Storybook Favorites for Epics of India

For this assignment, the goal was to browse through previous years past project, in order to get a grasp on the goals for these projects as well as see examples of what would be expected.  These storybooks provided snippets of information on specific aspects of Indian life, literature, and culture, as well as insight as to what previous students took away from the course.  Furthermore, it also provided a picture as to what to be watching for and noticing throughout the course, in order to form ideas for a successful storybook project for myself later in the semester.

The first storybook that caught my attention was Journey of Festivals.  The storybook provided tales explaining 3 festivals of India, Rama Navami, Onam, and Gudi Padwa.  The reason this storybook caught my eye is that due to my roommate, I have had the unique experience of being able to witness the practice and learn some of the history of these festivals.  While lacking an in depth knowledge of the subject, the information already available was enough to see the finesse used in order to provide a narrative explaining the practices to someone without any previous experience.  The first story of Rama Navami, told from the perspective of his spouse Sita, provided an excellent first person narrative into the festival of Rama's birth.  Without seeming like a history or religious textbook, it elegantly wove the narrative of the origins of the festival transitioning to its modern practice.  Secondly, the festival of Onam, told through the perspective of King Bali, was examined.  The tone felt slightly off, due to it being written through the perspective of the king of the underworld, it lacked the formal, godlike tone assigned to him throughout Indian literature.  This, however, is merely personal taste.  The video restating the story was a nice addition, counterbalancing the irreverent tone of the rest of the story, and providing a more formal narrative of the events.  Finally, the festival of Gudi Padwa, told through the eyes of Brahma, was narrated.  The image of the traditional food for this festival particularly caught my eye, due to its presentation combined with the explanation of the meanings behind the various dishes

Padwa Food from Signature Concoctions

This simple but informative image and accompanying explanation providing an extremely real sensation to this whole story.  

The second story book to pique my interest was The Story of Hanuman, a collection of stories about the monkey god Hanuman and his several of his most famous exploits.  Unlike the first storybook on this list, these stories were told as a 21st century mother telling her twins the story as a way to connect to their past while living in the United States.  As with the first storybook, this allows the tales contained inside to be told in such a way as to be accessible to someone with no knowledge of the subject matter, without talking down to the audience.  The authors personal touch of this being something that they experienced added even more meaning, because one could get that sense of experience.  One final note is that the children's book style artwork was perfect for the stories, they added that touch of authenticity helping convey the mood set by the author.   

The third and final storybook was Gambling & Curses Lose, which drew me in by the title of the storybook.  I found this storybook to be slightly confusing, as I did not have a strong sense of the background or import of the characters involved, but the story itself was intriguing and something completely different from the previous two storybooks.  The story itself was told in an extremely entertaining way, especially with the narration of the surrounding action to the plot.  However, more images would have been a nice addition, to further implant in the readers mind the images the words were conveying. The introduction itself was lackluster, due to jumping directly into the story and not providing the background information to set the stage, such as character development as noted above.  However, the story itself was interesting enough to ask my roommate to fill me in on the characters involved and background of the story, in order to gain this understanding.