Essay: Technology of Writing

1.Okay
2. Hard
3 Really freaking hard
4.Okay
5. Really hard
6. Impossible
7. Really easy
8. Really easy
9. No thanks
10. Easy
11. I don't get the joke, but easy
12. Hard

The purpose of this assignment was to analyze what punctuation, capitalization, and other writing elements are the most critical to my reading success. The first difficulty in reading arose whenever the words were written in ALL CAPS without spaces or punctuation. There was one joke written in this fashion that I actually made me surrender. I think the major factor in what made reading the ALL CAPS onslaught was that as a reader I was so used to reading one capital letter per sentence or so. I see lower case letters combined in long strings everyday, and so when the caps are combined it gets crazy.

I'll let you have a try: THISISRIDICULOUSHOWCANANYONEREADTHISIKNOWICOULDNTWHENEVERISTARTEDTHISASSIGNMENTIMSORRY THISWASMEANANDISHOULDNEVERHAVEWISHEDTHISTERRIBLEUPONTHELIKESOFYOU

This brings up my next point, which was the all lower case and punctuated properly, that all lower case is pretty easy to read, especially with normal spacing. I did notice, however, that when I read something in all lower case I read it with an inner voice much younger than mine currently. I have a couple of friends who only post in lower case whenever they are on Facebook because they save their capitalized writing for assignments and proper papers, not online (I'm sorry, friends, but it only makes me think you're a tad pretentious).

I thought it was amazing that the all lower case, bunched into clauses, but properly capitalized text was pretty easy to read. I did notice, however that I read the bunches of text like a stream of consciousness.

In conclusion, I found the parts of writing that most aided my reading were spacing and punctuation.

Storytelling Week 14

"I call to the stand-- Old Blacke"

The once virile calf was now an old bull, and although he once was known for having hair as black as collyrium, it was now peppered with gray patches. The bull's bones creaked all the way to the front of the room. He finally stopped and gave a loud "muff" sound that signaled he was prepared to speak.

The prosecutor began again, "Good morning Old Blacke. I have prepared a list of questions for you regarding the payment of a certain caravan owner on a scorching day years ago. As I understand, you were once shortchanged by this man, and demanded proper pay even though you were an animal working for a man. How do you rationalize asking for such pay? The work must not have been too tumultuous for a bull of your caliber?"

The bull bellowed out a low droning, "Fool, do you not know who I was taking care of at the time?" The bull cleared his throat once more, "At the time of this incidence, I was caring for a lady who once was the only one who would care for me. The late Miriam was one of the bestest women I have ever met in my brief life. She took me in as a personal burden to her, and I felt the only way I could ever repay her would be to make a bull's wage pulling carts."

The prosecutor interjected, "Aha! But why would you attempt to make a wage for her instead of working for her yourself?! Clearly there was another motive."

The bull scoffed, "The loving Miriam made sure I would never have to work for her, and she never wanted to sell me because of the happiness I brought to the children of the town. In fact, I see some of those children today in the jury."

The bull wiped his face, an amazing feat for any quadruped and continued, "I only agreed to work for a wage whenever that scoundrel caravan owner attempted to steal me for his own. I even made a proper negotiation agreement with him that he eventually broke. I can understand one's apprehension in paying an animal for its work, but I believe that once you enter negotiations with an animal, you cede over those beliefs and you therefore must maintain your agreement. Additionally, the carts he needed to move numbered in the hundreds, yet he barely had enough oxen to move ten. This caravan owner was not only sinister in his motives to not pay me a previously agreed sum, he was also negligent in possibly endangering the health of his own herd. It was only once I came along that we were able to move all of the carts, and it was afterward that he attempted to short-change me. Let me ask you: Who is the one who should be on trial here?"

...

The bailiff  called out, "The judge will now read the jury's verdict in this case."

The judge unwrapped the parcel and began to speak with a slight smirk on his face, "The jury has ruled that the defendant in this case, Mr. Blacke, is completely innocent. And just let me tell you, Mr. Prosecutor, I don't think I've ever met a human that seemed as noble as this great bull. This court is dismissed."

Author's note:
This story was in reference to the story from Jataka's Fairy Tales located here. I thought the weakest part of my story was why the case was happening so much later than the original incident. I would like the reader to assume this was likely because of the inherent flaws in expediency of the court in this world.

