MLLL 4993

(Photo of Rama hunting the 'golden deer' for Sita, also pictured. I found this photo on Google by searching 'Ramayana golden deer' and funny enough, this image led me to our class page. Photo can be sourced  here ). Here are my notes from from the Ramayana PDE Version Part B! Bharata , the son of Dasharatha and Kakeyi, returns home to find his half-brother (Rama) exiled and his father's death. Bharata finds out his mother is behind this and she informs him the thrown is now his, which upsets him. He wants to find Rama so that Rama can be the ruler. Bharata is also very upset about his father's death.  He plans to look for his brother in the jungle.  Bharata goes to the jungle to find his brother Rama, and does find him. Rama does not want to return because of his exile, even though Jabali  explains these orders were made by a now dead man. Rama decides to continue his exile. Bharata then takes Rama's sandals back to the city as symbol fr...

Picture of Rama (left) and Sita (right). Image can be sourced to  here For this assignment I read Part A of the PDE version of the Ramayana. Here are my notes! * bold are characters * underline potentially useful concepts The story begins telling the background of King Dasharatha , the 'King of the Solar Dynasty'. He essentially had a lively and expensive life expected of a king but no son. He ended up performing a horse sacrifice, known as  Ashwamedha to the divine  Vishnu. Vishnu told the king he would give him four sons but one of his sons would be born in Vishnu's avatar form.  The Thatanka story is used to show how Rama actualizes his divine power.  Rama falls in love with Sita , who is the avatar for Lakshmi and daughter of King Janaka.    Lakshmi and Vishnu have an eternal love so the love between Rama and Sita is fate. It is described as an immediate connection when the two met. Rama passed a test of bending S...

( My skills bring success,  I enjoyed this image because of the focus on positive self-worth :).  This image was obtained in the class page but can be sourced  here ) I chose the two articles of ' Why rejection hurts so much- and what to do about it ' and Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt . I think students need to internalize this topic for a happier, healthier academic (and life) experiences and personally wish I read up on this topic earlier. It is important to remind students that mistakes are part of the learning process and rather than dwell, to use it as a means to improve.  Negative thoughts can lead to individuals being more hard on themselves, being more anxious, and even self-sabotaging. Even in the opposite direction, one might focus more on tasks out of anxiety/fear which causes them to waste large amounts of time that can be spent doing other more productive/enjoyable things. I ended up choosing 'Why rejection hurts so much- and what to do ab...

(Picture of a samosa, a common snack in Indian cuisine. This picture is meant to highlight the 'Food' topic in this post. The photo was obtained through Wikipedia and can be sourced  here ) Reincarnation : I chose this as one of the topics because I've always been fascinated with this concept and it is a bedrock of Hinduism and Indian culture. I have a pretty firm understanding of reincarnation and how it ties with other concepts such as moksha/nirvana, dharma, karma, etc. I feel with this concept there are a lot of directions that can be taken even though it is a seemingly simple topic. My main idea behind this topic is to try to retell the story of a character from a different life form. While it might sound simple, if chosen, I hope to integrate more concepts (such as those listed earlier) to be more creative and challenging.  Sita is a reincarnation, which I am listing as a source  here . The source is not necessary the example I am building my story of, but ...

(photo of Crazy Legs Crane Cartoon, can be sourced  here ) The most current version of this story can be obtained on my Portfolio page which can be seen  here . Once upon a time existed a zoological aquatic habitat consisting of fish, lobsters, jellyfish, sea turtles, and more that varied in colors, shapes, and sizes. While happy for being well-fed and well taken care of, many of these creatures still yearned to see beyond the the realms of their zoo captivity. It so happened that a month prior, the aquatic habitat was moved to the other side of the facility to make room for new primate installation. It should also be noted that animals were used to eating prepared meals so they did not eat each other. Such a concept was considered cannibalism and absurd. The new placement helped the aquatic creatures to have more interaction with 'freed' animals.  One day, a crane somehow found its way to the edge of the pool. The crane asked, "My, my, what a set up. But ...

