Week 10 Storytelling: Drona's Death

Drona looked at the display on his visor where he checked on the status of the battle, his own vitals, and the status of his son Ashwatthama. Everything was going well so far. Above him, two starfighters fought for air supremacy. With a blast of a laser cannon, the enemy's craft disintegrated into a million pieces.

The Kauravas and Pandavas fought for control of Hellas Planitia, the largest visible crater on Mars. The battle had raged on for nearly two weeks now. Drona was sad to see the cousins fighting in this way. He had mentored both groups of men when they were just padawans. His loyalty, however, remained with the Kauravas. As long as Duryodhana still wished to fight, so would Drona.

Drona's skill as a commander was unmatched. They had enormous success today; they had victories on every front, and the Pandavas were unable to claim any successes with Drona at the helm of the opposition.

Yudhishthira, the wise leader of the Pandavas, realized their predicament and devised a plan. He happened to know that the Kauravas spacesuits were manufactured by Lenovo, and they had one major flaw. The spacesuits that the military used ran the same operating system as civilian suits. When Lenovo manufactured the suits, they added a piece of software called Superfish to the bundle. The intent of Superfish was to allow subliminal advertisements to be shown on the suit's visor display. Superfish used a man-in-the-middle attack to insert these advertisements. It allowed encrypted traffic to be routed through an intermediary server which unencrypted the message, inserted the ads, re-encrypted the message and sent it to the spacesuit. Yudhishthira exploited this flaw. He intercepted messages sent to Drona that contained Ashwatthama's telemetry and made it appear as if Ashwatthama was dead.

Everything had gone well for Drona until now. He was on his way back from the midst of the battle to the command post in order to check how everything fared there. He glanced up at his visor again and saw that his son was dead. His heart nearly stopped, and he sank to his knees. Ashwatthama was his legacy and everything he lived for. Without his son, he could not continue the fight. A tear rolled down his right eye, and his spacesuit tried to compensate for the extra moisture. Had he walked another five hundred feet into the command post, he would have known that his son was still alive. Nearby, a starship landed and Dhrishtadyuma stepped out. He unholstered his weapon, aimed down sights, and fired a laser into Drona's heart.

Hellas Planitia

Image from Wikipedia

Author's Note: When I thought about Drona's death, it reminded me of the book "The Martian." The crew of the Mars mission believed that Mark Watney was dead and so they left him on the planet. Similarly, Drona believed that his son was dead and lost the will to live. I thought that Mars would make a good setting to retell this story, and as it involved a space battle, I threw in some Star Wars. The Superfish attack is a real venerability of some Lenovo computers. In order to make a few bucks on advertising, Superfish created a huge security issue for thousands of computers.

Bibliography: "Mahabharata" by Peter Brooks. Website: YouTube

Reading Diary B: Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Notes on Peter Brook's Mahabharata:

Yudhisthira goes to Bhishma for counsel and speaks to the deathless boy.

Drona's loyalty is questioned.

"He was born for a life of pease, yet he chose war" -Vyasa about Drona

Drona pours wine or blood on his head when he looses the will to live.  After he hears that Ashwatthama is dead.

Karna's death seems to be the most tragic point of the film up to this point.  After his chariot wheel drops into the earth and the sun goes behind the cloud, he seems completely lost as he tries to remember the words to attain the weapon which will save him.  The great warrior Karna was reduced to desperation and fear just before he died.  After Karna dies, the Pandavas learn that Karna is their brother.  They are distraught that they killed their brother.

After the battle, Duryodhana retreats to underneath the ice in the river.  He seems like a coward for hiding in the water, but he is offered the kingdom if he beats Bhima in a fight.  His greed gets him out of the water.  It seems strange that Duryodhana is originally able to best Bhima with clubs since Bhima is such an acclaimed warrior with the club.  Krishna advises Bhima to cheat by hitting Duryodhana in the leg, and Bhima is able to win the fight after he does so.