UnTextbook Reading Diary

Jataka's Tales Shedlock : Link

Note: I had a tough time narrowing down my selections, and although I read the whole unit, my favorites were all from the first half.

Tree spirit
First, I thought it was interesting that Buddha took form as a tree spirit instead of an animal like in Babbitt's tales.I wonder if people worshiping the Sal tree ever thought of the presence of Buddha possibly being there. I know that I would never worship a tree for certain, although the level of decoration around Christmas time at my house might lead you to believe otherwise :) What other deities might be present in all of the trees that mankind has shredded for its own consumption? The world may never know!

The Hare Don't Care!
I'm not sure how I feel about these creatures being in charge of keeping moral law. Two of them clearly stole someone else's catch. Now tell me, Otter. How do you think those fish got buried in the sand while being properly preserved? Last time I checked, fish use water as their mode of transport and not sand. It's cool that the hare was willing to give himself up like that as a test of his moral compass, but I think a smarter option in the future would be to try to catch something whenever grass isn't a viable offering.

The Man who Worked to Give Alms
Alms - giving oneself to another as an act of virtue, like providing someone education willfully,
I'm not sure why Sakka chose to teach him this lesson, or maybe he wasn't. The way I read the story was that the riches were taken by some greater power and then restored. But this man was clearly pure in his reason for alm-giving. I want to write about the man doing something unnecessarily in order to teach Sakka a stinkin' lesson.

The Bull that Proved his Gratitude
This is honestly one of the most beautiful super-short stories I've ever read. Something about seeing that cast iron Bodisat really made the ending great, too. Thought: If you are crazy enough to agree to pay an animal for its work, I don't think you should be attempting to short-change it, especially a bull. And the way that the caravan owner reacted, it sounded like he was literally just trying to test the bull's persistence. Caravan owners, man.

The Monkey that Saved the Hero
Shrek is a jerk in this tale, and he is also patriotic with his blue belly, white face, and red hands. What I found funny about this story was that the ogre was so nonchalant about inviting them down to the shore. It sounded like a nice sit down where he's just inviting them over for some warm stew. He even readily admits he plans to eat them and that they won't get away. It's all business for this relative of Shrek.

That Ripened Pachyderm
I had never heard leagues used as a measurement outside of nautical terms. Am I supposed to believe that this elephant can traverse the oceans and lakes? Because that sounds awesome. I'm pretty sure that this story is an allegory about how you should treat your elders, and was probably written by an old person! That's not to say I don't agree with it, but I think someone was looking out for themselves when it was contrived.

Step Up: Ravana's Time - Storytelling Wk. 7

Ravana stepped out onto the dance floor. He had millions of chains and bangles attached to each hand, elbow, and shoulder. Watching him sway to the beat of a distant drum was like peering out onto a vibrantly violent sea. The moon had perched itself on a nearby mountain for a better view of the strutting and spinning that was certain to occur.

From Flickr

Out of the edge of the clearing, Rama appeared. He wore what resembled a bright orange tracksuit, except this suit could never aid a runner; it included giant, billowing parachute pants. Rama's posse assisted him in putting on his dancing boots, which were sequined all the way to the top. The glimmer of these boots was so intense that it blinded Ravana as he swung, spun, and stepped rhythmically across the floor. He nearly crashed into a tree nearby before recovering into a full-on frolic of limbs in excitement.

He called out to Rama, "You silly people nearly ruined my groove!" Rama scoffed at this remark and replied, "Is that what you call a groove?" Ravana immediately stopped his dance, but that's not to say his jewelry and sweeping clothing did not continue his last few lines for him. Ravana then turned away and crossed his arms. Years passed before he shattered the silence, "I challenge you... TO A DANCE OFF!"

Rama looked down at his own feet purposefully and back up again,"Let's do it."

It was very obvious early on that Rama was outmatched by the incredible dancer that was Ravana. For every spin, flip, and bow that Ravana had to offer Rama, Rama managed to either trip himself or knock down a bystander at the floor's edge. The dance would have ended after only a few seconds if Rama hadn't lost his sparkling boots while attempting to click his heels together between his drunken stumbles. The boots were quite beautiful, but their maker had clearly mistaken Rama's feet for those of the great Vali because they merely dangled at the ends of his legs whenever he picked up his feet.

