Indian Epics Blog

This week, I continued reading about the Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. As per usual, while they all were interesting, three stood out in particular. The first is How the Monkey Saved His Troop. This one was interesting for me because it seemed odd that there was such a fixation on mangoes. I really thought that there would be a war over the food for the mangoes, but it was moreso a protection battle for the king versus the monkeys. It is interesting to me that after watching a larger monkey give himself up that the king decides to protect him, but most of these stories all have some honor theme to them. The second story is The Brave Little Bowman. This seems like a very common theme where someone with skill is passed over due to a semi-non-essential trait. The larger one probably should have practiced and learned from the better Bowman as well. Overall, it is odd that such a large man just runs back to the city, but when you think about it, the smaller one is better of because

This week, I continued reading more Jatakas tales. Three stories that stood out were The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer; The Woodpecker and the Lion, and The Red-Bud Tree. These stories can be found at More Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer really stood out because it showed the selflessness of the deer. I feel like I have read many stories where once the deer was free, the turtle would be left to perish in the sack in the tree. But through teamwork, they are all able to survive. I think it's a nice tale about making sure that you always thank those that help you. In contrast, we see the lion disregard the woodpecker in The Woodpecker and the Lion. It is weird that we are suddenly getting so many stories with woodpeckers, but regardless, the lion decides that even though the woodpecker had hedged his bets well with the lion, since the lion did not eat the woodpecker, he has paid his due. This seems somewhat unfair as the lion is telling the woodp

The NASDAQ had already fallen 1200 basis points, the biggest crash in 10 years. Tech stocks fell further and further, with nothing but a sea of red on the historically upbeat ticker feed above the trading floor. Shouts from one trader to another rained out, but they were more out of desperation than information. The entire market was crashing, and no one could do anything about it. While many traders were winners and losers of this false-flag correction, two in particular stand out. A trader at Goldman and a trader at JP Morgan. Both accosted by a trader at Morgan Stanley, but only one escaping with his dignity- and more importantly, his money. One day, Salomon was sitting at his desk, and he noticed that NASDAQ and Dow futures were trading lower than normal. He ringed up one of his friends, Bill, at Goldman, and he mentioned how he was surprised that the market seemed to be going lower. Bill was also surprised. But the two were different in their reaction. Salomon was excited to s

I continued reading the Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, this time reading nine new tales that I had not previously read. There were three in particular that really stood out. The first one was The Wise and Foolish Merchant. This one is interesting because for some reason, I pictured it occurring in the midwest or in a country style way. The story sets it up to think that the wise merchant has tricked the foolish merchant, and that the wise merchant will be punished in the end. However, this story really connotes the word "wise" well, because it talks about how he is able to defend himself. It was reminiscent of Barnyard, oddly, when they were camped out in the middle of the night to protect themselves. The second story was The Banyan Deer. This is a great example of sacrifice, and it reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia. The king of the deer sacrifices himself in an attempt to save the mother, in a way similar to how Aslan sacrifices himself. The main question that c

This week, I read part of the Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt as part of the weekly readings. While I had begun to read these at the start of the semester, coming back after the Ramayana and Mahabharata made them somewhat more refreshing as everything was easier to follow. There were nine stories in total, but three really stood out for one reason or another. The first story is The Merchant of Seri. I liked this one because it seems to have an overall happy ending. While karma is seem to have originated in India, the Jatakas Tales often do not reflect that, such as stories where a character is killed for no reason. However, in this one, not only is the antagonist merchant punished for his actions, but the girl and grandmother with the bowl are rewarded. It does seem odd though, that they have a bowl made of gold and neither of them knew it. It raises so many questions about how it got there. The overarching theme is nice though, that even though they don't know it's value,

This Thursday, I was proctoring a pre-calculus test when our Complex Analysis professor announced that we would have a midterm in a week. Two days after my Thermodynamics midterm. Two days before my Fluid Dynamics Midterms. All within five days of my Numerical Analysis midterm. While this all seems super stressful, atleast once Fluid Dynamics is over, I can look forward to smooth sailing for a few weeks. This week, in contrast to the next few, is looking to be very peaceful as a whole. I got to play soccer with some friends this weekend. I had not played in a few months, but it was great to get back out on the field and run around a little. Even better, I finally decided on a Halloween costume as well- Russell from Up. The only hard thing has been finding badges. Finally, WE GOT A DOG. This part has been most exciting. She came by at some point this afternoon, a friend had brought her up. She basically explored the house for the first bit of the day, and now, she's getting more u