Week 2 Reading Overview

I have chosen to read the PDE Ramayana mostly because I have already read most of R.K. Narayan's version for the Introduction to Hinduism class I took last semester. I really enjoyed that version but I would rather expose myself to a different version then read the same one again. I also appreciate that  the PDE version is a compliation of many versions. I had heard that there are many versions of the Ramayana and they don't all include the same details or end the same way so I'm excited to get a better sense of that from the PDE Ramayana.

Looking through the comics, one that really caught my eye was The Pandit and the Milkmaid and Other Tales by Sri Ramakrishna. I learned a little bit about Ramakrishna and his influence on Hindu philosophy and India last semester so these folktales caught my attention. I don't really know what to expect from his folktales but I am definitely interested in reading them.

Another comic that seemed interesting was Vali: The Downfall of an Arrogant King. I think it's really interesting that Rama kills Vali in the Ramayana and so I'd love to know more about this part of the story.

One of the videos I am most excited about on the India Video Playlist was Sita Sings the Blues. I am really excited that it is an option for the Week 5 reading assignment. I watched a few minutes of the film in my class last semester and I thought the three characters who narrate the story were really amusing as they tried to remember how the story goes.

This image of a Sita puppet reminds me of some of the animations from the clip of Sita Sings the Blues and so I wonder if puppets like this inspired the animator.

A second video from the playlist that interested me was called The Art of Playing Tabla. I really like music and am always curious to how different sounds we hear in music are made. Indian music is particularly interesting to me because it sounds so different from what is popular here in the US so I think it would be interesting to learn more about the instruments that make it sound so different.