Storytelling Week 13: Ganghari The Mother Who Lost It All

In the magical land of Oklahoma lived many god like deities. One day in the land of King Dhritarashtra there was immense anger in the household. The king has had it with his inability to produce children with his wife Ganghari.  They have attempted many times to conceive but never once were able to succeed. The king in pure anger started to verbally mistreat his wife. His wife was devastated feeling it was her fault. She prayed and prayed until one night she got a vision that she would conceive one hundred children. She told her husband the next day of her vision. They visited the nearest hospital and it was confirmed they were expecting one hundred children.

After a few years have gone by her husband began to lose his vision. The day came where he was no longer capable of seeing anything. He had gone completely blind. She lived with her husband sadness and decided to blind fold her eyes to share his pain. She had made a promise to the gods to share her husbands fate.

Years have passed and she has grown accustomed to her blindness. Until one day she walked into her room and she found out her husband was having an affair! She had not thought much of it and decided to let it go. The king and his lover Kunti had a child together named Bhama. She was pretty upset but continued to live with it. One night she had a dream that Bhama would kill her son. She knew how important her dreams were in reality. She feared that any day Bhama would kill her son. She told the king and Kunti about it but they thought she was foolish.

The next morning, they get the news that Bhama had killed her dearest son Duryodhana. Ganghari is extremely saddened by her luck. She is extremely devastated. She is extremely infuriated with the gods! Her husband comes in and he tries to console her but her anger sends a beam that shoots out of her eyes accidently hitting her husband right in the heart. She takes of her blind fold and sees what she has done. She drops on her knees and begins to cry. She has broken the heart of her husband. Kunti walks into the room and sees what has happened she also drops on her knees. They both begin to cry together and from the skys comes a beam of light that takes her to the heavens above. The gods have granted her the ability to live among them and to enjoy all the good things they can offer.

 

Ganghari and her Husband: Mahabharata

Author’s note

This story deals with the comic book story of Gandhari: AMother Blinded by Love. I decided to do my story about her because in the stories I have read about the Pandavas and the Kaurava she does not receive much attention. I feel like very little is focused upon her and all the she had to go through. IN this comic book she actually covers her eyes with a blindfold to share her husband’s misfortune. In the actual story the king does not actually have an affair. It seems like in many of the stories they just kind of accept it and not say much about it. I created an affair to draw attention to the fact that she isn’t the only one in the king’s life. She also foresees her sons death to on of the Pandava brothers. Gandhari and Kunti were actually good friends which I did not add any actually fighting between them to portray their serene relationship. Duryodhana is not her favorite son she actually realizes that her son is actually and evil being.

She is actually devastated by what has happened to her son Duryodhana that she does shoot fire from her eyes. The fire actually takes out Yudhisthira’s toes not the king.

Storytelling week 12 : The power to stop a storm.

The day in Oklahoma was bright and warm. The perfect spring night well that is what all the residents of Oklahoma believed. Everyone was going around enjoying their day except Hanuman. He was a super hero which was gifted with extreme strength and amazing ability too jump at extreme heights. He had just received news that an extreme storm was heading towards his city. He was miles away from home and he was not sure if he could make it on time to save his people.The thought of losing his people really worried him. He had no choice but to contact his worse enemy Drona.

                  Drona and Hanuman had trained together in the planet before coming down to live among humans. They had both chosen the same planet to live in. Drona was a good person but easily felt jealousy towards any one that could be slightly better than him. He had already felt a bit jealous for Hanuman. They had even gotten in a minor fight before Hanuman decided to move away for awhile to clear his mind. Drona was also very easily distracted to problems around him. Drona had been gifted with amazing precision and accuracy with a bow and arrow. Unfortunately, Hanuman was not sure if Drona would respond to him.

                  Hanuman made the attempt and nothing. He repeatedly called and nothing. NOTHING! Hanuman was rushing and jumping trying to make it to the city in time before the storm took his people by surprise.

                  Drona had heard the message left on his phone and immediately started shooting his amazing arrows at the clouds approaching busting them over empty fields. There was just too many for him to take them all out. He was too prideful to call Hanuman back. He continued for another hour but some clouds began to cross over him. He finally decided to call Hanuman and ask for his help. As Drona was calling he felt the ground shake under him and he knew that could only be caused by one thing, Hanuman.

