Storybook Topics

Topic: Bengali Folktales
Topic Comments: I saw this unit in the Un-Textbook and got excited about it because it contained the word "Bengali". I am from Bangladesh and people from Bangladesh are called Bengali. Hence, I was attracted to this topic right away. I know some of the stories, but not all of them. I want to read this unit as I would like to know all the stories. 
Possible Stories: The stories on the Bengali Folktales unit at the Un-Textbook look really fun and I want to read all of them. I found more stories online. It contains all of the stories from Un-Textbook and then some. It is from Project Gutenberg.
Sample Story: The story I want to use is A Ghostly Wife. The story is very similar to some horror movies we see, but it is common in my home country for these things to happen. It happened to my grandmother, and when I heard about it, it was really scary. So this story brought back some old memories. I read this story at the Un-Textbook.
Bibliography Information: 
Sample Story: A Ghostly Wife
Book Title: Folk-Tales of Bengal
Book Author: Lal Behari Day
Year: 1912

Illustration by Warwick Goble.
Source: A Ghostly Wife

Topic: Aesop's Fables
Topic Comments: I love the Fables found in the two units. I have read three units so far. Will be reading the fourth after I finish this assignment. My two stories are based on these Fables. The Fables are fun to read, and as a bonus, are really short. I like the lesson each provides as they are all good lessons for everyone to know.
Possible Stories: I have lots of choices as there are four units. I have read almost all of them already, so this might be something that I do.
Sample Story: The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse.  I loved the lesson this story provided more than anything else. The lesson was very powerful: Do not trust alone to outward appearances.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse
Book Title: Aesop for Children
Book Author: Milo Winter
Year: 1919

Topic: Modern Cryptids (Supernatural Creatures)
Topic Comments: I love supernatural things. They are not real, but I am fascinated by their stories and origins. The Chupacabra and Big Foot are the biggest cryptids in the modern era so far. There are always some news stories that pop up about how someone sighted one of them somewhere. I really want to write some stories about them.
Possible Stories: I have lots of choices to choose from in the list by Wikipedia.
Sample Story: A story about Big Foot would be my first and most detailed story as I've been hearing about Big Foot for a long time. There are many "sighting" stories in Wikipedia to choose from.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: Bigfoot
Website Name: Wikipedia

Topic: Ghost Stories - Indian
Topic Comments: The stories that I found in search of this topic are fantastic. I want to read the stories in great detail if I choose this topic to do the storybook over.
Possible Stories: There are many different stories in the Indian Ghost Stories book by S. Mukerji. Other stories can be found after searching online. For example, the Bhangarh Fort is regarded as the most haunted place in India.
Sample Story: The Boy Who Was Caught.  I loved the lesson this as it brought back some memories of my childhood. Me and my friends used to do stupid things all the time, including dares or challenges. This story is about a boy who is challenging his friends about the existence of ghosts. 
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Boy Who Was Caught
Book Title: Indian Ghost Stories: Second Edition
Book Author: S. Mukerji
Year: 1917

Week 2 Curation

My three favorite web discoveries for this week:

WatchESPN - It got into my bookmarks because football season started. I can watch games on my computer.

WatchESPN logo from Wikimedia. 

Petrel 2015 - It is on my bookmarks because I am using this software for my geophysics class. It is a software that shows models of different places on Earth. 

Truecar - this is a great website. If you are buying a car, this website gives you the cheapest price available in your area with a coupon that you can take to the dealership and they will sell the car in that price. 

Hence, I've found the bookmarks to be the most useful for this week. 

Week 2 Review

I backed up my files. I also checked if I missed any Declarations, which I did because I was busy, but I am making up for it by doing the extra credit assignments. Again, there are always some pictures that are interesting to me in the daily announcements.

The one I found to be the most interesting is shown below. It is most interesting because it was really funny!

Take risks meme from the daily announcements.
Source: Sunday, September 6 announcement

Week 2 Growth Mindset

I wrote this past week's story using a new approach. I was watching Supernatural and it came to me that I should write the story based on a Supernatural theme. It was totally different from week 1 when I changed some things in the story, whereas, this week, I changed everything for this week's story, but kept the same lesson.

Creativity is the result of hard work meme
from Growth Mindset. 

Week 2 Storytelling: To Be or Not To Be Best Fri-end-s

Supernatural TV show logo.
CW network uploaded it on Wikipedia. 