Krishna often advises what seem to be morally questionable choices.  He lets Bhima's son go to his death, he advises to Arjuna to shoot his enemies when they are down, and he advises Bhima to cheat. Apparently, Gandhari thinks so too; she curses Krishna for participating in the fight through his advice.

Just before Gandhari and Dhritarashtra are killed by a forest fire, Dhritarashtra orders Gandhari to take off her veil, but she does not.  Why does she lie about taking off her veil?

Karna's Death

Image from Peter Brook's Film

Reading Diary A: Peter Brook's Mahabharata

This week, I am watching the second half of Peter Brook's Mahabharata.

Amba visits Bhishma in the night.  It now makes since how he could know Amba's new form.  In the previous version we read, it seemed strange that Bhishma knew that Shikhandi was Amba reincarnated.

What I don't understand is why Bhishma tells the Pandavas how to kill him.  If he wanted the Pandavas to win, then he did not have to fight for the other side, but it seems reckless to tell the enemy how to defeat you.

I'm still a little confused about Shikhandi(Amba).  Did he even shoot his arrow?  It seems like he was unable to kill Bhishma, and instead Arjuna fired the arrow.

I thought it was very interesting how Krishna guided Arjuna's arrow.  Krishna carried the arrow until it his Bhishma, which I suppose is how the filmmakers showed that Krishna influenced the flight of the arrow and made it fly true.

Arjuna shoots an arrow into the ground to produce water

I really like Karna's interaction with Kunti.  It is a very emotional scene.  You can see that Karna is deeply hurt that his mother abandoned him and that he longs for a mother.  My favorite quote from the interaction is, "After the battle you will keep the same number of sons."

It seems very cruel that Krishna, knowing that Karna possessed the celestial weapon, sent Bhima's son to die in order to destroy the weapon.  However, I suppose it was a very effective tactic.

Brook's film also give a lot more detail about the death of Arjuna's son.  Arjuna breaks through the enemy's defenses, but he does not know how to escape.

Arjuna's Son

Image from Film

Reading Plan

Week 9: Brook's Mahabharata Week 2; I already watched the first half of this film, so for week 9, I will finish it.

Week 10: Nivedita. Krishna.

Week 11: Kincaid. Tales from the Epics.

Week 12: Devi. Indian Fables and Folklore.

Week 13: Kalidasa's Shakuntala

Week 14: Wilson. More Stories - Nala, Savitri, Rishyashringa

Damayanti

Image from Kincaid. Tales from the Epics reading guide

Reflections: Looking Forward

Everything has gone well so far this semester.  Going forward, I would like to continue as I have been.  I really enjoyed writing the introduction to my Storybook, and I think the it has a lot of potential.  I want to continue to produce high-quality Storybook entries.  I also want to write more stories in worlds that I devise on my own.

If possible, I want to read the stories that go along with my storybook.  Otherwise, I just want to read what is interesting.

There are places I can improve, but overall I think the most reasonable goal is to continue to turn in all my assignments on time and continue in the same fashion I began.  So far, I am on track to finish with an A a week or two early.

Looking Forward

Personal Photo

Reflections: Looking Back

Out of all the stories I have written for the class so far, I still think my favorite is the story from Week 1, Keebler's Journey Into the Wild.  I wrote the story before school started so I had a lot of time to being as creative as possible.  I think the combination of a map story and continuing a Dungeons and Dragons game gave me powerful constraints that let me write a really good story.  I also am very proud of Aarabhi and Angga.  I was able to adapt the original story into a story about ants.  When I first started this semester, I expected to write more stories like this, where I invented my own characters to retell the story.  But as the semester has gone on, my stories seem to get closer to the originals.  I think this is probably due to an increase in the amount of work I have, so I have spent less time and creativity on the stories.  I tried to be slightly more original with my Week 7 Star Wars-inspired story, but I think it lacks a lot.

