Peter's India Blog

Throughout this semester, I've read so many Indian epics, including so many stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The characters in those traditional Indian epics were fascinating. Nevertheless, I've found myself liking Jataka Tales even more although I really like Ramayana and Mahabharata stories. So I decided to read more Jataka tales. I like the fact that Jataka tales always have some sort of life lesson or wisdom in the story. Hawk is one of my favorite animals. I like hawks because they have fierce, focused eyes, aiming at preys. So I wondered how hawks are portrayed in Jataka tales. Although I thoroughly enjoyed all the more Jataka stories, and other stories were all interesting and fun to read, this particular story of "the hawks and their friends" really caught my attention.  The story begins with describing ecosystem of the animals. Their habitats, including that of the hawks, were mentioned to explain how different animals lived in different places, a...

I've searched through and read several articles in Writers Write website. One article that really caught my attention was " Harnessing The Power Of Time In Your Storytelling ". This article caught my attention because I couldn't agree more on how time consuming the storytelling process really could be. I'm also struggling to manage and set aside time to write stories. So I thought reading this article could really help me. And it did! I even like the very beginning of this article. Obviously, the author of this article was highly poetic and creative person, so he described in a uniquely poetic way: "the sky was low and turning to a dirty purple twilight." I really like how the author described how he felt about flying time: " I was conscious of time—not as anything artificial and clear as the white digits on the face of an iPhone, but as something moving us all along, me along. Something moving within me, inside of me, even as it moved outsid...

Throughout this semester, I've read so many Indian epics, including so many stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The characters in those traditional Indian epics were fascinating. Nevertheless, I've found myself liking Jataka Tales even more although I really like Ramayana and Mahabharata stories. The biggest reason why I like Jataka tales so much is that each one of Jataka stories teaches readers some kind of life lesson or general wisdom. So I've decided to read more Jataka tales this week. One of my favorite animals has always been monkey. Usually they are the symbol of cleverness and high intelligence like humans. But in the story of the stupid monkeys, it was different and that's why this story really caught my attention. It has a really interesting beginning. The king's gardener wanted to enjoy the king's holiday and delegate his work to monkeys. I like how the gardener honestly admitted his intention without much cunning or tactic: "To-day my f...

I did read another version of Buddha story some weeks in the past, but I really wanted to discover more about this fascinating Indian epic character. I have grown up in a Buddhist household, but I didn't learn much about the details and who Buddha truly was although I was attending the temple. So I decided to read another version of Life of Buddha story, narrated by Herold. Although the characters were essentially same, but how the stories were told was completely different. The particular plot in the story that I didn't read in the previous version was the Asita's prediction part. It's interesting how both Buddhism and Hinduism, which both originated in India, have the same goal: to overcome the cycle of re-birth. And Buddha in the story was the one who would eventually overcome such unfortunate cycle. Wow this is such a powerful prediction by Asita:"This has happened to you, O noble, generous and hospitable king, because you love duty and because you are...

Among the several stories in the third part of Mahabharata reading, I found the stories of Pandavas and Draupadi and Arjuna most fascinating. When Yudhishthira lamented about his unfortunate fate, it also made me somehow depressed: "Our kingdom is lost to us," he said, "and our fortune; everything is lost; we depart in sorrow, and must live on fruits and roots and the produce of the chase. In the woods are many perils — many reptiles and hungry wild animals seeking their prey." It's such a pessimistic outlook on life in that I thought it would only discourage his brahmins. Although the Pandavas suffered greatly from living in poor conditions of the forest, I thought they also had some good things too: "They wandered in sunshine and in shade; they dwelt in pleasant places, amidst abundant fruits and surrounded by flowers." Arjuna was a great archer: "Stringing his bow, he shot an arrow and hit the boar." Although he was threatened by t...

Once upon a time, two men named Mr. Wong and Mr. Taylor lived. Mr. Taylor lived in the United States and was a very wealthy man. In fact, Mr. Taylor was a successful entrepreneur and the richest man in the world, and he was benevolent and interested in helping other people who were in need. Mr. Wong, on the other hand, was a poor farmer in rural China and desperately needed help because his crops weren't yielding much due to lack of quality seeds and fertilizers. Mr. Wong's government couldn't help him much either because it was very poor just like Mr. Wong.  One day, a staff in Mr. Taylor's philanthropic foundation told Mr. Taylor about Mr. Wong's poor situation and his government's inability to help him to be lifted out of abject poverty.  When Mr. Taylor, a very benevolent and philanthropic man, heard about Mr. Wong's situation, he decided to help Mr. Wong with all he had. Mr. Taylor was a sincere and humanistic man who was truly intereste...

I like the several stories in the Jakata tales, but the story of golden goose was the most interesting story among them because it raised a sudden philosophical thinking inside my head. I particularly like the very beginning of the story with the goose telling himself to help the poor woman: "If I give them one after another of my golden feathers, the mother can sell them, and with the money they bring she and her daughters can then live in comfort." I thought this goose was a generous and benevolent animal since he wanted to help the poor people in need. When I read this somewhat ungrateful line of dialogue between the poor mother and two daughters, I honestly thought they didn't deserve the goose's 'philanthropy' and perhaps they deserved to be poor: "Let us not trust this Goose. Some day he may fly away and never come back. Then we should be poor again. Let us get all of his feathers the very next time he comes." I thought this kind of mentalit...