Jom and Terry are the best of friends. They have been friends for a long time. Their favorite thing to do is to drive their trucks, especially during the winter season when the roads were empty and covered in snow and ice. 

It was winter, and on one snowy evening, the two friends decided to go for a drive. They drove and drove without any real destination in mind. After some time both decided to stop at a pool hall. They both went in and got comfy inside.

A waiter came over and asked, “Can I take your order, please”?

“Yes” said Jom.

“I will have a hamburger, a side of fries, and a large coke please” said Terry.

“I will have the same” said Jom.

After waiting for some time, they received their food, which Jom finished really quickly. Terry was surprised at how fast Jom had finished his food as they usually get done at the same time. Jom got up and walked over to the window.

“Jom” called out Terry.

But Jom did not pay attention to Terry. He kept looking through the window.

“JOM” yelled Terry.

But Jom did not move an inch.

Terry came over to see what was wrong with Jom. He was confused after he looked through the window. It was Spike, the deal maker who had the power to make any deal anyone had ever wanted. Spike had a glowing red shadow that glowed really brightly wherever he went. Terry remembered the deal Jom had made with Spike before he met Jom.

“I want a friend who would be by my side all the time” Jom said to Spike.

“I need half of your soul in return” said Spike.

“Deal” said Jom.

Spike instantly went and found the loneliest kid on the block. His name was Terry. He brought Terry over and told him to become friends with Jom. To Spike’s surprise, Terry became friends with Jom voluntarily without any spells from Spike.

Now there was only one reason Spike comes back to meet the person he had previously made a deal with: the deal maker called him and wants to make another deal.

“Jom, why is Spike here?” asked Terry anxiously.

“I made another deal with Spike” said Jom.

“What? What kind of deal this time, Jom?” asked Terry.

Just then Spike came through the door and brought a guy with him who looked to be super rich. Every expensive items Terry could think of, the guy was wearing them.

Spike came in and shook hands with Jom. And looked at Terry and said “Sorry buddy boy, you have been replaced!”

Terry understood immediately but asked anyway, “What is he talking about, Jom?”

“I need a best friend who can pay for anything I want” said Jom.

“What? What about our friendship? Why not just wish for you to become rich?”

“I am sorry, but our friendship seems to be over” said Jom. “My second wish had to be related to my first wish and it would replace my first wish ---I had to wish for another friend!”

“Ok then,” said Terry, who was left without any words. He left the pool hall and went back to his house.

Spike left also. Jom and his new friend, Tyke, also left. Upon returning home, Jom started finding out why wishing for another friend was not such a good idea. Tyke was not interested in playing games, in studying, in pretty much doing anything with Jom. When they went shopping the next day, Tyke made Jom pay for everything they bought. Jom started wondering what was happening. While doing so, he remembered when he and Terry would have such a great time when they used to hang out.

After coming back home, Jom remembered a crucial detail to his deal with Spike: since Spike did not use a spell in the first deal, he couldn’t use a spell in the second deal either. So even though Tyke is hanging out with him, Tyke doesn’t consider Jom as a friend. In the upcoming week, Jom started resenting his decision to replace Terry. During that time, Tyke had enough of Jom and his constant nagging. Tyke was so tired of Jom that Tyke worked on a plan to kill him.

The next day, Tyke came over to Jom’s house and they were both hanging out. At one point Jom fell asleep. After some time, Jom started to open his eyes after hearing some noises.

“AHHHHHHH” Jom started yelling as he saw Tyke with a sharp weapon in his hand. Jom looked to flee, but found his hands and legs to be tied. He looked on hopelessly trying to talk some sense into Tyke.

“STOP Tyke. What are you d…………” before he finished, Tyke started swinging, “AHHH…..” Jom screamed. “STO…..” Jom yelled while closing his eyes, knowing this is his last moment.


Everything went quiet. No sound was heard in the room.


The room was completely filled with the color red.



…….



Tyke was out of breath. He was shocked at what had happened.



……



He somehow got from Jom’s house to his just as he was inches away from making contact with Jom with his swing.

Jom opened his eyes after some time. He was surprised to see Spike and his glowing red shadow in the room. He understood Spike had saved him, but didn’t know why. But he was very thankful anyway.

Right then Terry opened the door to Jom’s house and came in. Terry had sold his whole soul in exchange for getting things back to the way they were before Jom had asked for his second wish. Since the wish was very big, Spike needed Terry’s full soul in order to do the deal. Terry did it without even thinking about it.