The music finally began to carry off, leaving Ravana to revel in the beauty of his victory. What Rama was doing could no longer be classified as dancing. He had fallen down so many times that every joint in his body began to ache, and so he had begun to resort to only bobbing his head up and down while appreciating Ravana's final jaunt across the floor. Rama then collapsed and was only able to escape the clearing once some of his crew carried him away in their arms. Just as Ravana thought he would never have to deal with the atrocious dancer ever again, he heard Rama yelp out in the distance, "I'm going to take you down with my own bow and arrow tomorrow!"

Ravana was taken aback by this comment. "Do people actually resort to violence to resolve their issues?" he asked himself. That thought lasted about as long as it took for the beat of the drum to make its way once again over the mountain, and Ravana's dazzling dance carried him off into the night.



Author's Note:
While Rama did not ever participate in a dance with Ravana, I thought it might be entertaining to let Ravana win something over him. I felt a bit of sympathy for him. While he was a very powerful king of the Rakshasas, he deserved to be really good at something he clearly enjoyed. I'm not sure if Buck ever alludes to Rama's dancing skill, but I'm going to have to give it up to Ravana on this one.

I quickly discovered while writing this that I had no clue how to describe dancing. I originally meant for this to be funny, and it was to some extent, but I ended up liking the Ravana vs. Rama reversal even more. The part at the end is supposed to be describing the lack of preparation of Ravana for the upcoming final battle.

Source:
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Tech Tip - Firefox RSS

Hey there! I've used RSS feeds before, so I thought I would try out this tech tip. I think I will find it useful for any of the review assignments we have as the end of the semester approaches. I use Firefox on my transformer tablet because it interacts better with the touch-screen capabilities. I use Chrome on my desktop computer at home, mainly for its speed and performance. I would recommend either of these browsers as they are both solid.

Famous Last Words - Week 13

I could tell you all about how well I've felt this class is going for me, and I'm sure you'd all love to hear it. Instead, I have an exciting announcement to make...

I received my call from the Northeastern State Oklahoma College of Optometry and got accepted this week! I cannot express my feelings appropriately right now. All the hard work of the past 3+ years has culminated into this beautiful moment. I will be studying in Tahlequah, OK next Fall. It's actually going to be pretty tough to stay focused since all I have to do to make it in now is just complete my degree by May 2015 -- which I'm on track to do, thankfully.

The interview was fine, and I've always thought of myself as a solid interviewer, but I had my doubts. Most of this apprehension stems from some of the job interviews I've had in the past that seemingly went well, but to only end up with no call-back from the prospective employer.  I determined this Summer what I think was the source of this disinterest in my application by employers. I had used a past employer as a reference on nearly every single application I had filled out, but they evidently had written me down as a "No Call, No Show" on my last day of work there. When I confronted some of the supervisors about this, they even remembered me and thought that I fully worked my last two weeks there. The issue was that it had been so long since I worked there (over four years) that they could not change the database and thus when prospective employers called, they likely told them that I was listed as "No rehire". Needless to say, I don't include them on my reference list unless I specifically have to.

A New Punctutation Mark - The wiggin ♎

How to use this punctuation mark: ♎

The wiggin is to be used in those awkward statement-questions when you are unsure whether to use a period or a question mark. Sometimes it can be something simple as: "I was wondering if you could take me to school ♎" Usually you would end this in a period as it is a statement, but since there is some sort of interrogatory element to the sentence, the wiggin was used. 

The wiggin is also therefore used as a way to signify a tone of uncertainty in the author's statement. For example: "We think that the capital of Oklahoma is Norman ♎" This usage of the wiggin is useful because now the reader knows you are not attempting to make an accurate statement as much as you are guessing.

One of the disadvantages I foresee in the usage of this punctuation mark is its incorporation into cursive script. It is clearly separated into two entities, so a free-flowing writer will once again have to let the pen off the page or make a modification of the original mark. I chose the symbol of the wiggin because I liked how it looked like an underlined Omega-- which can be used to signify the end of a passage with some other emphasis (like uncertainty).

I think more succinctly, this punctuation should be used to signify the presence of indirect questions.

Examples:
I'm asking whether you like blue or green ♎
I'm not sure which shirt to pick ♎
I'm inquiring about where to sign up ♎

Reading Diary: Indian Fairy Tales

Link to Indian Fairy Tales
Link to untextbook options


The Lion and the Crane
I know how they expect me to feel about this. Stupid ungrateful lion! I'll tell you why I feel exactly the opposite! This is how the food chain works. The greatest beast of the land, king of the animals, is supposed to thank a crane? Haha. Sounds like something a crane would say. That being said, the lion is probably pretty grateful, but that doesn't mean he should tell anyone or thank the crane.

