Week 11 Story: The Naughty Toddler

The Naughty Toddler

There was once a very cute toddler. His parents absolutely adored him and called him 'Buddy' because he was such a sweet child and had such a sweet kid.

One night, after Buddy went to bed, his parents watched a movie about robbers. They thought Buddy was asleep, but he wasn't. So Buddy overheard what the robbers were saying.

"We need to make sure we take as much as we can. We can't share a thing, it's all ours. We have to look out for ourselves," the robbers in the movie said.

Buddy overheard this and thought to himself, "This is how I'm supposed to behave, I need to make sure I take all the toys and look out for myself."

And the next day at daycare, that's exactly what Buddy did. He took all the other kids' toys and refused to share with anyone. He treated the other kids so poorly, they all started to cry. The teachers were all surprised. How had Buddy changed so much overnight?

When Buddy's parents got the report about how naughty he had been that day at school, they were shocked. They began to brain storm as to what had changed overnight. Finally, Buddy's mother wondered if he had heard the movie last night. To test her theory, they played a much nicer movie about a man who gave everything for his friends.

"We need to help everyone," the kind man said. "We need to make sure we share what we have and we want to leave people happier than we left them."

When Buddy heard this, he decided to try this method the next day at school.

Sure enough, the next day at school Buddy was so much better and shared all of his toys with all the kids. He had everyone laughing and smiling and having a good time. And Buddy enjoyed that so much better than making everyone sad. So that's how Buddy became so kind.

Bibliography: The Elephant Girly-face by Ellen C. Babbitt

Authors Note:

When reading the original story, I thought of how impressionable the elephant was and how much that reminded me of young children. That's why I decided to write the story about Buddy the toddler, overhearing a bad movie his parents had playing.

Toddler From Flickr Images

Week 9 Story: A Smart Women

A Smart Women

There was once an extremely wealthy family that consisted of a husband, a wife, a daughter and a son.

One day, the husband got extremely drunk and started to gamble with his brother. Before he knew it, he had gambled everything he owned away. His house, his cars, his money, and all his possessions. All that he had left was his wife and his children. When he returned to his wife to tell her, she just took a deep breath and was determined to fix the mistakes her husband has made.

Immediately, she knew began to work to fix the problem. She allowed her children to stay at her grandparents house so they wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of her husband's actions. The two of them moved into an extremely small studio apartment to try and live off the few dollars they managed to get.

Then, one morning, she woke up to find her husband completely gone. Instead of going to find him, the wife moved on. She packed up all her things and stopped paying rent on the studio apartment. She then moved back in with her parents and save money for  her family there.

Months later, she heard a rumor that her husband was a nearby Uber driver. First, to test the theory, she let her two children take an Uber to the nearby store. The man was disguised but after a few questions, then children were quickly able to tell that the man was in fact their father.

Hearing the news, the wife rolled her eyes and let her husband be an Uber driver for another week before making her move. She then simply ordered an Uber to the next the local store. The whole drive, she let her husband keep up his act and it wasn't until she reached the store she finally revealed she knew it was him the whole time. She asked if he would like to come back and live with her instead of pretending he was no longer around.

He acted all embarrassed and begged for her forgiveness, but she remained strong and ignored his words and once again invited him to live with the family again. He finally accepted and they worked together as a family to get all their fortune back.

Family from Source

Author's Note:

I read the story of Damayanti and really liked how she kept preserving through the hard times but I didn't like how weak she came across in the story. I liked how she was supportive of him and loved him regardless, but he did her wrong over and over again and never complaining. So in my rewrite I made the wife (Damayanti) a lot stronger. The original story was Damayanti from Nine Ideal Indian Women

Week 7 Story: Meet the Family

Meet the Family (Updated Version)

Hey all, my name is Parikshit, and today I’m going to introduce you to my family tree. I will warn you, it gets a little crazy, so please try your best to follow along.

First let’s start with King Vichitravirya. He had two wives, Ambika and Ambalika (they were sisters) who gave him two sons, Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Now, Once King Vichitravirya died, his mother thought of her other son, Vyasa. He terrified Ambika so much so that when she saw him, she closed her eyes. Therefore, Dhritarashtra was born blind. Ambalika was also terrified, but she went pale. Therefore Pandu was pale. Vyasa is my great-great grandfather and the father of both Dhritarashtra and Pandu.

