Epics of India

How to Praise Your Child I work with kids a lot through my church and it's so easy to slip into the "easy" praise, that is, rewarding the child for the end result, rather than the process. For example, one child brings me her drawing of a dog. There may be no way that I could have told you it was a dog, but I say, "Wow! That's a great drawing!" This will result in her putting in less and less effort as she realizes that anything she does will result in a positive result - praise from the teacher. I like how the article focuses on helping the child reflect on themselves, their effort, and their ability, rather than external praise from whoever. This gives them a self-motivation that will result in a better product, no matter what they are doing. As Calvin famously put it... ( Calvin and Hobbes, Jan. 27, 1994 ) 7 Questions to Ask After Feedback We're good at criticizing others, but what if we are criticized ourselves? I appreciate good feedback,...

Hanuman: Apparently, Hanuman is one of the most memorable characters from the Ramayana, and from the Week 2 Reading Overview, I can definitely see why. He carried a mountain! Because he couldn't find an herb for it! As I said in my Week 2 Reading Notes post, I'm excited to find out more about this guy. More about Hanuman here . Or on Wikipedia . Sita: Sita is a major character in the Ramayana, but from what I've read of her, she seems naive and a bit bratty, but fiercely loyal. At this point, however, I've only read the story about the golden deer. Maybe as the story progresses, she matures? I know she kind of redeems herself with the walking on fire ordeal but what other shenanigans will she get into? More about Sita here . Or on Wikipedia . Yoga: "Yoga Fire! Yoga Flame!" Since I was a child, I was fascinated by the video game Street Fighter's portrayal of this stretchy, teleporting yogi. Maybe I envisioned that, if I practiced yoga for long en...

Ashamed at having his dignity stripped, the crocodile crawled back to his swamp. His mate, expecting a fine meal that night, was vastly disappointed. How she had longed for the heart of that monkey! In a fit of anger, she left him, for how could he, if he could not catch a mere monkey, provide for their soon to be child? And so she left, seeking a more capable mate. The crocodile wept bitterly. He began a dark spiral of introspection in which he evaluated himself and found himself to be lacking. Full of self-doubt and not wanting to face humiliation again, he refrained from going out to hunt any prey at all. After a few months, he was unrecognizable - a shell of his former self. His deep green scales, once a testament to his mighty hunting prowess, were now a sickly pall covering the coffin of his flesh. His ears, once covered my many layers of skin, now protruded out at oblong angles and the taut skin around his face sagged. The other animals, seeing the state of the crocodile, gr...

The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart from Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock. The Crocodile in the River, from Vanarinda Jataka, in The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers. Both of these stories are similar; they involve a crocodile being outwitted by a monkey, who is one of the incarnations of the Buddha in a past life. It seems like the crocodile is always portrayed as...exceedingly unintelligent, to put it lightly. He believes the monkey speaks to a rock regularly, and that his heart is hidden up in a tree because it would fall out with all his swinging. I think I've tried something similar on one of my 5-year old cousins. And even he didn't fall for it. However, it's not entirely the crocodile's fault. The spurring on of his wife reminds me of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. Because of her persuasion, the crocodile does something he didn't wish to do, just as Adam partook of the wrong fruit because of persuasion ...

  There's a band I really like called Goose House. Here's one of their covers of a song by Mongol800. The original has a funky, rocky kind of feel to it (which I really like) but I like Goose House's version almost as much, if not more. Their harmonies, combined with the gentle acoustic...It has that "long summer days" feeling that has a certain kind of nostalgia to it. Like I'm a kid again without a care in the world, playing while mom makes lunch in another room. Ah, to go back to those days. Anyways, hope you enjoy this cover!

The real focus of the class begins here, on Week 2. I chose to read the PDE Ramayana. I feel the older style fits better for such a story and the various authors' tones makes it seem as if it were being told around a campfire or something. A classic retelling from the styles of different authors, it's almost as I were going around from town to town in India and hearing the same story from different tellers. Plus, it's free.  Going in as a complete beginner to Indian literature and stories, in order to get some kind of background, some comic books and videos were provided for our perusal. Here are a couple of each I found interesting and my thoughts on them. Comic Books: Ancestors of Rama: A Noble Inheritance Rama is a central figure in the Ramayana, but I know nothing about him, so I thought it would be good to get an idea of where he came from. Thus, I stumbled upon this comic book, which goes back to Rama's great-great-grandfather (four generations!) a...