Tornado in Illinois: Wikipedia

                  Hanuman finally arrives and is jumping and slamming the clouds down to the ground as Drona continues to take them out with his arrows. The saw that something much bigger was coming from the horizon. They saw a tornado so big they feared they could not stop it. At that instance Hanuman and Drona were gifted by the gods with the ability to grow one hundred times bigger. Hanuman jumped in the sky and grabbed the son with his hands and brought it lower dry away the clouds. Drona was able to shot a large arrow right threw the middle of the tornado to break it in half, making them small enough where they could each step on one.

Author’s note

I based my story off of two comic books that I read this week. The name of the comic books were Hanuman: The Epitome of devotion and courage and Drona: Valiant Archer,Supreme teacher. Hanuman and Drona do not collaborate in anything in either of these two stories but I loved both of them I decided to combine them. In the comic book about Hanuman he actually grabbed the sun when he was little believing it was food. He was given amazing strength, ability to jump, and the ability to grow in size. Drona was actually the teacher to many students as we read in the Mahabharata. I gave Drona the power of archery because in the comic book about him he actually has a favorite student named Arjuna. There is another student who is wanted to be tutored by Drona but he refuses to teach him because the student, Ekalavya, already has natural amazing skills with his bow. Drona fears that he will be better than his favorite student, Arjuna. Ekalavya cut the thumb for one of his hands to where he could no longer shot his arrow. Drona finally takes him in. That is also why I gave Drona the jealousy issue.

Storytelling Week 11: Kubera the gentle deity

One day the almighty god Brahman received the news that he was going to be a grandfather. The god was extremely happy to hear this. Months went by and his grandson finally arrived. His name was Kubera. Brahman gave him the power of wealth and the power of immortality. He also gave him a chariot that could take Kubera wherever he pleased.

As Brahman gave Kubera all these gifts a young boy named Dashagriva, from the heavens also wanted to have all that. He saw as Brahman gave Kubera all his powers and chariot all he was given was a powerful fire weapon. He wanted more than that. As a way of showing Brahman that he would give anything to have more power he cut off some of his fingers. Brahman was impressed. Dashagriva asked Brahman to be immortal from any other god like deities. Brahman granted him that wish.

Dashagriva was given what he wanted but that wasn’t enough. Kubera had become king of a city on earth called Lanka. Being the the guardian of wealth he had created a city that flourished in funds and resources. He got rid of all poverty in his city. Dashagriva had lived in a neighboring city and saw how Kubera gave everything to his people. The people in his city loved Kubera The people in the city of Dashagriva did not like the way he  ran the city. They expected much more from him since he was a god who came to live on earth. Dashagriva full in anger and jealousy set out to destroy Kubera.

Dashagriva arrived at the city of Lanka demanding that Kubera come out of his castle. Kubera heard the noise and came out to talk to Dashagriva. As Kubera opened the door to his castle Dashagriva had shot a series of fire balls, injuring Kubera. Kubera stood up in pain and shot a force of water out of his hands taking down Dashagriva. Dashgriva was very powerful that he just stood right back up. Kubera, being a peaceful deity, could not harm Dashagriva so he fled the scene.

Dashagriva was happy being the new king of Lanka but he did not know that Brahman was Kuberas grandson. Brahman created a human named Rama that later comes to earth to destroy Dashagriva who is now called Ravana.

Statue of Dashagriva: Wikipedia

Author’s note

                  My story this week is based on the comic book Kubera: The Lord of Wealth.  Kubera is the grandson of Brahma who is one of the most important gods in Indian epics.  This god gives Kubera control of wealth as well as a flying Pushpaka. Kubera is a gentle person but Dashagriva who was given the power of invincibility, unless taken out by a human, is obsessed with taking out Kubera. Dashagriva was given this power when he cut off all of his eight heads as a sacrifice. At first he wanted the power of immortality but was denied that power by Brahma. They have a major battle where Kubera uses a weapon of fire while Dashagriva uses a weapon of water. Kubera loses but he cannot be killed. Dashagriva takes control of Lanka and later in the story I find out that Dashagriva is actually Ravana. Which Rama then comes along and kills Dashagriva since he is human and gives Lanka to Ravana’s brother Vibhishana. Rama then travels back to Ayodhya in Kuberas chariot which was taken away from him by Dashagriva when he was defeated. Rama then arrives at Ayodhya and gives the chariot back to Kubera.