Brainstorming Styles for Karma

Topic: Karma

Karma will be the main feature of my storybook. Two options for stories that I have are Sumantra’s Story from Buck William’s Ramayana and the Vasu gods and Ganga from Buck William’s Mahabharata. Maybe I could do another story on karma and rebirth, but I am not sure if that will be too general or repetitive after I have written about the two stories above. I do plan to take a first-person perspective (from Karma’s point of view). I also wouldn't mind going for a frame tale, but I may find that too challenging and lean back on creating an anthology. 

Karma; paying it forward. Source: Wikipedia

Possible Styles:

1.       Karma’s Diary Style

I imagine myself really being able to create a personality for Karma and make her/him and actual character. Perhaps this will help the audience connect to him/her because they might be able to relate to some of the feelings that she displays in her diary as she writes about her dreams or experiences (the Indian epics).

2.       Interview Style

If I chose to do an interview, than I would probably go for a speed-dating scene as I could see myself being able to add some humor into the storybook. The immediate detail I think of is Ganga drowning her children and Karma somehow telling this to her speed-date and him running as quick as possible. I like the option of bringing another voice into the equation to avoid things being monotonous.

3.       Therapy Style

Using a therapy setting could also work well for Karma. Karma, as a person might have a curse due to her past activities (oh, the irony) and as a result she is forced to enact karma upon other people in which she struggles with and seeks out therapy for. This could be really fun.

4.       Motivational Speaker Style

Karma could be giving a speech to persuade people to only do good so that she can give them good in the future. She might use fright tactics on some of the stories to prove how terrible life can be when you do bad things. Maybe she could be giving a ted talk on what is ‘bad’ and what is ‘good.’

5.       Letter-writing Style

This is a neat idea because each story can be addressed as a separate letter to the character that was most affected by Karma. Maybe she can explain why they received her wrath or gift. I could also do the opposite and have the letters written by the characters to Karma. That would definitely help to add different voices, but then maybe it would be considered third person (which is fine).

Bibliography

Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata

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

Indian Epic Storybooks: Karma. Website: Blog

Karma. Website: Wikipedia

Vasu. Website: Wikipedia

Storytelling Week 3: 'Don't Wake Me Up'

‘Don’t Wake Me Up’

Chapter 1

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, this morning music became monotonous to my ears.

“Ravana, go wake your brother up. Or else he will be late for work...AGAIN!” mother screamed.

Waking up Kumbakarna seemed like it was starting to become my morning chore. Why can’t he just get up when his alarm goes off? He always blames it on his sleep cycle. Apparently, throughout the entire morning hours he is always in the “deep-sleep” part of the REM cycle. Ugh. Why can’t I sleep like that?

“Kumbakarna…..Kumbakarna...GET UP,” I said, as I violently shook my brother (I gave up being gentle a long time ago).

“Do I need to go fetch the water bucket again?”

Seriously, if a stranger had to do this they would think he was dead.

I shouted, “Kumbakarna!” as I doused his face with water.

“RAVANA! WHAT THE HELL, MAN,” a surprised Kumbakarna bellowed.

“You’re welcome. Consider your morning wake-up shower a gift. I just saved you ten minutes of getting ready. We all know you need the extra time,” I explained myself as I walked out of his room.

Chapter 2

It’s not my fault. Ravana doesn’t believe me that I really do sleep very, very deeply. He is just jealous because he has difficulty sleeping. Or maybe I have some sort of sleep disorder. Oh well. He is just trying to help me. I’ll be sure to thank him at some point.

Mmmmmm. This oatmeal is so good. It’s probably my favorite thing to eat as the finale to my breakfast.

My mom peered into the fridge. “Kumbakarna, did you use all of the eggs again? There were ten left in the carton! And you finished the bacon! Good Lord, you are eating me out of house and home!”

“I’ll go to the store after work,” I responded.

I’m just always so hungry. Especially after I wake up from a long, deep sleep…which is every night. My stomach is practically throbbing when I wake up. It hurts so bad that it makes me angry. I wonder if that’s what cramps feel like for a girl. At least it’s not hurting me anymore. I must say I do make a mean breakfast; sure did taste good this morning. Now, what should I pack for lunch?

