Class Procedures and Reminders:
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment before 4PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned in your assignment later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
Week 7 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) For the Week 7 Internet assignment, which is available now, you will be reading stories at people's Storybooks. That means you have more reading to do this time (stories and perhaps also introductions), so you will have just THREE Storybooks that you comment on. To find out more about how the assignment works this week, see the Internet assignment page.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Suggestion Box. You might have noticed the link in the right-hand sidebar of these announcements to the anonymous Suggestion Box. This is a way for you to share feedback with me about the class - what's going well, what I could improve, etc. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can offer!
Featured Storybook: Letters of Vishnu. Delaney has added the first story to this Storybook for Indian Epics, and it is a marvelous retelling of Vishnu's avatar Kurma, the Turtle.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is The fruit must have a stem before it grows (a Liberian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Fruit stems don't get a lot of respect... but they are important!
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image is The Battle of Lanka. Notice how the painting is something like an animated cartoon: you see Ravana standing tall on his chariot, and then you see him toppling from that chariot when Hanuman hits him in the face (or faces!). For fans of the bear Jambavan, you can see him with the monkeys attending Rama on the left.
Wednesday Event on Campus: The OU Math Club is hosting a movie night in the FVS student lounge (room 324) in Old Science Hall; the film is Moneyball and the show starts at 5PM (details at the Math Club blog).
October 2: Birthday of Gandhi. The great Indian spiritual and political leader, Mohandas Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, over 140 years ago. On January 30 in 1948, after having led the fight for India's independence from the British Empire, Gandhi was assassinated. The image below shows the memorial in New Delhi where Gandhi's body was cremated. Written on the stone you can see what were reportedly Gandhi's last words: "Hey Ram" (Oh Rama) - his invocation of Lord Rama will definitely mean something to the students in the Indian Epics class. Although it is a matter of some controversy as to whether those were Gandhi's last words, here is something he wrote in December 1947, just weeks before his assassination: "In the end it will be as Rama commands me. Thus I dance as He pulls the strings. I am in His hands and so I am experiencing ineffable peace." If you look closely at the photograph, you will see the words "Hey Ram" written in Devanagari script, gold letters on the black stone, just behind the burning stick of incense:
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