Magic Fiddle
I thought this story was super interesting. I read through most of it before realizing the girl actually drowned there. The whole idea of the water source drying up and then filling and trapping her sounds horrific. I thought it was odd that no recourse was sought out by the original Yogi, and that it was never mentioned that she came out of the fiddle during the Yogi. Maybe he was a gross old yogi who she found creepy. I thought it was nice that everything worked out for her and that she didn't seek much revenge, even though her family caused her death.

Tiger, Brahman, and the Jackal
What a beautiful story. I knew as soon as the jackal (which is usually depicted as sly like a fox) was acting confused that someone would be ousted. I think all of the whining by the roads and the tree made me want to go out and cut a few down while trampling on the road. If they can't appreciate what a service they provide and understand they will never be appreciated, then they must be ignored! I found it interesting that the Brahman in this story was not the wittiest, and in some ways it seemed like he might have been the dumbest... or at least in a close second.

The Talkative Tortoise
I remember reading someone's adaptation of this story for the blog commenting assignment last week. I wish there had been more of a buildup to the tortoise's flight instead of the wild ducks inviting him to fly and then him falling to his death. My favorite phrase in the passage involves the tortoise "talking overmuch", which sounds a lot like something Hank Moody would say in the TV show Californication -- a newly discovered Netflix favorite for me. But I digress...

Pride Goeth Before a Fall
I must have read this passage over a undredhy times! Just kidding. I think it was really interesting how the traders used their code language to fool the robbers. One other image that came to my head was really funny -- whenever the merchants finally pounced on the robbers, there was a moment where a bunch of loin-cloth-clad men tackling each other. It would have looked much like the great Spartan wrestling of many years ago! I will probably write my storytelling assignment about this story and it will be written entirely in merchant-speak, so you have been warned!

Demon with Matted Hair
I wish my dad would give me a full thousand pieces of money for my education... Dad, do you read my blog? Does this demon have a crazy weave with dreadlocks? Maybe he just got the most wicked of perms. Maybe all he needed to offer the demon was some Head and Shoulders... we may never know.

Cartoon Essay:

I enjoyed writing a small essay over the cartoon so much last time that I decided to do it all again. This cartoon is near and dear to my heart -- and despite being a student at a major public university, I witness this mistake far too often.

What makes this cartoon funny? First of all, the inclusion of an elderly couple in any subject immediately makes it a little funnier and a little more adorable. There is something about old people that makes them hilarious. They don't hold back thoughts, and they have enough experience with this mortal realm that makes their responses completely palpable. Now to dive in to the cartoon itself. The conversation begins with an innocent question: Are you making a New Year's Resolution? This response in itself is plain, and doesn't appear to be loaded whatsoever. Next, Opal reveals that she often finds herself criticizing her husband. It is not disclosed what the husband's resolution was, but I like to think it was something about dieting or physical health.

 The following sequence is where the grammar travesty is committed. Either he says "your" in such a way that it could never be understood as "you're", or the Opal in the cartoon just knows he is missspelling and misusing the word in his head. My girlfriend and I actually argued over this for a few minutes, whether part of the point of this cartoon was to show the woman's flaw in assuming her husband would use the incorrect word or if it was to solely show the irony in her original resolution.

The cartoon finishes with a little more of its adorable charm, with the old man quirkily responding, "We're both great." This is a nice ending in which he continues on his path of blissful ignorance.

Storytelling Week 12: Make Friends, Not War

Quail from Wikipedia

A great bird hunter lived with his wife in the Fowl Forest. When the man and his wife first moved to the forest, they thought it was a beautiful place to start a family. Before starting work on building their new cabin, the hunter decided to fetch some easy game from the nearby creek. He ventured along the edge of the creek for only a few minutes before he encountered a wild flock of quail. He knew that these birds could be easily harvested with a simple net. He manufactured the net from some of the wild grasses and thatch from the brush piles nearby.

The net was quickly tossed over the covey. It was expected that some of the quail would escape, and in the violent thrashing of their wings at least two-thirds of the winged dinner escaped. The hunter was happy with his catch, and hiked home proudly to help his wife prepare their delicious dinner.

