Week 9 Storytelling: Urvasi in Love

Urvasi's thoughts:

I cannot stop looking at this handsome man...Oh Arjuna! You are so handsome and I must have you for myself, but how can I obtain your love? What should I do to get his attention? He is the most handsome man I've ever met and of course I want him to be my husband! Shall I seduce him with a new transformation or disguise myself and kidnap him?! I can't decide... I think I will try to seduce him and see if he wants to make love and marry me...

(looking through her wardrobe) Hmm... I think I will wear this transparent silk robe and meet him tonight! It's transparent enough for him to see... well of course enough for him to see my body! I will also spray this lovely perfume all over my body so that he will be attracted to my scent. He will surely love my appearance and then we will make love until the sunrise.

 The moon was shining bright. Urvasi approached Arjuna's room and knocked on his door. Urvasi was very anxious and hoped that Arjuna would respond to her sweet gesture. She had been a lonely woman for months now and wanted to make love with someone. Arjuna was the only attractive man that she had seen for several years and when they met. Her eyes were locked and she could not stop thinking about him. Could it be she was in love already? She had never felt this way in such a long time. Was this love at first sight? Urvasi was a curious woman and the only way to find out whether this was love or not is to approach Arjuna. Brave Urvasi took a deep breath and began to knock on his door.

The door opened with a slight creaking noise and Arjuna looked at Urvasi from head to toe.

"Um.. yes? May I help you?" said Arjuna.

"Arjuna, I am insanely attracted to you and I noticed you were looking at me earlier today. Shall we get together and have a wild wonderful night?" said Urvasi.

"Oh Urvasi, you are mistaken...I was looking at you earlier today because you remind me of my mothers Kunthi and Madri. "Your appearance caught me by surprise, and it reminded me how much I missed them." said Arjuna.

"Your mother?! I remind you of your mothers?! How dare you speak to me this way! I have tried so hard to seduce you, wearing this nearly see-through robe, and now you say I remind you of your mother?!" said Urvasi.

"I apologize for being so blunt but in fact you do remind me of my mothers. Please don't take it the wrong way. You are still a beautiful woman, just not for me." said Arjuna.

Urvasi's face turned red and she stood by Arjuna's door grunting under her breath. She had never felt so humiliated in her life.

"Well, Arjuna, since you have humiliated me by calling me your mother. I will curse you to become a eunuch forever and you will be forced to dance with the women!" said Urvasi.

Then with a swift of her hands she mumbled a chant and now Arjuna was cursed.

Urvasi cursing Arjuna: Urvasi

Author's Note:

I decided to do a story over Urvasi and Arjuna but in Urvasi's perspective. She was attracted to Arjuna but later rejected so she cursed him into a eunuch. In the story, Urvasi was a seductive and flirty woman. She tried to capture Arjuna's attention by wearing seductive clothes. Urvasi was so humiliated that she threw herself at a man who did not want her. The outcome resulted in Arjuna's curse in exile living with all women and becoming a eunuch. I kept the storyline pretty much the same as the book described it but added a lot more details. I added Urvasi's thoughts and how she planned on seducing him and making love to him all night. She was a promiscuous woman and would try to get anything she wants. I also added some dialogue of Urvasi and Arjuna to emphasize their conversations as a way to show the tensions between them. It was obvious that Urvasi was not happy with the rejection and took her frustration out on Arjuna for being too forward. Overall, I want to stick with the original story but added more details since the book only described a small part of their conversation. Urvasi was an apsara. The apsaras are beautiful supernatural beings that seduce men. I extended the story with some significant details that are not in the book such as her transparent silk robe and the perfume. I thought those items were essential to the story because it was a way for her to attract Arjuna. 

Bibliography: R.K. Narayan, The Mahabharata 1978

Week 9: Famous Last Words

This week was pretty hectic and since Spring Break started I've been busy doing other things and catching up on the rest of my homework for this class.

Today Spring Break is officially over and classes start tomorrow. The month of April is going to be crazy since every single class I am taking require at least a research paper and they are all due in April. I better start on them. I also have a second midterm this week and I am not prepared since I have been out of town for Spring Break. Sometimes I don't understand why teachers assign homework during the break. It's like enjoy the break but not really because you have to study. On the bright side, school will be done in about a month and I am finally graduating! Now the scary part is I have to find a job and a new place to move into... my summer is going to be busy with applying jobs and looking for a new apartment.

So far in Indian Epics class I've been a little behind on my project because there were some grammar issues in my stories. I keep getting my past and present tense mixed up and so the revising on one of my stories took forever. I need to do some more extra credit to make up for it.

However, looking through all the projects in the class a lot of people did a wonderful job on their stories. There were some unique storybooks and portfolios that I really enjoyed reading. Some people had small grammar issues but I can't really criticize since I have the same problem as well. There was this one storybook I thought was interesting because whoever made it added videos and the theme was for children. It was called Ganesha's children or something like that and I thought it was such a clever and cute idea!

I've been reading the Elite Daily a lot outside of school reading. The articles are pretty interesting and fun to read. One of the articles I read was called something a long the lines of The Power of Negative Thinking? I think that was the title but I don't really remember, it was basically describing how pessimist people can actually see reality better than those who are optimistic. Pessimists are better prepared for what is ahead of them because they see the worst situation possible while optimists feel safe in their environment and sometimes can be oblivious to certain situations.

This is a picture of the Dallas, Texas skyline. I went there for Spring Break. Source: Dallas, Texas

Week 9 Reading Diary A: Narayan's Mahabharata

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This week we are starting to read Narayan's version of Mahabharata and the beginning was a little confusing to me. There are a lot of affairs going and and birthing of children that I need to slow my reading to get the names in my head. The start of the chapter began with Shantanu and Ganga, where Shantanu the king falls in love with a woman who drowned her children... wow talk about being a great mother but good thing the King stopped that from happening on the eighth child Bhishma.

The story goes on about Shantanu and him falling in love with the fisherman's daughter but the father objected and then later they both have children. An interesting part of the book and it made me laughed a little bit was the part of Satyavati smelling like fish and Parashara changed her smell into a perfume. I wonder if Shantanu would still be with her if Parashara didn't change her smell, would he still like her for who she is?

I thought the part of Pandu was pretty sad, he was cursed because he shot the deer while it was having sex. The deer happened to be a disguise and cursed Pandu that he would die having sex. Now Pandu cannot have children with his wives which is pretty sad because they can't start a family because of a curse. How awful is that curse? Not being able to make love to your significant other or in this case "others" but have to die while doing so. What a horrible curse!

So far I enjoyed reading the first part of the book, although there are some warming up to do with the names. I can get the different characters down. First part caught me by surprise because there were so many affairs going on and birthing of the gods that I had to pace my reading and go back and read the reading guides. I am so thankful for the reading guides! It was such a big help.

The Mahabharta: Mahabharata