Storybook Favorites

For today's Indian Epics assignment, I was asked to look at storybooks that were created by past classes and talk about my favorites. Let me start off by saying that all of the stories I looked at were intriguing and I enjoyed all of them, these are just the ones that were super creative and that I would like to emulate.

Let's start with the one that impressed me the most. The Ancient Relics of Borgin and Burkes melded together Indian mythology and the Harry Potter series by presenting Ashwatthama's Gem as a mysterious relic that resides in the magical antique shop Borgin and Burkes. I was amazed by the creativity of this student to marry Indian mythology with a more modern tale of magic, therefore making the casual study of these ancient stories more accessible to readers. I especially liked how they portrayed J.K. Rowling's characters in the story. The student was familiar with the motivations and personality of Tom Riddle and wrote his character in this story well.

The second story, Stories of the Women of Indian Epics, was another very creative take on Indian mythology. The story was written like it was a transcript of television interviews with three women from Indian mythology: Sita, Kaikeyi, and Draupadi. I appreciated how the student got the idea for this story when they noticed that many stories in Indian mythology focus on the perspectives and motivations of men and wanted to write the other side of things. In some of the writing, I think the student imbued a lot of modern sensibilities into her portrayal of these three women and while it was not a poor choice, it removed the characters from their stories a little too much for my taste. Even with that small critique, this was a very good story. And the student chose lovely pictures to complement the stories. Here's my favorite, titled Dhritarashtra Tries to Disrobe Draupadi and She is Saved by Krishna. (www.A108.net - International Vaishnavas Portal, Flickr)

The final story I will be writing about is Kama's Love Stories. Out of the three stories I am talking about, I think this one stayed closest to the original myth. It was refreshing to hear a more traditional retelling of the myths while the student still made it their own story. 

Let me just say again, all of the storybooks I read were well thought out and well written, it was quite fun to peruse them and get to see a multitude of viewpoints into the great stories of Indian mythology. I am very excited to get my own chance to tell these stories soon!