Week 11 Story: A Start of Something Different

A nearby river was infamously known to be teeming with alligators of all sizes and ferocity. No one went near the dangerous river. Next to the river was a huge beautiful tree that held countless of monkeys. Despite the imminent danger that always lied below them, the monkeys stayed in that tree because of the spiritual fruit that it bore. For generations, the fruit sustained families of monkeys. The number one rule for the monkeys was to never lose their grip from the tree or else they would fall into the water. Alligators were always hiding right below the tree just in case any of the monkeys did make the mistake.

One day, an unlucky zebra came to the river to drink. The beautiful tree caught the zebra’s eye for a second and in that moment, an alligator bit the zebra’s neck pulling him under the water. Alligators tore the zebra apart causing a fiasco in the water. Some of the monkeys huddled together witnessing the chaos. A monkey named Suzu, who couldn’t watch, noticed a loner alligator. A piece of fruit fell from the tree which floated for a couple seconds until the alligator swam to it and ate it. 

“I thought alligators didn’t like fruit?” asked Suzu. The alligator looked left and right, then up. He was surprised to see that a monkey was talking to him. In a quiet but deep voice, the alligator said “most don’t, but for some reason I’ve always liked them.” 

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” asked the alligator. Suzu explained that she isn’t and that she’s always been a fearless monkey. “You guys usually do a good job of making sure none of the fruit falls into the river. It makes eating a little difficult” said the alligator. “Are you not carnivorous? asked Suzu. “Surprisingly no, I don’t like meat” said the alligator. 

“I never got your name” stated Suzu. “It’s Legosi” said the alligator. 

After that day, the two would talk every day. Suzu gave fruit to Legosi whenever he was hungry. The other monkeys and alligators noticed the forbidden friendship. 

Author’s Note 

Elements of this story came from multiple inspirations primarily the Jataka Tales. The first inspiration came from The Monkey Bridge. A tree that held hundreds of monkeys created incomparable fruit. The chief monkey told his children to never let a fruit drop into the river or else people will come looking for the tree. A fruit ends up in the river and reaching a nearby kingdom. A king ate the fruit and pursued to find the tree. 

My biggest inspiration came from an anime called Beastars. In the Beastars reality, there a divide between carnivores and herbivore animals. The story takes place at a high school where carnivorous and herbivorous animals live and interact together. A gray wolf named Legosi, meets a white dwarf rabbit named Haru, and ends up falling in love with her. Legosi is fully aware of the situation since he  is a wolf. 

I wanted to a similar story from Beastars while including elements from the Jataka Tales. I wanted a situation like the wolf and rabbit so I decided to do one with an alligator and monkey. There were many tales between the two. The friendship between Legosi and Suzu are very much in its early stages. I couldn’t write about their love just because it would’ve been a long story. A strong bond between takes time to develop. Beastars had twelve episodes so I didn’t want to rush my story. 

Bibliography
Noor Inayat, Twenty Jataka Tales, Source

       

Legosi

Source: Fandom

Haru 

Source: Fandom

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part B

The Two Pigs
This story had an unexpected turn that was kind of confusing. One of the pigs said this poem causing everything in the world to listen? I wasn’t sure how his riddle was able to do all of that. I thought what was going to happen was that the two pigs found out they were going to be eaten and then run away. Also, the pigs didn’t say anything about it but the drunken grandma ended up betraying Cullatundila. If I was that pig, I would’ve tried to get back at the grandma. With these Jataka tales, I never know what’s going to happen. The story has to have a twist in rather than the expected. I really thought the pigs were going to escape through their window or door and runaway to the forest. Instead, they end up being treated as royalty. What an ending..



The Patient Buffalo
I have to say this one was my favorite story because of the lesson that’s taught. I loved how the buffalo stated that the monkey did not have a brain so why should he punish him for it. It’s like saying why should I waste my energy on someone else who won’t understand. It’s an important lesson to learn. I know for me I tend to waste a lot of my time on trying to convince the other person and in the end, it’s pointless. Thank you buffalo.