The next day started much life the one before, and the hunter decided the quail would be an easy catch for him again. He packed his net and roamed over to the creek once again. The capture was not nearly as smooth this time. The quail appeared to work in unison, and tossed the net off within seconds. He only managed to corral one of the fowl by catching it out of the air.  He sulked through the rest of the forest in an attempt to find more prey, but to no avail.

His wife gave him a kiss and wished him good luck on the third day of his hunt. Luckily they saved some of the first day's catch or else they would have gone to bed hungry. The man happened upon the covey once again. As he prepared for his ambushed, he noticed that the quail all were watching him this time. One of them had its wing up in the air much like a general does to signal a charge. The hunter was perplexed by this, and decided it was best to slightly change his course of action. He engineered his net so that it was weighed down substantially burdensome stone weights. He approached the quail again and tossed his net. He was ecstatic about the catch he was about to have, filled with so much excitement that he did not notice the group of quails catching the net in mid-air and dropping it upon him. The quail then proceeded to pin down the hunter under the confines of the net.

The leading quail peered through the net with a pleading look in his eye. Words were obviously not exchanged, but the hunter understood everything completely. The hunter nodded his head in concession. He was then freed from his own trap, and the quail quickly escaped the scene. The hunter decided it was best to never hunt these creatures ever again.

Author's Note:
I wrote a modified version of this story: Quarrel of the Quails. I decided to tell the story from the perspective of the hunter instead of the quail The other significant change was that I made the quails work together to "defeat" the hunter. In fact, in my story, there was really no quarrel between the quail at all.

Jataka Tales: Reading Diary Week12

Link to untextbook selections: Link
Link to Jatakas stories: Link  

Jatakas
These stories are considered the birth stories of buddha, especially in the previous incarnations. Each unit was its own short story.

Monkey and the Crocodile
 I actually already really love these stories. They all read like little story tales from childhood.
The crocodile is clearly the villain in the story, but a good job is done to make one turn against the "greedy" monkey. I thought it was cool how interestingly scienftific the story was. Crocodiles do often drown their prey and then use the jaw to snap their bodies. They usually use the jaw to first immobilize the prey, and then properly drown them. It's also clear pretty early how much smarter the monkey is than the crocodile. Remember the size of a croc brain? It looks like a pea. I think the resolution of the story is quite clever and deep because of how the monkey hears the crocodile's surrender of pursuit, and yet the monkey agrees to never stop looking out for the crock.

How the turtle saved his own life
How hilarious it is that the boys were that scared of a turtle. I hope it was at least a large snapping turtle -- those are probably best to be feared.   Otherwise, the introverted turtle seems less like a demon than some of the fish I've seen. The turtle does a grand job of playing along with the old man's plan to save the turtle. I was confused at first, honestly. I thought the boys were planning to throw him on to the rocks near the lake, not into the lake.

The turtle who couldn't stop talking
 Negative exemplum - when we are supposed to learn a lesson by observing someone's foolish mistake. Very common in fables.
I imagine a really sassy turtle, probably similar to the first story. "Do I look like I can fly with you, you idiot geese?" I say all of this, and the turtle agrees to be suspended above the earth by the grip of his mouth and the talons of the geese. This story is pretty sad compared to the first two.


The ox who won the forfeit
 This man is so proud of his ox, but I never hear of any rewarding of the ox for its great strength. Man only seeks to benefit. This trend rings true whenever the ox refuses to comply because of the harshness of the man's commands.

Quarrel of the Quails
  I read this, and it sounds so familiar to me. I probably have read this before, although I'm unsure where. I think the story characterizes how stupid the quails are. Despite them clearly fighting for their lives each day in the net, they cannot overcome the petty quarrel that occurred.

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit
 If I read this story from another source without the preface that Laura Gibbs included above, I'd have assumed that it was a knock-off of the chicken and "The sky is falling!" It's interesting to know that the origin of the story dates much farther back than previously thought. The lion is smart in this story, but to only assume that the rabbit simply heard a coconut fall. What if a piece of sky had also fallen? I think that might be a dangerous assumption to make!

Banyan Deer
 Another golden deer! The indian storytellers do tend to love their gilded fawns. What a strange relationship between the king and his subjects. The people of his kingdom seem to be taking care of the king, and not vice-versa. The king is also not apparently very smart because he decided to longer hunt either deer population, which according to the story were becoming huge and probably needed to be hunted in order to control the budding numbers. Oh well.

