Epics of India Fall 2020

 On a rainy day, Puzzles, a bar on the North End of Sri Lanka, was experiencing the slower end of a business day. The bartenders have just been sitting around drinking desi daru's. A desi daru is a popular modern drink found in India made of molasses.  As the bartenders were taking a drink of their freshly made beverage, a middle-aged man walks in soaked. The bartenders look at each other in awe because of the condition the man was in. The middle-aged man walks into the bars and takes a seat at the countertop. He asks the bartenders, "what is that drink that puts such joy on your face?" The bartenders say to the man, "This is a desi daru. We were having a slow day so we thought we should keep ourselves busy." The middle-aged man says, "I could definitely use a drink that could help me settle down." "No worries. Do you want to start a tab or close it?" says the bartender. The gentleman wanted to keep the bar tab open. He tells the bartender, ...

Part A ended with Rama asking for Sita's forgiveness after doing a funeral pyre in fire with the God of Fire, Agni. Then, Rama and Sita leave in a Pushpaka, a flying chariot.  At the same time, the narrators plot consists of Nina leaving India to New York for a week. Dave Stays in India. Furthermore, Dave actually breaks off the relationship with Nina through email while she is in New York. She was in distraught because of the situation.  The Ramayana plot continues as Sita tells Rama that she is pregnant. At the same time, a dhobi, a laundry man, physically abuses his wife with accusations that she was unloyal. He also compares his wife to Sita.  Due to the laundry man's accusation and comparison to Sita, Rama commands his brother Lakshmana to take Sita to the forest and leave her there. He decides to do this because he has to keep his high end reputation.  Sita once again sings the Blues while crying Lakshmana takes her to the forest.  Sita thinks that because...

 For this weeks reading, I decided to watch Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley from Youtube.  The story is told by a narrator that is deciding whether the Ramayana is true or not. There is also a story within the movie about Nina and her boyfriend, Dave.  The story starts with talk about King Dasharatha's life.  He has three wives and four sons just like the Public Domain Edition of Ramayana.  Queen Kaikeyi, a wife of King Dasharatha, makes Dasharatha exile Rama. Dasharatha dies from grief.  Sita is a simp over Rama and goes into exile as well, regardless of the Rama's warning of the rakshasas.  The narrators begin to talk about the story of how Ravana stole Sita. Many people say Ravana was a good king, but people also compare him to Mogambo, a Hindi film villain.  A short legend told about Ravana right after this was about Ravana playing the veena (lute) for Shiva with his intestines since he was so devoted to Shiva himself. The string broke whi...