Famous Last Words: sick cold week

Last week was probably the weirdest week. On Sunday I bought some tortillas and got really sick the next day. Then on Tuesday, class was let out early and then no school after that. One thing that I really appreciated was sledding in my car. I ended up spending my snow day getting caught up on my reading for this class as well as my fate and the individual class. I finished Moby Dick and that was probably one of the coolest books I've read in a long while. I also finished the Mahabharata and I think that there is definitely going to be a lot of future stories coming from Arjuna and his stories. Lastlly, I did not get my hours of MCAT in this week and that is totally my fault. One thing that I will do better this week than I did last week is I will do my assignments a head of time and stick with the schedule that I have planned. 

Despite all this, the week was quite relaxing and all the tests I had last week, were moved to this week. I have a genetics test on Friday and a paper due for Fate. This is my first paper and I will write about Faust. I hope to finish everything by the time Thursday comes a long so I could spend the majority of my time doing my Genetics prep. Lots of cool things in store this week.

There is definitely a lot this week but I feel rested so it's all good. I also got to figure out how to do my portfolio and added a few lines of poetry so that is also really cool!

But the highlight of the day is watching the closing olympic ceremony with my family and that is the best ever.

guy falling imgur

Learning Challenge: Desk Workouts

I found the article about the yoga desk workouts really fascinating. After sitting upright at a desk for less than an hour I always feel like I have to get up or change positions so that I don't feel so strained. I'm always doing random shoulder roles throughout the day for like 5 seconds. Reading that article was really great because I might try the shoulder role excercise for 2 minutes and the neck stretch for atleast 1 minute before resuming my work. I think this might be a game CHANGER!

neck stretch excercise  yoga 

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part B

The second half of this week's reading was my favorite. It follows the story of Yuhidistra, the eldest brother of the Pandavas getting into a series of gambling entourages in which he loses everything. The first time, the stakes he bet were so high that he literally lost himself, until the good King Dhritarashtra gave everything back to them because of Panchali's virtue.
The theme of virtue and vice play a strong role in these scenes. Panchali would not give up her piety and Yudihistra engaged in a sin - gambling. Through both characters, the most extreme of the carrying of both vice and virtue were portrayed.
In the end, the Pandavas were exiled into the woods for 12 years with the 13th year to be spent incognito. There is something about exile that plays an important role both in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Furthermore, I appreciate how Panchali and Sita both depict scenes of losing hope faith. There is probably something there about women in these epics.


image of the Pandavas in exile form harekrsna

Bibliography:

The Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part A

I found the reading for the Mahabharata to be a little bit more difficult than that of the Ramayana! With so many character names, I found myself flipping to the front of the page of my edition to maintain who was who. One thing I do really appreciate about Narayan's writing is how he is able to turn such epic poetry into a modern day prose, so that it is a little bit easier to follow.

One thing that really stood out to me was the story about how the Pandava brothers all got so powerful. The description of how strong the brothers were reminds me of how strong Rama became after training to Vishwamartha. There seems to be a strong parallel between this type of training and weapons that I see more in these Indian Epics than I do see with Western ones.

One thing I wish Narayan added a little bit more of is some more description into how all these characters felt at the time when this was hapenning. For example, we get a glimpse into how it must have felt for the family to crawl into the cave so that they could escape being burned alive, but we get no description of literally how any of them felt. Narayan's writing king of reminds me of Defoe's writing of Robinson Crusoe in that it all seemed to be facts and very little of how the characters felt.

image of the Pandava's escape from vyasaonline

Bibliography:

R.K. Narayan - The Mahabharata

Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe

Week 5 storytelling: Moby Dick - what it's all about

Call me Patrick. Some years ago, while I was was mingling at the Spouter Inn, I heard stories of great whaling adventures. I heard stories of great men who caught great whales and of great men who had lost great sons in such journeys. But particularly in this case, I heard one that struck me to the core and now I live to tell this story.