Bibliography
Noor Inayat, Twenty Jataka Tales, Source

Water Buffalo

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

The Monkey Bridge
What surprised me was that the king went with his men to search for the tree. Usually kings stay in their kingdoms rather than doing the work. I felt sad reading the part where the chief monkey sacrificed himself to save his children. I just can’t believe that none of them stayed back to make sure he was okay especially the last monkey who broke his back. I also thought that the king was going to kill the chief monkey. However, it was surprising to me when the king actually had a conversation with the chief monkey. The fact that the king even made a temple in honor of the chief made me warm inside. WhatI liked about this story was that a lesson was taught by example. The chief indirectly showed how to be a king and the king saw that. In the end, the king actually ruled his people by loving them instead of being a tyrant like many other past kings. After reading so many tales with sad endings, it was nice to read a happy ending like this one.

Guilty Dogs
When the royal family found out their royal satchel thing got ruined, I instantly knew the king was going to order those dogs to be killed. This is what I was referring to in the Monkey Bridge. I really thought I was going to read about the slaughter of those street dogs and then read about how guilty those royal dogs felt after. But I’m glad that the chief dog came up and saved all the innocent dogs. Unfortunately, we don’t know what happened to the royal dogs; I wish they included that.

Bibliography
Noor Inayat, Twenty Jataka Tales, Source

Royal Dog Breeds: Akita

Source: Bustle

Story Lab: Ted Talks

For my Storylab, I watched the Ted Talks given by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jennifer Barnes. In The Danger of a Single Story, Adichie begins her talk by describing the role of foreign books in her childhood. She explained that the stories she wrote contained cultural aspects that did not belong to her culture. She was influenced by the stories of the white man that she felt like people like her couldn’t exist since they weren’t represented. In some ways, I can sympathize because many of the books I read were written by white people. As a child, I don’t remember reading a children’s book that was about Asian kid. The only thing I knew that was about Asian people was Mulan. Growing up with books that only portray American culture made me more familiarized their aspects. I spent a lot of my time at a daycare that belonged to a white family. When it comes to cuisine, I grew up eating American food - mashed potatoes, hot dogs, and pork and beans. When my mom cooked Filipino or Puerto Rican food, initially I didn’t like it. I remember wondering why my mom never cooked mashed potatoes (it was one of my favorites).

Another point in Adichie’s talk was having a single story for a person or group of people. Having a single story about someone just means having assumptions and preconception about the person before getting to know them. What causes us to have a single story are external factors that influence us. If a cultural group is portrayed in such a way, people are going to end up viewing them in that way.

Chimamanda Adichie Single Story

Source: Serendipity

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part 2

The Wise and Foolish Merchant
This story reminds me of the Monkey and the Crocodile story with the clever monkey as the wise thrifter. A detail that I noticed was that the story said “young” and “foolish” when describing the merchant. The story is trying to show that young people tend to be less wise and more naive while older people tend to be wiser. Being the wise merchant, I expected him to be more helpful with the other merchant. In the end, I felt bad for the young merchant for falling for the demon’s trick.

The Elephant Girly-face
What I enjoy about these tales is that there’s a lesson to be learned. This story shows that the people you surrounded yourself with influences you in the end. If you hang with bad people, you will end up adopting bad traits. If you hang with good people, you do good things. I enjoyed the simple-minded elephant but I would have liked it more if she thought for herself instead of following what those robbers said.

Bibliography
Ellen C. Babbitt, Jataka Tales, Tales

Elephant Airbnb

Source: NY Times

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part 1

The Crocodile and Monkey
I actually remember reading this tale earlier in the semester. I always enjoyed this story because of the clever monkey. My favorite part is where the monkey tricked the crocodile into talking.

The Merchant of Seri
I haven’t read this story yet. After reading it, the story exhibits the greed that some people have within them while juxtaposing that trait with selflessness. After time and time again, poor people are taken advantage of by others who have wealth. However, I’ve always believed that exploiting people especially the poor comes back as bad karma. I’m glad that the second merchant wasn’t greedy and gave the grandmother and girl something in exchange for the bowl.

