Week 3 Famous Last Words

I was able to really get ahead this weekend, which is good, because next weekend I'll be in Austin and I probably won't get any schoolwork done... and that's okay: I'm over halfway through the Ramakien (it is SO COOL), and I wrote my first Hanuman story for Week 3, so even if I miss the rest of Week 4's assignments, I can just pick up in Week 5 and go from there. I'm also finding so much gorgeous artwork, like this painting of Hanuman carrying Rama and Lakshmana by artist Baua Devi.

And I had so much fun writing this story. It was a little scary at first: all the stories I've written lately have been chain tales, and even the first story I wrote for this class was a chain tale (the rabbit and the end of the world). When you write a chain tale, it's a creative writing experience for sure, but you don't really have to worry about the characters: it's all about the plot and the words and the repetitions, but you aren't really connected to the characters as people (or para-people, quasi-people, whatever these fictional persons are). For my Birth of Hanuman story, though, there are actual people, including Ahalya, for whom I have always felt so much sympathy, and also her daughter Swaha, who is very sympathetic also. I wanted that to come through in the story, and I hope that it did. I was really happy with how it turned out, and it makes me optimistic for the stories to come.

Now with all my Ramakien notes I have a TON of Hanuman material that I can use for writing a new story in Week 5; for the Story Lab in Week 4 I think I'll just do more research, using that cool index of Hanuman stories in Lutgendorf's book to try to see in what ways the Ramakien Hanuman does connect up with stories from India and in what ways this Hanuman is just different. I saw some people working ahead already doing Story Lab posts for Week 4; that Story Lab thing was one of the best experiments from last semester, and I will be making good use of that option too for all the research I'd like to do!

So, like usual, I'm feeling that dread of going back to Austin (Thursday through Tuesday this time), but I have a Kindle full of books, so if I do get a little free time to take a breath, I'll have some books into which I can escape. I wish Chitra's new book was available for Kindle (I've got my hard copy, but so far there is no Kindle)... but that's okay: the Lutegendorf book is fabulous, and I can read the Khon Mask book on my phone. So, at least on the airplane I'll have time to read and enjoy, and I'll just hope everything goes okay. I can practice the Hanuman Chalisa and maybe use that in a moment of need also! I've got a great playlist of Hanuman Chalisa music downloaded on my phone now. Check out this very fast-paced version by Hemant Chauhan: wow!