Jesika's Blog

For this week, I decided to do a story lab and watched a Ted talk video about stories and storytelling. It was called "The Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I really enjoyed this Ted talk because it opened up my perception on how a single story doesn't represent a place entirely. She mentioned her personal experience dealing with this when she came to America for college, and that her roommate was shocked to know how well she spoke English since she was from Africa. She talked about how her roommate only had these assumptions of Africa because of the negative and one side things she's read or seen on different media platforms here in the U.S. At the end of the talk, I really liked what she said, "When we reject a single story and realize there's never a single story about a single place, we regain a kind of paradise." In addition, she talked about you could change this by writing the story from the other side's perspective. For i...

Shibi and the Hawk Shibi was a king, who was know for his unselfishness and love for God's creatures. At a park, this pigeon fell into his arms. The bird was tired from trying to get away from a hawk. Shibi managed to revive the poor bird, but then the hawk told him to hand over the pigeon to him. He told the hawk no that he couldn't do that to the pigeon. The hawk explain how he had the right to do so because the pigeon was its prey, otherwise he would starve.  Realizing the hawk was kind of right, Shibi offered himself as food for him if the hawk let the pigeon go free. Hawk agreed and Shibi prevent both the birds from suffering. I found the ending quite odd and couldn't believe he offered himself without hesitating.  I think I would want to change the ending where Shibi doesn't get hurt and instead finds another source of food for the hawk. The hawk that was trying to eat the pigeon. (Source: Pixabay ) Bibliography: Indian Fables and Folklore - Part...

Yudhishtir's Dog Yudhishtir was the eldest Pandu brother of the 5 of them.  Him and his brothers won a battle against the Kuru family with the help of Krishna, who is the equivalent of the Indian Hercules. However,  Yudhishtir refused the throne, and his brother and his wife set out a journey to Mount Sumeru (Indian version of Olympus). He had his faithful dog accompany them. Unfortunately, he and the dog were the only ones to make to Mount Sumeru. King of the Gods, Indra, wouldn't let Yudhishtir enter to heaven with his dog. Yudhishtir refused to come in if his dog wasn't allowed to come with him. Yama, the God of Death and Justice, agreed to let Yudhishtir come to heaven with his dog because how faithful and true their relationship was to one another.  I liked this story because it was just a simple story of how a dog stayed loyal to his owner. I could change this story and make it more modern.  Yudhishtir and his dog trying to get into heaven. (Sou...