Bibliography
Ellen C. Babbit, Jataka Tales, Site

The Merchant of Seri

Source: Sacred

Week 9 Story: The Three 5’ 2” Daughters of Pandavana

Pandavana gave birth to three daughters at the same time
At the time of delivery, the ones In the room with her was a midwife, a doctor, and her grandmother.
The only family she truly had was her grandmother, who raised her since she was a child.

The grandmother and Pandavana lived on the edge of town, primarily depending on the forest for their resources. When the two came back from the hospital, they had three new additions to the household: Bellatrix, Celina, and Maricela. 

The girls grew up without their father because he was too much of a horn dog. He ended up getting killed for sleeping with another man’s wife. Regardless of his absence, the girls never thought of him; they didn’t know any better.

From early on, Pandavana noticed the the three girls had a strong sense of wrong and right. Pandavana wanted to teach her girls everything and to protect them from making mistakes like she did growing up.

Being a skilled fighter herself, Pandavana taught her daughters the art of combat; she wanted to ensure that her daughters could defend for themselves if she wasn’t around. All the while, Pandavana also taught her girls to be head strong and compassionate towards themselves and others.

Pandavana was a strict instructor towards her daughters. Even though the training was rigorous, the girls quickly adapted and persevered. Initially, the girl’s desire to learn how to fight was fueled by their fear of rakshasas. At night, the grandmother would tell spooky stories about the rakshasas that lived in the nearby forest. Ever since, Bell Celia and Mari all wanted to be able to protect themselves.

The three girls grew up to be amazing and tough fighters. When the girls were children, they would do sneak attacks on their grandmother while she was “unaware.” Neither Bell, Celia, nor Mari knew that their grandmother was a master in fighting. Bell quietly jumped down from a nearby tree and aimed her leg at the grandmother. “I got her now!” thought Bell. When Bell thought she had her, the grandmother grabbed Bell’s foot and threw her to the ground. The grandma laughed out loud and asked “was that supposed to be a sneak attack? I could hear you guys from a mile away! Try again!”


While the three daughters were indeed beautiful, their most noticeable feature was their height. Compared to the town’s people, the Pandavana’s daughters were surprisingly short.

One day, the girls took a trip to the market to find a certain elixir. On their walk, a couple of annoying guys ran into the girls and tried to hit on them. Despite receiving rejection from all three, the men were persistent and soon they became aggressive. The men lunged at the girls thinking that they could over power them. However to the men’s surprise, the girls beat them all to a pulp which made them run away like a bunch cowards. One guy’s pride was completely tarnished that he swore to get his revenge.

Skip forward to when the girls finally became adults. Their mother, Pandavana grew very ill. No type of elixir or medicine could cure her. By the first week, she couldn’t stomach any type of food. By the second week, the mother lost a considerable amount of weight. By the third week, Pandavana couldn’t get out of bed or talk much. Watching their strong mother deteriorate, pierced the heart of the three daughters. Pandavana raised them all on her own as well as taught them everything they knew. None of the girls could stand watching such a strong and independent woman suffer.


Bibliography


Richard Wilson, The Five Tall Sons of Pandu, Reading

Author’s Note
My story is based off of the rendition of the Mahabharata, The Five Tall Sons of Pandu which explains the come up of the five sons of Pandu. The Pandava’s were a royal family so the sons were taught in the art of war and were extremely knowledgeable.

In my version of the story, I did a gender and height bender. Call me cheesy but I think it’s a good idea. After reading several Indian epics, I’ve noticed that its the sons who learn how to fight. To be honest, having the daughters learn how to fight came from my own desires. I’ve always wanted to learn how to fight because I thought it was something practical and impressive. A specific trait that I wanted to portray in my characters was strength and power. The theme for my portfolio is courage, wisdom, and power. For Pandavana, I wanted to show the strength that a mother has and always has to have. For the three girls, I wanted to show their power through their fighting and their strength through the downfall of their mother.

Lastly, I inserted a picture of an anime character named Michiko Malandro because she’s one of the most strongest anime women I know. Despite being irresponsible and obnoxious sometimes, Michiko can always defend herself and fight others off. While her story isn’t like Pandavana’s daughters, they all have power and strength within themselves.

Michiko Malandro 

Source: Michiko e Hatchin