Story Planning: The Final Two

I came up with ideas for my last two stories in my storybook while doing my readings this week. My first idea involves inserting John into the story of Ganesh. Obviously, there are countless renditions of who Ganesh is exactly and how he came to be.  According to the story that I read this week, he is the son of Shiva and is considered the remover of obstacles.  In the story, Ganesh loses his head due to a curse placed on a man, who destroyed anything that he gazed upon.  As a result, Ganesh’s head was chopped off and he died.  Obviously.  However, Shiva told his messengers to go forth and bring back the head of the first living creature they came across, which was an elephant.  I thought it would be great to somehow get John in on this.  I think it would be fun to have Shiva send him out with the other messengers in search of a head to place on Ganesh’s shoulders, and John decides that an elephant head will do fine.  They like elephants in India, right? (John’s logic, not mine, I promise).  Somewhere along here, I’m going to find a logical place for Charlotte to show up, probably towards the end.

Okay, and my second idea for the very last story in my storybook is use the story of Parvati/Kali, the wife of Shiva.  My idea is for her and John to have their awesome reunion, but then have Parvati go and do battle with Raktabija.  I’ve still got time to figure this particular story out, but I want to somehow have Kali go do battle with Raktabija and then use Charlotte in the battle as well while John and Shiva sit on the sidelines and watch, talking about how scary their wives are.  It’ll take some more research and planning, but since it’s my last story, I’ve got plenty of time for that later. 

Bibliography: Tales of Ancient India by Edmund Cox (1887), Hathi Trust. 

Image Info: Kali. Source: Wikipedia. 

Reading Notes: Cox's Tales of Ancient India, Section B

I didn’t exactly love the second half of this week’s reading.  It was rather slow and a little dull, although the content itself was interesting.  This half of Cox’s Tales of Ancient India discussed the gods and their beginnings, more or less.  I was relatively unamused with most of it, although I did think of an interesting way to work one of the gods into my storybook.  I kind of wanted to work Kali into my storybook and have her and Charlotte work together in some way.  I think it could be very entertaining to see those two together with John and Shiva watching from the sidelines.  Maybe I can have Charlotte aid Kali in her battle, although in this reading she goes by the name Uma.

I think I might also work John into the story of how Ganesh ends up with the head of an elephant.  It seems like the type of solution that he would come up with, considering he probably wouldn’t believe that just replacing the head would bring a being back to life, so who cares what head they bring back!

Bibliography: Tales of Ancient India by Edmund Cox (1887), Hathi Trust

Image Info: Ganesh. Source: Wikipedia.

Reading Notes: Cox's Tales of Ancient India, Section A

This week, I chose to read another version of the story of Krishna, the reincarnation of Vishnu that we met in the Mahabharata. 

I thought it might be fun to write part of this story from the eyes of one of the villagers.  Constant struggle and destruction is brought to their village because of the young Krishna, which results in the deaths of some of their children and the destruction of their homes.  Who wouldn’t be frustrated and want to banish the family that hosts this child?

I’m hoping to try to work this week’s reading into my storybook.  I’m trying to think of a way to use Krishna, but he seems so much stronger and independent than my other characters so it may be a little more difficult to fit John into the story.  And possibly Charlotte.   I could also write about how Krishna and Rukmini became wed. 

Bibliography: Tales of Ancient India by Edmund Cox (1887), Hathi Trust. 

Image Info: Krishna eating butter. Source: Wikimedia Commons.