AUTHOR: W. H. D. Rouse TITLE: The Cunning Crane and the Crab LINK: https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/crane-and-crab Visualization of the Crane and Crab. (Picture obtained from  here ) As a child, I loved Aesop fables because they were centered around animals and taught a lesson; there is something alluring about humanizing creatures that cannot talk and leave us assuming their thoughts. While as a kid those end-story lessons might have helped develop a moral compass, these lessons now serve as a reminder to be a good person. It was one story versus a two-in-one story (like two different tales being compared). Reading the story of The Cunning Crane and the Crab  was nice nostalgia for these reasons which is why I chose it from the other Jakarta tales.  The tale itself is between three main animal groups: the crane , the fish , and the crab . The title only mentions the crab, but the fish played a major impact in the story. The fish were the crane's mai...

I have chosen the PDE Ramayana. This semester I have a schedule where I have to work on my school assignments in different environments and only at certain times. A physical copy of a book is not that hard to carry but there is more likelihood I might forget it. With the PDE version being online, this is personally much more accessible to me for the sake of this course.  I am interested in the Narayan version, but possibly at another time. Comics: The two comics I chose were  Subhadra: Beloved Sister of Krishna and Balarama  and  The Lord of Lanka: The Rise and Fall of a Demon King . Whilst all the comic stories are loaded with various types of drama, I felt these were easy to follow. Not only was I better able to understand what was going on, but why characters' actions were significant within the story, an important aspect. I believe with time I could better interpret the other comics because of more familiarity with the background of these tales. Some reason...

(picture obtained through a Pinterest search for #growthmindset, photo by Sylvia Duckworth and  image can be retrieved here ) I had not previously heard about the Carol Dweck growth mindset paradigm, but learned about it through her Ted Talk, "The Power of Believing That You Can Improve", and another video "How to Help Every Child Fulfill Their Potential".  The whole point of an academic education is providing the tools for individuals to apply later on to be self-sustaining in a field they desire. A lot of the way education is structured loses sight of that larger purpose because it focuses on short-term goals (i.e. grades). Grades are used because it is a concrete way to view progress and knowledge. However, grades can be detrimental because they might not accurately reflect what they aim to measure (i.e. improvements throughout a course) and deter hopeful students. It is not simply the grades, but how the system is structured (grades are necessary for almo...

I'm a psychology/pre-pharmacy major. A lot of people think of therapists when they think of psych majors, but it is a very broad field with plenty of subfields (primarily based in research and statistics) of cognitive, industrial/organizational, forensic, neuro-, developmental, clinical, and social psychology (among others)! Some short-term goals are to graduate this May and attend pharmacy school. The best class I took last semester was my Spanish class because it was one of the last general education credits I needed where I can not really pick the course topic. The class was interesting and informative, but finally finishing it alleviated some stress.  I have recently been reading Michelle Obama's recent book 'Becoming'. It is quite popular right now it seems and I received it as a Christmas gift. So far I love it!  I've always been fascinated with her journey and hearing it from her words is lovely. I have a lot of favorite food, but my favorite food would ...

Badass Biblical Women I enjoy reading about the experiences and perspectives of women because as a woman, it can be empowering. I thought this particular piece would be interesting because a lot of biblical literature focuses on men and even when women are mentioned, it does not really give insight to their position. Further reading showed the author was very intentional with her piece. Three women (Judith, Bathsheba, and Ruth) are chosen with quite different backgrounds to highlight the diversity of women in the bible, as the author emphasizes. These female chronicles are not meant to argue how these women demonstrated feminism or point out the misogyny in the biblical context. Rather, it is to give insight to what their lives are like which we do not usually read or hear about, which in itself is breaking barriers. What I appreciated most is the author's note after the story. These notes contextualize a story which can be almost overwhelming to read at first. Not only are thes...

 (Photo of the Delicate Arch as found at Arches National Park,  photo by FindMyMojo ) In March 2017, I was lucky enough to visit Arches National Park. While I do have some experiencing camping and hiking, I have not really been to any national park. Arches National Park was my favorite place during this trip for a multitude of reasons. We stayed here for about three days, so naturally I felt more familiar with this park than the others. More than that, it was the self-reflective and trying experiences that enchanted me. A place will really stick to you when you wake up on the verge of shivers at 6 am only to change clothes and hike 3 miles to view rock formations, to the heat picking up in a time span scientifically questionable, to receiving the worst farmer tan-lines to date, to ultimately watching the sunset whilst voraciously nibbling on a sandwich made solely of peanut butter. The description might paint this granola lifestyle as painful, which at times it very much...

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