For some reason, the most interesting part of the readings so far has been the genealogies.  I really enjoy looking at how the characters are related and how they interact with one another.  There are so many stories in the epics that relationships tend to get complex fairly quickly.  I've found that drawing a diagram showing relationships helps me understand the stories better.

I love the format of the class being entirely online.  In some of my other classes, I've found that I have trouble paying attention during class.  Then, when I need a piece of information, I have trouble finding it because I can't go back and reference the lectures.  I am also taking another online class, and while it is better than a normal class, there are a few things that get on my nerves.  The Indian Epics class is extremely well organized, and since there are a lot of redundancies in the assignments, it is very easy to find he information I need.  My other class has information scattered about, so it is more difficult to find what I want.  One of my favorite things about this class is the grading system.  So far, I have not missed a single normal assignment, and I feel much more motivated to work on Epics of India than my other classes.  The participatory system removes almost all of the stress, and I probably learn more than I do in my other classes.

I do almost all of my homework at my apartment, and I have no set schedule.  I've tried to get a week ahead on my work, but so far I have been unsuccessful.  When I work hard to get ahead, I tend to neglect my other schoolwork.  I then spend the next few days trying to catch up in my other classes and I end up nowhere.  It is extremely frustrating, and I wish I could just be ahead on everything and work stress-free.  Unfortunately, I feel like there is always something I should be doing for school, which makes my school-life balance tricky.

This class has improved my writing by forcing me to write constantly, but I still enjoy the process.  Retelling stories in my own words is actually interesting, unlike most academic writing.  I also now use bookmarks, which has made my Internet experience much better.

Not Yet

Image from Wikipedia

Week 7 Storytelling: Watto Loses Everything

Watto was from the planet Toydaria, and despite a difficult youth, he had managed to do well for himself.  Oringally, Watto had served as a soldier for the Ossiki Confederacy Army on his home planet.  After he returned home from war he expected to continue his father's business.  His father owned multiple businesses across the system, but the largest was a food producer known as Monsanta.  Monsanta farmed algae and fish for the Toydarians and had a near monopoly on the planet's food supply.  Instead, when Watto returned home, he discovered that his brother Datto was running the empire.  His father informed him that Watto would be given a small junk shop on the planet Tatooine.  Watto should have suspected as much.  His father had always favored his older brother.  He packed his things and took the next ship to Tatooine.

Watto would not let his father or brother stop him from acquiring fame and fortune.  He set about becoming the best junk dealer in the galaxy.  He began learning about trade from the local Jawas.  Before long, his junk shop was the most profitable on Tatooine.  Around this time he decided to join the slave trade.  He had an uncanny ability to choose the best slaves.  He even found a young boy by the name of Anakin who had a mechanical aptitude and boosted the productivity of his shop by nearly double.  Watto became very wealthy and very happy.  The business almost ran itself with Anakin there.

While everything was going well for Watto, Monsanta was going through a rough patch.  Datto was not nearly as competent as Watto.  In order to make himself feel better, Datto planned a trip to visit his brother.  Datto owned an empire while his brother had a measly junk shop.  However, to his surprise, when Datto arrived on Tatooine, he discovered that Watto was the wealthiest creature on the planet.  Datto grew jealous and hatred burned in his heart.  He decided that he would send his servant Shakuni to win everything from Watto in a gambling match.

If Watto had one weakness, it was gambling.  He loved to wager on the podraces.  Just before the biggest podrace of the year, two groups of foreigners came to Tatooine.  The first was Shakuni and his aides.  The second was Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, Padme Amidala, and a strange Gungan named Jar Jar Binks. Qui-Gon Jinn claimed to have a podracer that he won in a game of chance.  He wanted Anakin to pilot it for him.  If Anakin won, Watto would keep the prize money.  If Anakin lost, Watto would keep Qui-Gon's ship.  It was too good to turn down.  Similarly, Shakuni offered him a deal that was too good to be true.  Watto bet Shakuni that the Dug Sebulba would win the race.