Chapter 3

It never ceases to astonish me that Kumbakarna makes it to work on time. And how does he have time to make and eat those ginormous breakfasts?

Ravana. Focus.

First period is always a struggle. I guess I’ve been awake long enough and the timing is just right for my mind to wonder. I’m just going to rest my head...just don’t doze off.....come on...just.....stay....awake..

“Sir, the monkey army is too large for us to win this battle!      

They are overpowering us.”

“Go and wake my brother. He is our last hope!

“Sir, we prefer to avoid waking your giant brother.”

“I know that this is a challenge, but we need his anger

combined with his hunger to defeat the monkeys. When

he wakes, he will experience a feeling called ‘hangry’ and

we can suggest that he devours the monkeys! Now, go!”

SLAP. I shot straight up in my desk while the breeze from the ruler hitting the desk grazed my face.

“RAVANA! Do not sleep in my class. I hope to never have to tell you that again. Drink coffee if you need to. This is unacceptable,” my professor sternly stated.

“I’m sorry, Professor.”

Wow....what a weird dream.

Kumbakarna in battle. Source: Comicvine

Author’s Note

In Narayan’s Ramayana, Rama and his army (made up of mostly monkeys), are attempting to defeat Ravana. Ravana realizes that he is at the disadvantage, so he asks a servant to wake Kumbakarna, Ravana’s brother. Kumbakarna is incredibly difficult to wake up and when he finally wakes, he is very hungry. Kumbakarna agrees to aide Ravana in the fight and helps by devouring the monkeys. Rama ends up killing Kumbakarna.

I wanted to take a more modern-day approach to this story and add a couple perspectives and dialogue in hopes that these techniques helped to add creativity to my story. In Narayan's version of The Ramayana, the story of waking up Kumbakarna is fairly brief, so I decided to expand on this portion of the story. Also, this part caught my eye because some mornings I can relate to how hard it is for Kumbakarna to get up. Other big differences include Kumbakarna and Ravana’s characteristics (they aren't portrayed as evil in my story). Also, I portray the battle scene as Ravana’s dream in my piece and the battle is is not as detailed as it is in Narayan’s Ramayana.

I selected an image of Kumbakarna in his beginning stages of waking up. A lot of the images I found portray him as a giant, which isn't necessarily how I remember Narayan’s Ramayana describing him. I really wanted to use this other image that showed Kumbakarna eating monkeys (I thought it fit my story the best), but when I clicked on the ‘Visit Page’ to find the image, it was not on that site. 

Bibliography 

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Week 3 Reading Diary B: A giant, war, and eagles

From Narayan's The Ramayana


Thoughts and Favorite episode:

• (Pg. 133) I don't understand why Rama is so quick to be angry with the sea god. Especially since Rama is displayed as always trying to do the right thing.
• (pg.136) I like the part about Kumbakarna being woke from his sleep. I feel like that is probably me in the mornings. Especially the part about being hungry.

Attempts to wake Kumbakarna up Source: Wikimedia

• The battle scene is long, but mostly exciting. On page 141 we are introduced to Panchajanya (a battle conch) and another name for Rama (Mahavishnu was Rama's original form before he was incarnated).
• (Pg 142) Rama and Ravana are in an air battle. This made me think of WWII and all of the war scenes fought in the air that we see in movies. 
• Garuda is a really neat character. I love eagles and Garuda seems particularly majestic; (pg 135) when the eagle gets rid of the poisonous darts and we see Garuda again on pg 142, and boom pg 145
• (Pg. 148-149) This part sort of made me angry..I don't understand why the females seem to always be portrayed as possibly unfaithful or not pure anymore. 

Favorite Quotes:

• Pg. 136: "A small army had to be engaged. They sounded trumpets and drums at his ears and were ready with enormous quantities of food and drink for him, for when Kumbakarna awoke from sleep, his hunger was phenomenal and he made a meal of whomever he could grab at his bedside."