The date and time was April 20th, 1851, at 16:20. I arrived at the Spouter Inn thirsty for adventure. After retiring from my acting career, I decided to go into the whaling industry. Nothing at the time spoke of anything more American and masculine than some good ol' whale catching. Up to this point I read amazing books by one Herman Melville, such as Typee and my mind was filled with this romance of seatological stories of honor in whale catching. I wonder what ever happened to that guy. He seemed to have just fallen off of the face of the earth after the release of his last novel.

Anyways, upon entering the inn I saw a terrific painting of a devil sperm whale being stabbed through the masses of a giant ship. A foreboding image indeed is what that image was. Fast forwarding a few days, I was boarding my first adventure aboard the Pequod, a whaling ship which belonged to a certain Captain Ahab. Up until this point i have only heard rumors of the great accounts of Ahab and his undying attitude to hunt. There was no greater honor than whaling on the brinks of certain death and doom.

The story I share is one that brings lightning down my spine. After setting sale in the Pequod, Captain Ahab finally made his debut. Opening the door of his cabin, Ahab steps out looking like a devil or a fallen angel:

"Here is what its all about!" said Ahab as he revealed his fake leg.

Under Ahab there stood two legs - 1 fake and 1 real.

"A certain DICK of a WHALE bit off my leg! And I am here to get it back! In this journey it does not matter where or when we find Moby Dick, but we are all in this together! I don't care if it takes me one year or fourteen years but I will get him!"

The crew cheered but some started bawling.

"WHY ARE WE ON BOARD FOR THIS MAN'S VENGEANCE!" said one crew member

"I never expected our captain to be such a nut! God help us!" said Starbuck, another crew member

Being a person of sense, Starbuck went to persuade the senile Ahab,

"What good is it to pursue such whale? Would it not be better for you to go home man and take care of your family! Can no reason persuade you anymore?"

Ahab looked at the member with glaring eyes.

"Oh please come home Ahab! We all will surely die for your personal vendetta against a dumb brute!"

"Dumb brute?! That brute is the epitome of what I HATE! I will hunt, kill, and scout all the whales in the world for the rest of my life if it means I can kill that whale! Leave this ship! Your senses need you more than does my senselessness!" harked Ahab

With that Starbuck grabbed his things and proceeded to get off the ship, when all of a sudden the white fiend, Moby Dick, burst out from beneath and knocked Ahab off of the boat with such force that his fake peg leg fell off fell right next to me. With Ahab nowhere to be found, I decided to take command of the Pequod.

"WITH THESE FAKE LEGS I WILL LEAD YOU SHIP MATIES!"

"AYE AYE PATRICK AYE AYE PATRICK!"

Vowing to never return home without until Ahab is found or Moby Dick is killed, Patrick assumed the senile persona of Ahab and continued his vendetta.


image of spouter inn painting by Aaron Zlatkin
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Author's Notes:

In my class Fate and the Individual, we are read Moby Dick this week.

The scene is inspired from Bharata's conversation with Rama about who is more fit to rule the Kingdom. After Rama made it clear that he will not come back to rule until he is done with his 14 year hiatus, Bharata said he will only rule for 14 years and while ruling, he will use Rama's sandals as a symbol for when Rama will be back to rule.

In order to emulate the scene, I took an iconic exchange in Melville's Moby Dick between one of the Nantucketeers, Starbuck, and the Pequod's captain, Ahab. The conversation between the two characters maintained the same exchange of sentiments of Starbuck trying to persuade Ahab to drop his vengeance for the whale just as Bharata wanted Rama to drop his self-imposed exile. Both Ahab and Rama depicted similar level of this 'search for meaning' and I wanted to portray that in my story.

What I changed however, is of course, I replaced the narrator of Moby Dick, Ishmael, with...Patrick. And I changed the scene up entirely, allowing Moby Dick to show up and knock Ahab off of the ship so that Patrick could use Ahab's peg leg to lead the crew just as Bharata used Rama's sandals to rule the kingdom.

Bibliography:

The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan
Moby Dick by Herman Melville