If Sebulba won, Watto would have been the wealthiest man in the system.  But instead Anakin won the race, and Watto lost everything.  Watto spent the rest of his days destitute and alone.

Watto

Original Image

Author's Note:  I watched Star Wars Episode I last night.  Like Yudhisthira, Watto's weakness is gambling.  While Watto is extremely different from Yudhisthira, I thought he would make a good character to retell Yudhisthira's story.

Bibliography:
"Mahabharata" by Peter Brook. Website: YouTube.

Reading Diary B: Peter Brook's Mahabharata

The gambling match still baffles me.  I don't understand how Yudhisthira, one of the wisest men, could gamble everything away.  He had nothing to win and everything to lose.

The king Dhritarashtra is portrayed as a caring and normal man who is trying to do the best by his children.

Amba tries to get Bhima to kill Bhishma.

Arjuna's exile seems to be missing entirely from the film.  There is also no House of Fire.  Half the movie remains and the war is the only large event that remains.

The Kauravas try to kill the Pandavas in exile.  Vyasa interferes and puts a stop to the attack.

Bhima encounters Hidimba later chronologically.  He is married to Draupadi at this point.  Hidimbi looks overjoyed when her brother is killed.  It is somewhat disturbing that Hidimbi goes from being faithful to her brother to experiencing joy at his death only a few minutes later.  Kunti is not here for this fight.

The Kauravas use fire to invoke Arjuna.  They can see that he is searching for weapons and the Kauravas can even talk to him.  I wonder what type of god or magic makes this possible.

Arjuna gets a weapon from Shiva.

Karna cares for a Parashurama in the wilderness and asks for a weapon in return.  Parashurama gives Karna a formula that will call a creature from heaven to give him a weapon.  When Parashurama sleeps, a worm eats a hole in Karna's thigh.  Parashurama accuses Karna of lying to him about being a kshatriya and curses him to forget the formula.  Also, where did Karna's armor go?

The Riddles at the Lake makes a little more sense now.  The Pandavas are overcome by an overwhelming thirst that makes them drink even when their brothers are dead.

Arjuna gets the Pashupata from Shiva
Image from Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Peter Brook's Mahabharata has several differences from the PDE Mahabharata.  Below I've listed the biggest differences that I noticed or things that stood out to me this time that I did not notice earlier.

I really like how they start with Vyasa as the story teller and constantly go back to him.

Vasu's sperm is given to a falcon; he doesn't ride a flying chariot.

The PDE Mahabharata focuses on Bhishma's "terrible oath" but the film sees his action more positively - "The gods applauded his actions."  He is portrayed as noble.

Amba goes back to Bhishma and threatens him after Bhishma refuses to marry her.

Pandu makes his brother king
I don't remember Kunti's mantra

I only remember 4 Pandavas instead of 5.  The PDE Mahabharata only discusses Arjuna, Bhima, and Yudhisthira in depth.

A ball of flesh comes out of Gandhari's womb.  This is a pretty memorable visual and explains how she can have so many children.

Ajuna's promise to fight Drona and fight to kill
Youth rejected because too many pupils

The film portrays Drona as cruel.  Ekalavya, the youth that cuts off his thumb for Drona is rejected because Drona already has enough pupils, not because he comes from a kingdom of robbers.

The film skips over a lot of material before the dice game.

Pandavas get bad land from Dhritarashtra and improve that land so that they have a wonderful palace and all the people are happy.

The Kauravas, especially Duryodhana are maddened by jealousy.  They seem to be noble when they accept Karna.  However, after this they are only trying to keep up with the Pandavas.

Yudhisthira loves gambling in the film.  In the PDE Mahabharata, he is just unable to refuse a challenge.

Swayamvara challenge was shown as the contest in Peter Brook's film

Image from Wikipedia