Week 2 Reading Overview

Krishna and Balarama

Source: Wikimedia

    For this class, I have chosen the "Tiny Tales of the Ramayana" in print. One of the main reasons I chose this (which might not sound that deep) was because the cover looked very aesthetically pleasing. I also really like having the physical book and I loved the fact that this wasn't as harsh on my pockets as some books can be. Another reason I chose this was the free audiobook! I love listening to audiobooks while walking to places and this was a very huge plus to have.

    Browsing through the comic books, I found that Krishna frequently gets my attention. Every time a story of Krishna comes up my mind goes, "oh, I want to read this." This might be due to pure nostalgia because I probably have read every Krishna Amar Chitra Katha, and they were my favorite character as a child. One story of Krishna particularly caught my eye and it was Krishna and the False Vasudeva as I have neither heard nor read this story. I was very intrigued! Other characters that grabbed my attention were The Sons of Rama: Luv and Kush. I have actually read this but their story never fails to grab my attention. I was always very fascinated with the post-war lives of people in Ramayana, and I love the story when Rama gets to meet his sons for the first time. 

    From the Youtube playlist, the two videos that caught my attention were: KALI Through Many Eyes and Sacred Trees. Goddess Kali is someone that I get attracted to a lot when I read mythological stories. Probably because she was nothing like the other goddesses. Growing up, Kali was very empowering(?) The other video sacred trees- I was drawn towards that because I know nothing about sacred trees. I do know some trees are sacred in our culture and I can name some, but it's something that I have little to no knowledge about.