Week 2 Story: Elephant and the Angry Ocean

 

Elephant Image

The elephant, although commonly portrayed in stories as being the wise soul, was my main character who turned out to be timid and foolish. The elephant traveled to a new environment and was scared to enter this new domain. 

One day, after days of traveling, an elephant found itself on new territory that he had never seen before- the beach. The elephant was used to dry, desert-like environments so he was very unsure of this new place. He was tired from all of the travelings he had done over the past few days, so he wandered up to the sand and although he was unsure, began to lay down for the night. The sky was dark at this point, so the elephant had no trouble closing his eyes to sleep.

As he was laying down he started to think about a story he had heard from a friend back home that there was a huge body of water in some places that had sand, that sometimes got angry and would start viciously flooding the towns. Although scared by the thought that might happen, the elephant was almost asleep until he heard huge crashing noises, one after another. He squinted his eyes to look, and just as he was able to make out what seemed like a body of water, a large wave crashed down onto him. He then heard a loud rumble from the sky and ran the opposite way as fast as he could.

As he passed other humans and animals he began to scream “The town is about to flood! Beware!”

The elephant kept running with fear in his eyes as another dog asked, “why are you running in a panic?”

The elephant stated, “I have no time to tell, the water is about to flood this whole town!”

The dog began to run next to him barking about the flood.

The loud rumbling noise was heard again right as the cheetah approached the elephant and the dog.

“What’s wrong, why are you guys so scared?” said the cheetah. 

“The flood is coming! The flood is coming!” cried the dog.

Soon, animal after animal began to join the group of scared running animals and caused the whole town to be sent into a panic. The residences in the town knew how dangerous flooding from the ocean could be, so they began to pack their stuff in preparation to evacuate.

Just then, the herd of animals ran into a flock of pelicans. 

“What is going on here?” asked the pelicans.

“The major flood is about to happen! I was sleeping on the sand when suddenly a large amount of water began to rise up and fell and crashed on me! I began to run and that made it angrier, so the whole thing began to make a loud rumbling noise!”

The wise pelicans began to howl with laughter and said “Silly elephant! That rumbling noise was just a thunderstorm about to happen! The ocean waves get larger whenever a storm occurs, you didn’t make anything angry.”

The elephant signed with relief and followed the pelicans, the wise animals of ocean-land, into a home so he would not be caught in the storm. One by one, the other animals returned home, relieved that no flood would be occurring that night.

Author's Note: I was inspired by the Anthology, "The Foolish, Timid Rabbitt". I loved the storyline, so used a similar plot, just with different characters and in a different setting. I used uncommon characters to make the plot less expected. 

Bibliography. "The Foolish, Timid Rabbitt" from Jakatas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Web Source.

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Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit
Author: Ellen C. Babbitt
Link to story: The Foolish, Timid Rabbit

"The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" image source

This particular story captured my attention because of the familiarity, and the easy to read storyline. The rabbit spreads a rumor that the world is falling apart due to a misconception of a coconut falling, and brings the animals to panic until the wise lion gets to the bottom of it. 

A story about a rabbit, "Sky is Falling" type of story
Rabbit ponders the idea of the world falling down on him when he is sleeping, just as he is thinking that a monkey's coconut falls to the ground beside him giving him the misconception that the world is falling apart. Another rabbit began to notice that this particular rabbit was running fast, with a sense of terror, therefore he began to panic and chase after him as well, soon a large group of rabbits heard the news that the world was beginning to fall down and they began to run as well. The group of rabbits spread the news to the other animals that the world was breaking up and joined them in running away. Finally, the lion found flaws in their story about the world falling down and went to the source to figure out exactly what had happened. They went back to the spot the rabbit gathered the idea of the world falling apart and noticed the coconut, and the rabbit understood his misunderstanding.
The Foolish, Timid Rabbit was the first story I read, and although the other stories were fun to read, I kept thinking about how I liked the plot of this story the best. I thought the concept of the story was very clever and was formatted in a way that was quick and easy to read. I liked the idea behind the plot is unexpected as the storyline progressed, but the reader also was able to have an insight into what really happened- the coconut falling instead of the world falling.
-Another key part of the story was the character of the rabbit was perceived as "foolish" and "fearful", whereas the lion was observed as the "courageous" and "wise". In many stories I have read, the lion is always the king of the animals and always knows what to do in times of distress. I would implement this idea into my story by having a person, or an animal who is courageous and wise, however, I might make this an unexpected animal.

