Epics of India

Note: For week 11 of my biography, I chose to write about a math competition I competed in when I was in 4th grade. My last writing was told in the first person, so I chose to tell this one in the third person, using the same character name I’ve been using in my other stories. Unlike my last story, this was a cool moment I had in my childhood, and it was fun to relive. The Underdog As a child, Percy was fairly advanced at math. He generally worked at least a grade level ahead of the rest of his class, and was event sent to a different school on certain days to learn with others like him. One day, his teacher approached him and asked him if he wanted to compete in a math competition. He wasn’t aware that math competitions were a thing, but it sounded like fun. What the teacher hadn’t told him was that every other student at the competition was a 5th grader, while he was only a fourth grader. He figured this out soon after arriving, but he thought it would be fun nonetheless to tr...

For my week 11 tech tip, I chose to download and install the text to speech package. This is something I’ve heard about but have never used before, although for the reading of epics of this class or for readings in many of my other classes, this is something that will be extremely useful in the future. Especially with online classes the rest of the semester, the ability to use this to multitask while doing things around the house or even other assignments will be very beneficial.

For my week 11 Microfictions, I chose to write one story at 25 words or less and one story at 6 words or less. 25 words or less: A golden deer appeared. Although a ploy, Rama hunted. Upon finally catching the deer, Rama realized his mistake, and heard a scream. 6 words or less: Lie of death. Misery. Back-stabbed. Image of Rama Hunting the Golden Deer Author’s Note: For my 25 word or less story, I chose to write about Rama’s hunting of the golden deer. For my 6 word or less story, I chose to write about the trick used in the Mahabharata to kill the evil king by lying and saying his son had died. Both of these stories seemed fairly simple to convey in a short amount of space, so I thought it would be fun to try out.

For part B of my week 11 reading, I chose to cover the second half of the YouTube videos on Krishna. Similar to part A of this week’s readings, I enjoyed the use of illustration to convey the messages of Krishna’s story. It makes the story much easier to follow and helps keep track of who is who. Secondly, I loved the drama involved in Krishna’s story. With assasination attempts, the overthrow of rulers, war, and ascensions, this story is definitely one to keep you on your toes, and doesn’t progress slowly like some of the other stories we have read. Lastly, I liked learning about the different incarnations of Krishna. The idea of incarnation is something I’ve been aware of but haven’t really learned much about, so it was been cool to hear that aspect of religion from these stories. Image of Krishna

For part A of my week 11 reading, I chose to cover the first half of the Krishna Tales Video . The first thing I liked about these videos was the use of illustration to help convey messages. It makes the stories easier to follow, which is also something I noticed in the videos we watched earlier about the Ramayana. It was once again somewhat overwhelming to learn about the additional gods involved in our epics, especially since Krishna is considered a minor god and also the supreme god at the same time. The different names they are given is fascinating, and I would enjoy seeing some sort of graphic on where in India these different names and traditions come from. It was refreshing to hear about a god we had previously read about, with Krishna being mentioned in the Mahabharata, so it at least wasn’t too overwhelming in the sense of additional characters. Image of Krishna