Princes and the Water-sprite
  Even though the promise was made for a different reason, this sounds a lot like what Kaikeyl did in the Ramayana. She wanted her son to receive the kingdom and thus asked to exile Rama. I think it's strange that the eldest brother had this small poem prepared as his answer to the sprite, and it was apparently the correct answer. I think this might have been all a great ruse to teach the younger brothers a lesson.

Storytelling Wk 9: Epic Twitter

@NotYourAverageRiver

Lil Miss Ganges!

Source Wiki commons

1,756,998 followers

3 following

@YoKingShantanu 
Hey @NotYourAverageRiver, I saw you earlier down by the Ganges. You were lookin' fine. I will give you loads of money if you go ahead and marry me. Deal?!

@YoKingShantanu
Yo @NotYourAverageRiver , I promise to not check your texts or tweet history if we get married. I won't call you when you're out clubbin'

@YoKingShantanu
I still haven't heard back on my offer. I'll send you a gold elephant. @NotYourAverageRiver

@NotYourAverageRiver
I accept your offer. See you around. Love you lots ;)

@NotYourAverageRiver 
I had a child born today. It's swimming with the fishes.

@LilRiverBaby1
@NotYourAverageRiver that was soooooo cold of you to toss me in that river. I'm going to unfollow you. Did you see what she did to me, @YoKingShantanu? I need you to come fish me out.

@LilRiverBaby1
You took a selfie after tossing me into the river?! @NotYourAverageRiver

@LilRiverBaby1
I'm glad to have company and all, but did you really have to cast all seven of us into a river? Hit up the broskis with a follow though! @LilRiverBaby2 @LilRiverBaby3 @LilRiverBaby4 @LilRiverBaby5 @LilRiverBaby6 @RiverBabythaCreator


@YoKingShantanu
I got a call from some of my "high up" buddies. They're saying you sent @RiverBabythaCreator to them, too? C'mon. @NotYourAverage River, that's horrible

@RiverBabyThaCreator
I mean, I'm just a little baby and all, but @NotYourAverageRiver must have a reason for all of this. Maybe you can talk to her, dad. @YoKingShantanu

@YoKingShantanu
I know I said I wouldn't question you or nothin' but we need to talk. Message me back @NotYourAverageRiver

@NotYourAverageRiver
I cast those babies into the river for all of their past sins. Don't worry though, this one's a keeper! @Bhishma4real

@NotYourAverageRiver
 Those babies were eight Vasus cursed by Vasishtha, himself. If anything, I did them a favor by freeing them from this mortal realm! #NotSorry

@NotYourAverageRiver
@YoKingShantanu it's been real and all but I've got to go #brokenpromises #loveyanot

@YoKingShantanu
That's cool @NotYourAverageRiver, at least I have my son to raise. Can't wait until he can throw a football! #NFLready @Bhishma4real

@Bhishma4real
Sorry, dad, but I think I'm going with mom. #priorities @NotYourAverageRiver

@YoKingShantanu
K @Bhisma4real

@Bhishma4real
It's not your fault @YoKingShantanu, I just have some things to work out with old man Vashistha. He and mom go way back. It could be worse. You're still the king!

@YoKingShantanu
Can't get Michael Bolton's, "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?" out of my head. #np

@YoKingShantanu has made his tweets private.

Author's Note:

This was a Twitter synopsis (although I did not always adhere to the 140 character limit) of the opening story in the Mahabharata. In the story, King Shantanu (I've also read Santanu) sees a beautiful woman on the banks of the Ganges. This happens to be Ganga. She agrees to marry him only if he agrees to one condition: he is to never question her actions. Ganga proceeds to have seven children and subsequently drowns each one in the river. Upon the birth of the eighth child, Shantanu cannot hold back any more and confronts Ganga. Ganga finally explains that these "Vasus" had been cursed by Brahma, and by killing the children she is lifting the curse from them upon one year of birth. Since their agreement had been broken, Ganga then leaves with the baby. The baby goes on to be raised by Vashistha.


I tried my best to format this exchange at the very beginning of the Mahabharata to make it look like Twitter. I hope everyone can decipher who is talking to whom, but the gist is the bold is for the person posting each tweet. I tried to make the deaths of the babies being cast into the rivers more lighthearted and mystical. I know I didn't get to put much content in the story, but the twitter formatting actually uses up a ton of words and characters.

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.