The next generation is a little more complicated. So Dhritarashtra married Gandhari and she had Duryodhana, Dushasana, Dussala and 98 other sons in total. These children are usually referred to as the Kauravas. Pandu married a woman named Kunti, who already has a son named Karna. This son was Surya’s son and grew up so quickly that Kunti didn’t really raise him. Kunti had three sons: Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna while Pandu’s other wife, Madri, had two sons: Nakula and Sahadeva. Now, all these sons were actually fathered by different deities, but Pandu always claimed them as his own as we all just let him. Pandus 5he sons were typically referred to as the Pandavas.

My father was the son of Arjuna and his wife Subhadra, and he married Uttara, my mother, who had me. When I was born, I was born dead, but Krishna brought me back to life. I was eventually made king of my grandfather’s kingdom, but the story to get there is a little complicated...

There was always a big feud between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. They all grew up together after Pandu’s death, and it was a household with 105 sons, there was going to be fights. You see the Pandavas were extremely gifted and very talented, which made Dhritarashtra’s eldest son, Duryodhana extremely jealous. So jealous that Duryodhana ended up disrespecting my great-uncles’ wife, Draupadi, and then sent my great-uncles’ to exile in the forest. But after their exile, they declared war on the Kauravas. The war was bloody and many died, including my father, Abhimanyu, and every single one of my uncles and aunts, and all of the Kauravas. My family won, but at great cost. This is how I was made the heir of the throne, even though I was the grandson of Kunti’s youngest son.

So while my family maybe complicated, but who's family doesn't have a little drama in it. And I’m so grateful for my family’s hard work that ended with me on the throne. Author's Note: The most confusing part of the Mahabharata for me was the family tree. There was so many characters and so many character names and I just kept getting confused. So for my story this week, I decided to have it be from the youngest member of the Pandava family, Parikshit, and have him tell his families story. It mainly focuses on the family tree to help me straighten things out, but also give a bit of the family drama involved at the end of the Mahabharata, because who doesn't like a little bit of family drama.

Source: Mahabharata (Public Domain Version)

Family Trees from Source

Week 5 Story: A Rash Choice

A Rash Choice:

Hunger was all that I could think of. After days of wandering the forest with very little food, all I wanted was a decent meal and some water to drive way the thirst that consumed my thoughts.

After walking for what felt like miles, I finally stumbled across a women sitting on the verandah of a hut, admiring a ring on her finger. Without another thought or hesitation, I slowly crawled towards her.

"Please, beautiful women, spare me some food and help a starving man out," I said.

The women never batted an eye at me, so I spoke again, fearing the hunger made my voice too quiet to hear.

"Please, kind women, help a hungry man out." This time I was basically next to her as I spoke, but once again she completely ignored me.

Starving and upset, I lost my temper at the women. "How could you be so cruel to ignore someone in need directly in front of you? I hope whoever you're thinking about forgets you ever existed."

The women still didn't hear me, but I felt better after cursing her. I hobbled away only to be immediately stopped by two very distressed girls.

"Please sir," they were begging me. "Please don't curse our friend. She was only thinking of the one she loves who she is separated from."

"She ignored me, a beggar in my time of need, even when I was inches from her face. How could I ever forgive her?"

"We'll help you," the girls offered.

They lead my to their well and gave me water and some bread to eat. I sat beside it and savored every bite of the food. The girls let me sit for a moment before they resumed their begging. The hunger and the thirst gone, I suddenly felt bad for my rash choice. I had been in love once and I remembered how hard it was to be separated from her. However, I couldn't just go back on my curse. I sat for a minute and pondered what I could do.

It struck me like lightning.

"If the man she was thinking of sees a token of their love, he'll remember her."

The girls thanked my profusely and I continued on my walk, feeling better and refreshed.


Bibliography: Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee

Author's Note: While reading, the part where Shakuntala gets cursed is what I liked the most so that's the part I focused on for my story. I didn't do too much to change it, just changing around some names really, but I chose to write it from the perspective of the mendicant that curses her to get his thoughts on the story. This story is from a section of Sakuntala from the Ninde Ideal Indian Women by Sunity

The Beggar from Flickr Images

Week 3 Story: A Family Buisness

A Family Buisness
Updated Story Can be Found on My Website There once was a family with one brother and three sisters that ran a family business. The brother was the CEO of the business, but consulted with his sister’s regularly and each one felt like an equal. While the brother had no sons, each sister had one son of her own, all born the same year. As the brother got older, he decided he needed to pick one of his nephews to take over the business and start training them so he could prepare to retire.

After careful consideration, the CEO picked his eldest sister’s son, Ray, to be the next CEO. Everyone in the family was very happy with the choice, as Ray was a hard-working and good natured man who always treated his employees and clients with respect. They all knew the company was in good hands. The employees even threw a party in Ray’s honor to celebrate. 