Jom was very happy to see Terry. After he became untied, he apologized to Terry for everything and promised never to treat his best friend badly ever again.


Author's Note. This story is mainly based on the fable "The Goatherd and the Wild Goats" found at the Aesop for Children book. This book was illustrated by Milo Winter (1919). In the original story, a Goatherd found some wild goats in a cave, where he sought shelter with his goats. After seeing the wild goats, he fed them more than his own goats in an attempt to take them with him. After getting out of the cave, the wild goats went their own ways citing the treatment of his old goats as the reason. I tried to make the story as elaborate as possible by changing everything from the characters to the settings. But I kept the important lesson intact: It is unwise to treat old friends badly for the sake of new ones. I was watching Supernatural before I started writing this story, that's where all the soul selling and making deals came from. The character's names came from Tom and Jerry, which my sister was watching. I would like to think this was one way to complete the growth challenges. Another lesson was also added in the story. The lesson from the fable "The Ass and the Load of Salt" - The same measures will not suit all circumstances. Jom found this out the hard way. Since Supernatural was my biggest source for this story, the logo of supernatural is my image for this story.

Bibliography: "The Goatherd and the Wild Goats" by Milo Winter, from The Aesop for Children (1919). Web Source: UnTextbook.

                      "The Ass and the Load of Salt" by Milo Winter, from The Aesop for Children (1919). Web Source: UnTextbook.

Reading Diary B: Aesop (Winter)

My favorite stories from the second unit of Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter are:

The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse. The characters are the mouse and its mother. Others characters are a cock and a cat. I loved the innocent way the young mouse told the story to his mom. The lesson was very powerful: Do not trust alone to outward appearances. In other words, do not judge a book by its covers. Which is very widely known.

The Peacock and the Crane. The Peacock and the Crane are the two characters. The setting is in a field. I liked the lesson the story provided even though it was such a short story. The lesson was: The useful is of much more importance and value, than the ornamental. I liken this to those people who waste money on useless things rather than useful things. 

The Fighting Bulls and the Frog. The main characters are two Bulls and some Frogs. The story is super short but has a lesson that can be liken to the state of our society. The lesson is: When the great fall out, the weak must suffer for it. Our society is currently divided into the rich, the poor, and the middle. And when the rich falls, the poor must suffer. 

The Mouse and the Weasel. Two characters: the Mouse and the Weasel. The setting is inside a corn basket. The lesson is stated everywhere over and over again. That is why I liked it because people nowadays need this lesson more than any others. The lesson is: Greediness leads to misfortune.

The Goatherd and the Wild Goats. A Goatherd and some Goats are the characters. This was my favorite because I have some friends who complained about this experience: It is unwise to treat old friends badly for the sake of new ones. They had other friends who had done this to them and then they expect to come back and be treated the way they were before.

Page 13 was by far my favorite of all the pages! Hence, I picked an image from Page 13.

The Fighting Bulls and the Frog from Aesop (Winter). 

Reading Diary A: Aesop (Winter)

My favorite stories from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter are:

The Wolf and the Kid. The little kid is a Billy Goat. Other characters are the Wolf and the Shepherd Dogs. The setting was in a field during an evening. I liked how the kid started doing a dumb thing, but recovered and got saved by being smart. The lesson was very powerful: Do not let anything turn you from your purpose.

The Wolf and the Kid picture from Aesop (Winter).

The Gnat and the Bull. A Gnat and a Bull are the characters. The picture does great justice to the story as it puts the Gnat into perspective in regards to the size comparison. The lesson is: The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.

The Gnat and the Bull picture to show the size difference.
Source: Aesop (Winter). 

The Farmer and the Stork. A Stork and a Farmer are the main characters. A group of Cranes are the minor characters. It is a fantastic lesson and it is heard again and again from different places: You are judged by the company you keep. The Stork tries to tell the Farmer that he is from a good family, but since he was caught with the party cranes, he is told that he will receive the same punishment. 

The Travelers and the Purse. Two men are the main characters and a mob of people are the minor characters. This lesson is widely known and it applies more in today's society: We cannot expect any one to share our misfortunes unless we are willing to share our good fortune also.

The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion. The title consists of the characters. Does not provide a setting. It is short but delivers as powerful message as the rest of them: Traitors may expect treachery. The Fox expected to save its own skin by feeding the Ass to the Lion, but to the Lion, there were two meals for the taking.