Indian Epics Journal

My goal to journal more! Source: Flickr . The Neurologists Who Fought Alzheimer's By Studying Nuns' Brains The article presents a study in which participants were nuns exhibiting Alzheimer's disease. They found that nuns who shared written accounts of their lives and personal essays tended not to develop symptoms. Additionally, one particular sister remained intellectually competent and active in her 80s, even with Alzheimer's! This article confirmed my understanding that writing is a useful life skill. Although I was somewhat aware of the beneficial aspects of record keeping, I had no idea of the extent to which these benefits would go to. I think the Alzheimer's study is fascinating, especially how this reveals that everyday writing can help people be cognitively skilled well into older age.  I am curious to explore how journaling may or may not long term influence my mindset. If I journal my experiences encountered everyday and then reflect on these wh...

Some words of inspiration. Source: Flickr . This spring semester is flying by! Unfortunately, I did not have time to do both portions of the reading so I will be making up reading through the extra credit opportunities. My favorite part about the Mahabharata so far is the various characters we meet because they are all so different, yet unified in aspects like intentions or fighting in the war. I think the story I told this week is one of my best works. It might need some editing/revision but I definitely put in 100% when I thought of how to retell the love story of King Shantanu and Satyavati. You can read my story here . I have written a couple of love stories now and I hope to become better at storytelling, rather than just presenting information. I've discovered that in order to write a good story, I need to start early and avoid procrastination. If I experience writer's block, I take a break until I am inspired. This week, I tried writing from the perspective of t...

The beauteous Satyavati rowing the ferryboat. Source:  Wikipedia . Note: The current version can be found on my portfolio here . There was a mighty powerful king named Uparichara, who ruled over the Chedi Kingdom. During a time Uparichara was away from his beloved wife, Girka, he had lascivious dreams about her, resulting in a nocturnal emission. Using the luxurious flying car, gifted to him from Indra, Uparichara wished to send his semen to Girka. However, en route, heavy gusts of wind flipped the crystal car in all directions. At one point, the car was upside-down, causing a drop of semen to fall into the Yamuna river.  A female fish swallowed Uparichari’s semen. Ten months later, this fish gave birth to a beautiful girl with a glowing, golden complexion and large, luminous eyes. The Yamuna river fisherman named her Satyavati, after the fishy smell dispersing from her body. As Satyavati grew up, she became increasingly self-conscious about this permanent body odor b...

Maya showing gratefulness to Arjuna and Krishna. Source: Wikipedia . PDE Mahabharata: The Burning of the Forest Source. The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921). Reading notes focused on character of Mayasura and Vidura. Mayasura - An article with more background information than the Mahabharata contains. Agni, the fire god, requested for Arjuna and Krishna to defeat the god, Indra. This is because everytime Agni would ignite a fire in the forest, Indra would cause heavy rain to extinguish the fire.  After a great battle, Agni burned the Kandava forest with a fire, which killed most of the residing animals. Mayasura is one of the creatures that escaped the fire.  He became incredibly grateful to Krishna from saving his life perishing flames. Because of this, Mayasura promised Arjun and Krishna to build a great palace, as he was the “divine architect of the gods.”  Duryodhana grew jealous of the increasingly prosperous Pandavas.  May...