all together. This eventually caught up to him and he started to play very bad. He was not playing like the man that came to the first qualifier at the beginning of the year. He wondered why his game had left him and not once did he ever think it was the clubs fault but the coach pulled him into his office one day.

"Why do you think you have been playing so bad lately" said the coach.

"well I think it is because I haven't been playing as much" remarked the sophomore

"After you got your new clubs your game has basically left you and you still don't know why??" said his coach

"well I just don't want to hurt my new clubs so I have tried to not hit them as much" said the sophomore

It was then that he realized what the clubs has done to him and he decided to switch back to his old clubs and get to practicing again.

(the Golden Golf Clubs)

Golden Clubs

This story for me is very similar to the Golden deer that Sita wanted so badly. Rama went to kill the golden deer for his wife Sita but it was all set up as a trap by Ravana and Rama never knew it. Sometimes things aren't as they seem and even though they might look like the best thing it doesn't mean they are the best thing for you. 

Kamban / R. K. Narayan, Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic  Guide B

Reading Notes: Part B

I can't imagine coming home to see your family and finding out that your father has died and then you have to perform a funeral to burry him before you get to see your brother that has been in exile. This would be quite the welcome home gift. The demons really do not like Rama and have tried to make it as tough as possible on him this whole time. A lot of the battle that Rama is in often brings the ones around him in trouble. Sita is often under stress that her husband is going to die and she will be without one. Maricha comes back to get back at Rama and I guess you can see how things from your past will always find a way to come back to the surface later in life. Whenever the golden deer is in play it brings me to think a little of Adam and eve and how she wanted something and the man ended up taking the fall in this. Sita fear of losing her husband was her demise whenever she thought he was crying out in pain. Sita knew that she was nothing without Rama and would rather die than live a life without him. Even though Sita was locked up by Ravana she was still able to show her love for Rama through the monkeys she left gifts to give to Rama. For how much Sita loves Rama, Rama loves Sita just as much and will not stop until he wins her back. Rama is profited by many people and he is known to be coming to the different towns by the people.

(the golden deer)

Golden deer

Kamban / R. K. Narayan, Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic  Guide B

Reading Notes: Part A

Rama was forced to be a leader of the group on their great journey and he began to gain a following after he killed Thataka. He didn't want to kill her because she was a female but knew if he didn't that he was going to die. It seems a little crazy to me that someone would give away their daughter if they could just bend a mighty bow. I guess it was just a different and more simpler time then and that is also just the way the culture was. You could guess that Rama was easily going to bend the bow and this story seemed a lot like King Arthur how it was just meant to be that he was going to be the one that was able to do the impossible task. Rama obviously had the magic tough because he did this to multiple bows in this story. Rama got what he was wanted and he was able to marry Sita because of his great act of bending the bow. Jealously and revenge was also always around and you can see a lot of it in this story because of how people would plan to get after Rama. Rama goes from a golden chair to getting exiled. He also has to leave his wife which would be harder than anything else. It starts to make sense where karma comes from now in chapter 19. The karma is that Dasharatha was going to lose his son because of his past. It shows that bad actions will lead to bad consequences in the future. Dasharatha was grieving so hard that it actually killed him because he couldn't see the son, Rama, again. He loved his sons and didn't want to have to face the guilt he had put on himself throughout his life.

Kamban / R. K. Narayan, Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic  Guide A

(Rama and the broken bow)

Rama picture

Feedback thoughts

I have always been a big supporter of constructive criticism. I think it is the only way to make yourself better in tough times. I also play a sport where you need help from others constantly because it is such a hard sport to be good at by yourself, you need the instruction of others to be great. I think you always need the help of others to be great at anything because sometimes you just can't tell how your own attitude is being perceived. In the first article I read, 6 bad mental habits, it talked about how excuses are very detrimental to your own success and if you want to be great then you have to take ownership for your own mistakes. The other point I liked a lot was it said to never put yourself down. I have defiantly done this before and I guess I never realized the impact it would make in my performance. In Using harsh feedback to fuel your career it says that you need to find someone that is you go to guy and someone you trust very much. I have been blessed in my life to have a couple of different people that I consider my accountability people, people I know will tell me how it is and tell me if I am being out of line. Whenever you have someone you can trust, it makes it easier to take their feedback with an open mind.

(someone who obviously doesn't want to receive some feedback)

criticism

Topic Brainstorm

A few of the topics that I would be interested in writing about this year would be.

1. The first one would be about the Epic Battles. I would focus mainly on the specific battle scenes in the different stories and how it relates back to time now. I think that would be very interesting thing to research and be easy to write about because I would be so inspired by the project topic. The main way I would retell the stories is I could relate them back to my team and how we feud and fight with each other from time to time. I just think there will be a lot of similarities in arguments between these fights and my own.

2. Children's stories are something I think would be interesting to write about. I liked the fables we read last week and think I could do some stories on that. It was easy for me to relate those stories to my own life and I liked that side of it. I would also like to read more of them because I do think that they have some good life values to our own lives. I am also not a super strong reader so short stories are easier to read but can really unlock your creativity and imagination and I like that side of it.

3. Women of the epics would be another topic that sounds very interesting to me. I do not have any previous knowledge about this but I would love to learn more about them. I know in this culture women play a different role in our own so it would be interesting to learn about the different women that  have made  impacts in this culture. I Know to make a difference some women would have to either be some very important people or just do some very important things and that would be very interesting to write about.

4. Finally, writing about the gods and divas would be the last topic that seems really interesting to write about in this class. I think because we have so many different cultures that we really don't know a lot about others religions and learning where the people think they came from is a cool subject. I also believe that the people of this time had a lot of different gods so their would be a lot of material to learn about.

(meme about indian epics)

meme