However, there was one person who wasn’t satisfied with the CEO’s choice. Martha, the middle sister’s son’s nanny, hated Ray. When Ray was only five, he had thrown food into Martha’s hair and laughed at her, and she had held a grudge ever since. Upset with the CEO’s choice, Martha approached the middle sister, Keana, to try and see if she would work to make her son, Bart, CEO.

“I can’t see how you could be happy at this announcement,” Martha said upsetly.

“How could you be so upset at this nice celebration party?” Keana asked. “Ray will make a terrific CEO and my brother made a fine choice.”

“He may make a great CEO,” Martha lied. “But he will make Bart a nobody in this company. All the hard work that Bart has done for this family will be for nothing, since Ray will completely take over and cast everyone else aside. I’ve heard him planning it myself.”

Keana pondered this for a minute, and started to worry about her and her son’s future. “Oh, Martha, what should I do? How could I convince my brother to not have Ray be CEO after he’s announced it?”

“Remember the favor he owes you for the disastrous Halloween party scandal? If you hadn’t helped him out that night, this whole company would’ve been in tatters. Cash in that favor, reminding him how much he owes you and Bart will be named the next CEO.”

Keana nodded solemnly, “I will.”

The two women spent the rest of that night on that balcony at that party, planning out exactly how to make Bart the next CEO.



Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie, Link

Author's Note:

I chose the read the Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana so my original source story is number 14 from those stories: Manthara and Kaikeyi (Link). I'm not sure exactly what it was that made me want to rewrite this one but I think I liked how easily Manthara knew how to persuade Kaikeyi to get rid of Rama and then how for the rest of the story Kaikeyi description changed and how much she stuck to making her son King. For my verision of the story, I chose to modernize it, making it a family business instead of a kingdom. I also made the King's wives his sisters, since polygamous marriages aren't as common in modern times. Part of the moderization I did was changing names as well. In this story, Martha = Manthara, Kaikeyi = Keana, Dasharatha= The CEO, Rama = Ray and Bhartu = Bart.

Manthara from Source

Week 2 Story: The Hectic Recess

The Hectic Recess

New Version: https://sites.google.com/view/jess-indian-epics-portfoliolio/home

Billy the second grader was swinging on the playground, daydreaming. While he was day-dreaming, he remembered a conversation he overheard his parents had this morning about how the world was just falling apart. He started to wonder what they meant by that and what that would look like.

At that moment, the fifth graders’ kickball struck the swingset poles. There was a loud crash and the swingset shook. Billy, remembering his parent’s conversation earlier that morning, knew it was the world falling apart. He began to run towards the school for protection.

As Billy started running, he ran straight into Sara, who asked him what was the matter.

“My parents said the world was falling apart and it’s happening right now! I heard it just now!” Billy panted.

Sara joined him in his run. The more kids they passed, the more questions they asked. First the second graders asked what was happening, and once they were told they joined Billy and Sara. Then the third graders, then the fourth graders, and then even the fifth graders joined the mass of children running towards the school. 

Right in front of the school’s entrance was Mrs. Smith, the second grade teacher. When she saw the massive huddle of children running towards her, she whistled so loud it brought all the kids to a halt. 

“What’s wrong?” Mrs. Smith asked the fifth graders.

“The fourth graders said that the world was falling apart,” they declared.

When Mrs. Smith asked the fourth graders, they pointed to the third graders. And when she asked the third graders, they pointed to the second graders. And when she asked the second graders, they pointed to Sara. And when she asked Sara, she pointed to Billy.

Billy, out of breath, explained how he had heard the loud bang and how his parents said the world was falling apart and that was happening right now!

“Our kickball hit your swing set,” One of the fifth graders noted. “Was that the loud bang you heard and the reason the swing set shook?”

“And parents are sometimes dramatic,” Mrs. Smith reminded the children. “They don’t always mean exactly what they say.”

Billy gave this some thought and calmed down. The other kids considered it too, and they too began to calm down.

“Now, everyone go enjoy the end of recess,” Mrs. Smith said. “Before you must return to class.”

All the children ran back to where they were previously playing. Even Billy returned to the swing set to swing and daydream about life. Author's Notes: Whenever I read the story, I just imagined all of the animals running around acting like children, because they acted on so little knowledge and instantly just went a little crazy. So that's why I changed my story for the main character to be a second grader and for it to take place at an elementary school. The story was based on The Foolish, Timid Rabbit. Bibliography: "The Foolish Timid Rabbit" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Web Source

Swing Set from Flickr Images