Week 2 Reading Overview

For this week's assignment, the Ramayana I have chosen to read is the PDE Ramayana online version. Many factors played a role in why I chose this version over the Narayan's Ramayana. Although both had pros and cons to them, the public domain version was free to use, unlike the other version that required a purchase to be made. I also liked how this version had several illustrations and notes to guide the reader as to what is going on within the story. I am a visual learner so being able to have images that can help me create a picture in my mind as to what is happening in the story will be very beneficial. I also liked that the Ramayana online had a free audio version. Since the book has old-fashioned language, it might be helpful to have someone read it so I can understand the story better. I think also having the option of reading the book than being able to listen to it again through the audio version, could help with comprehension.

This week, we were also able to browse through some of the Comic Books and India Video playlists. While browsing through the comic books, two especially caught my eye. The first comic book I liked reading a summary about was the Ancestors of Rama. What first drew me to this comic was the cover image- it intrigued me and made me wonder what the comic was about. I thought the concept behind Dilipa being cursed for not listening to Surabhi and being tested to see if he could be blessed with children was interesting to read about. I like stories that have to do with a character overcoming obstacles or learning valuable lessons because sometimes I can take away a message from the story as well. I also liked that it followed Dilipa's son, Raghu and his adventures surrounding being a king, in a similar situation as Dilipa, and also being blessed by a son.

Ancestors of Rama

The next comic book that I was drawn to was Shiva Parvati. I am a fan of reading stories that have something to do with love and so this comic book immediately caught my attention. I loved the story behind Parvati being tested to see if Shiva's love could truly be won. Although the characters face multiple obstacles, I always love a happy ending so I was excited to see that is what ended up happening.

Shiva Parvati

Like mentioned above, we also got to browse India Video playlists. Immediately when I clicked on the link, I was excited to see a video titled "Harry Potter Meets Hindu Mythology", I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and so I thought this video was really cool combining the two kinds of stories together. The video was also cool because it was a comic-book-like video showing a storyline about Harry Potter. I also thought the video "Why We Worship Trees" was very interesting. I had never known that trees were worshipped because they were associated with gods. I liked how the video talked about the role trees play in the world and that no life form could survive without them, which gave them a very meaningful role to humans. The title was what drew me in at first, but then I was glad I clicked on it because I was able to learn something new.

Kurma
This image captured my attention because sea turtles are my favorite animal. I like how in the India Epics Images, I can find images that grab my attention, and then read the story behind it. This visual is Kurma, Vishnu's avatar.  

Time Strategies

Organized!
I have learned that planning things ahead of time helps with time management and ensuring that I stay organized. Whether its planning what needs to go in my backpack, writing in my planner, or making a to do list, I think that planning ahead is they key to staying on track.

Time management is a skill that I have learned to really put effort into as I came into college. My first semester I was not use to the need for keeping up with assignment due dates so I began to procrastinate. Procrastinating only led to stress and mistakes in my assignments so I knew that I needed to find ways to create study plans and a plan on how to manage my time. One of the ways I keep track of my assignments and due dates is by reading the syllabus and putting important dates and test times into my planner. I also keep my planner color coordinated so I can keep track of each of my classes. I also put into my calendar days I need to start working on assignments or studying so I have a game plan that is less stressful and easier to follow through with. It has led my semesters to become more successful and a little less stressful. While reading through some of the articles about time management, the two I found most helpful were “4 Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination”, and “Time Management Tips Just for Creatives”. I liked how each of these listed out the tips for how to successful manage time and also how to overcome putting assignments off. Both of the articles were very helpful and I will refer back to them later in the semester. I learned that I need to make a plan on how to get started, and what my priorities are for the day. I think my biggest time challenges are to make sure I study ahead of time and not last minute for exams or quizzes. My planner helps me visualize when I need to start studying, so I am trying to get better at this skill!