Week 11 Reading Diary B

Dhritarashtra was a blind king, and he sends the Pandavas away from the city. They end up taking residence with a family, and this family has to give a yearly human sacrifice to Baka. Kunti (who is with the Pandavas) sends out Bhima to fight the demon coming to collect Baka’s yearly sacrifice. Bhima wins.

Krishna tells Arjuna that he remembers their memories together, but Arjuna doesn’t remember anything that Krishna says.

The Pandavas are given Khandava to rule (given by Dhritarashtra).

My favorite part of this section: Agni tries “eating” the Khandava forest, but Indra protects it with rain. The Pandavas end up helping Agni destroy the forest.

Week 11 Reading Diary

Sauti: the sage

Janamejaya: the king

Ganesha: son of Shiva and Parvati (Shiva tore off his head and replaced it with an Elephant head).

Amrita: the nectar of immorality.

The ocean was milk before salt – the serpent churned it.

What emerged: Lakshmi, Rambha, Airavata, Dhanwantari with amrita, and also poison. Shiva took the poison which turned his neck blue.A king falls in love with Ganga. King Shantanu and Ganga are in love.

King Chedi has a sort of wet dream (lol) when he dreams about his wife. The king charges a hawk to carry his semen to his wife, but the dang hawk drops the king’s semen in the water. A fish swallows it, and later on in the book, a fisherman captures that fish and finds a baby inside. The baby was a girl and the fisherman decided to be her father. He named her Satyavati. Later on in the book Parashara falls in love with Satyavati and they have a child Vyasa. Later on, Parashara takes away Satyavati’s fish smell and made her smell like flowers in lieu of fishiness. The king fell in love with her because of the way she smelled.

Bhishma obtains three wives for Vichitravirya: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. 

The Pandavas are born. Drona is the son of the sage Bharadwaja. Bharadwaja came in a bucket or a "drona" - which is how his son, Drona, was born and received his name.

Week 9 Storytelling: The Casino

James had a type-A personality. He was fierce, competitive, and hated losing more than anything in the world. He loved watches, cars, and anything that made him look more impressive to his friends than he actually was. It was Christmastime, and as James was driving home in his brand new BMW x5, he decided to stop by and spend a little bit of his Christmas bonus at the Riverwind Casino in Norman, Oklahoma.

He used to have a little gambling problem, but he was over that now. “I have more self control than ever,” he kept telling himself.

He entered into the casino and ordered a beer. He used to have a little drinking problem, but he was over that now. “I have more self control than ever,” he kept telling himself.

He tossed down ten one hundred dollar bills on the roulette table, and the man held each one up to the light. He gathered a thousand dollars worth of chips and slid them in front of James.

It was getting a little late, and he might be late for dinner with his family, “I’ll just play a couple of games,” he told himself.

He placed his chips, and increased his chip count. He won, and won, and won. After only an hour he had already obtained close to ten thousand dollars! However, he went on, late into the night, and finally he was invited upstairs with the owner of the casino.

They began to play blackjack.

James won at first, but then came the end of his hot streak.

He lost. Then, he lost again. Then, he lost another time, and another, and another. Finally, his ten thousand dollars worth of chips were gone. He placed his watch on the table.

“Double of nothing?” he asked.

He lost his watch.

Then, he placed his shoes, Then. he placed his blazer on the table. Then, he placed his car keys.

He lost everything.

He began to sweat. James was embarrassed, and he felt as though he had been stripped of his manhood.

He called his wife, who was asleep. It was 2:00 a.m. by now. She picked him up, brought him home, and they went to sleep without a word.

Author’s Note: I chose to retell the story of Yudhishthira’s game of dice in a more modern sense. I hoped to convey the danger of such a risky game. Also, I stopped at Riverwind yesterday on my way home from Dallas and lost 20 dollars playing roulette, so I thought it was fitting.

Image Information: 

Roulette Table

Source: Gallery Hip

Narayan, R. K. The Mahabharata. New Delhi: Vision, 1987. Print.

Week 9: Reading Diary B

Duryhodhana finds out that Pandavas is still alive. Bhishma encourages Dhritarashtra to make peace, but Karna calls Bhishman and Vidura traitors to the state for their advice.

The Pandavas are the 5 sons of Pandu and his two wives Kunti and Madri. They were all married to the same woman, although they each had other wives also.

Dhritarashtra gives the Pandavas a part of his kingdom and the pandavas end up creating an incredible kingdom / city called Indraprastha (p. 41).

Yudhishthira = the son of Kunti and Yama. He becomes king of Indraprastha.

Shakuni urges Duryodhana to leave the Pandavas alone but he can’t.

Fast forward to page 55 – Shakuni goes to play dice in place of Duryodhana. Yudhishthira loses EVERYTHING. He lost his brothers and himself and Draupadi.

The stake on the second game of dice is thirteen years in exile. It is divided up into twelve years in poverty and one year in disguise. Yudhishthira loses, and the Pandavas enter into exile. 

Week 9: Reading Diary A

Notes:

Shantanu = the king from Hastinapura. Falls in love with a woman at the river (we end up finding out that she is the river Ganga incarnated.

Varsus = Ganga’s eight children.

Devavratha becomes Bhishma. Bhishma = Ganga’s eighth son, or the son of Shantanu the king.

Shantanu AGAIN falls in love with Satyavati.

Satyavati = a fisherman’s daughter.

Chitrangada and Vichitravirya = the sons of Shantanu and Satyavati.

Vichitravirya ends up not having any children.

Bhishma says he cannot break his vow of celibacy, so Satyavati proposes another solution: the widows can sleep with her son Vyasa.

Ambika doesn’t like Vyasa, so their son Dhritarashtra is born blind.

Dhritarashtra marries Gandhari.

Durvasa = a sage