Review Week 7: Passive/Active Voice

Passive-Aggressive Voice (Laura Gibbs)

This was my favorite weekly announcement for a couple reasons. First that writing my stories in passive voice seems to be my biggest problem. In addition, I found this post humorous for the Passive-Aggressive voice. Thanks for reading.

Growth Mindset Week 7: Geniuses work hard too

Genius work hard (cheezburger)

This meme was really inspiring to me for one reason. That being that not everything comes easy to people that are good at something. In other words even geniuses have to work hard to continue to stay a genius. Hard work is a must to become good at almost anything. Thanks for reading.

Learning Challenge Week 7: Time Management

Courtesy of Laura Gibbs

This was a post that really caught my eye. The time to start breaking a bad habit or start something new in your life doesn't have to wait. You can start anytime you want and that time can be now. Many people always wait for New year's to make resolutions, but that's not necessary. Anytime is a good time to start. Thanks for reading.

Storytelling Week 7: Arjuna and the Five Wives

Author's note: This story was inspired by Draupadi's Swamayarma in the Epified version of the Mahabharata. I have turned the tables though and made it to where Arjuna is picking five wives to be his queens. Similiarly, Arjuna comes under a curse however it is very different than what happened to Draupadi. He is cursed for wanting five wives and is prevented from getting what he wishes. There are some added details in my story but for the most part it is just a complete inverse of the events that happened in the Mahabharata. Thanks for reading. 

The time had come come for Arjuna to pick his wife, but one wife would not be suffice. Arjuna being the compartmentalist he was, he wanted a wife for each of his specific wants. The first wife that he would pick would first have to satisfy his food requests. Only a wife with the best cooking skills would be suffice for Arjuna. His second wife would need to satisfy his love needs and be able to give birth to sons fit for the taking of his throne. Not just any wife would do for making children, but one who showed great traits of courage, bravery, and intelligence. Traits of which Arjuna wanted his sons to bear. His third wife would need to be able to tend to all of his requests and be a messenger for him and his needs. Arjuna's fourth wife would have to possess qualities of athleticism as she would be his fitness and training partner. And Arjuna's fifth wife would have to possess shrink like abilities. In which, he would use to meditate and connect with himself and other spirits. Lastly, his request was

that all of his five wives must be sisters.

Arjuna trying to hold one of the Draupadis (Wikimedia)

Many people thought that his request was a very tall order and it was indeed. For three years Arjuna searched for the perfect wive set until he finally found the Draupadis sisters. All of which were to his very demanding criteria.

As the day came to be wed with the five sisters, an omen appeared to Arjuna. The love goddess Sofi spoke to Arjuna and was disgusted for his greed and lust for more than one women. Sofi cursed Arjuna with being unable to speak for the rest of his life. Arjuna thought little of the handicap as he would have no trouble still accomplishing his wants and needs. As Arjuna stepped up to the alter with the five women the priest before him asked if he would take the hand of all of the five women for marriage. Arjuna tried to say "I do", but all he could do was blink. Great confusion came over the women and the priest as they were shocked at the mute response of Arjuna. Again the priest asked and Arjuna did not respond. Finally the priest gave up on the wedding ceremony and deemed the sisters free to go back to their kingdom. Arjuna then lived the rest of his life alone and unable to produce words.

Reading Diary Week 7: Epified Mahabharata

For this week I am revisiting the Mahabharata in a new way. I have chosen the Epified Mahabharata because I was a fan of Sita sings the blues and I was hoping to enjoy this video as much as the other. I do wish that is was just one long video instead of little episodes. I did prefer the ending in this story over the Ramayana and watching this epified series helped me to see the ending clearly. Here are the notes/highlights I wanted to note from the episodes:

·       For the most part the general storyline is the same and the characters I recognized from the public domain edition of the Mahabharata have the same personalities and traits.

·       I was a fan of the story of winning Draupadi as queen at her Swamayarma because it helped visualize the story from me. I wrote a story similar to this last week and it was neat being able to see animations of the story they told in the episode.

·       Arjuna was as I imagined him in reading the PDE version of the Mahabharata. His bow is as mighty as I thought as well.

·       Karna finds out that he is supposed to be a soldier instead of a farmer, I don’t remember this realization in the PDE version.

·       There is no surprise when I see that there is still trouble between Draupadi and all five of the Pandavas’ marriage with her. We see that again Arjuna is exiled for 12 years and in his exile he visits a few different kingdoms and goes on what seems to me as random journeys. Upon which he marries another woman from another kingdom.

·       The ending in the episode seems to be clearer to me than when I read the PDE version. I now understand how the Pandavas exited the Earth and returned to Vishnu.

Krishna in Chariot (blogsuk)