Indian Epics Blog

Unproductive criticism (source) Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz here. Writing is just communication. Your goal is to put your thoughts into a readers head. By feeling, you become kin to all mankind. So naturally one of the best ways to improve as a writer is to get feedback from others, the audience you're trying to connect with. Criticism then, should be about how the writer could get their point across more clearly. Asking for specificity, or asking to remove unnecessary details. They should give examples and state the intended effect. I found the mirror article very interesting, focusing on what a writer does vs what they don't. Because it's easier to see what you do and how it could be changed, rather than being told what you don't do and trying to fill that void inorganically. The feedforward also seems like a good idea that embraces the growth mindset. You can only change the future, so any relevant criticism should be applicable to future endeavors. Wel

Nice Macguffin you got there. It'd be shame if someone produced unlicensed replicas of it, eh? (source) Today I'm going to be brainstorming some ideas about weapons in indian epics. Astras are basically supernatural weapons. They have incredibly strong powers and some of them I think need consent from the Gods themselves to be use d. Sword of like Excalibur. Astras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_(weapon) Of all the weapons I read about, the two that are the most interesting were the Teen Baan and the Brahmashirsha Astra, which is featured in the Mabharata. Lord Shiva  [12]  gave  Barbarika  three infallible arrows (Teen Baan). A single arrow was enough to destroy all opponents in any war, and it would then return to  Barbarika 's quiver. The first arrow is used to mark all the things that  Barbarika  wants to destroy. On releasing the third arrow, it would destroy all the things that are marked and will then return to  Barbarika 's quiver. If  B

https://sites.google.com/view/nitrodubbzportfolio/parashurama STORY NOW AVAILABLE AT THIS LINK Parashurama in days of old (source) By the age of the Fifth Solar Empire humanity was nearing the end of a war that had raged for eons. Their enemy, the Asuras, had been pushed back to the galactic center and was encircled with nowhere to run. The alien Asuras were the same as the Hindu demons. Their home was the heavens, and they were spread throughout the Galaxy. They were red creatures with four arms, three heads, and taller and stronger than any man. Their constitution made them almost invincible. They could survive any injury short of total disincorporation. Humanity's first contact with these extra-terrestrials was thousands of years ago, the details lost to history. What mattered was that in the great battle of Earth lord Parashurama revealed himself. When humanity's empire had been destroyed and pushed back to Sol, Parashurama stepped down from his thousand-ye

Fun fact: Rama is 96 inches tall  (source) Howdy folks, NitroDubbz here.  Previously, on Ramayana: Ravana has abducted Sita by luring Rama and Lakshmana away. He refuses to fight Rama mano y mano claiming that fighting a human is below an Ashura. Jatayu sees, and, acting on his pledge to serve Dasharatha and now Rama, attempts to stop Ravana. Jatayu is killed, but not before he tells Rama and Lakshmana what transpired.  Rama and Lakshmana go to the Monkey Kingdom, where they meet a bunch of Monkey People, the most important of whom are Vali and Sugriva. Essentially, through a misunderstanding, Vali wanted to kill Sugriva, his brother. Sugriva ran away to a mountain where Vali's powers (given to him by the gods for churning milk or something) didn't work anymore. I wont plot summarize more than I have to, but I just want to set the stage for something I want to talk about. Sugriva tells his plight to Rama, who agrees to help him by shooting the unarmed Val

Rama vs Ravana (source) Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz again. Finally we're getting to the juicy part of Ramayana: Rama's battle with Ravana, demon chief of the Asuras. Rama has been forced into exile and now he's living in a hut survivorman-stlye with his wife Sita and his brother Rakshmana. Soorpanakha, Ravana's demon sister, tried seducing Rama but he basically just trolled her and then she got mutilated (fun fact, I guess people think that she is still alive in Sri Lanka, the region where Ravana was king). After returning to Ravana, she told him of Rama and Sita, whom Ravana immediately became infatuated with. Now with the love-quadrangle as their main impetus, Ravana and Soorpanakha are scheming to kidnap Sita with the aid of their uncle Mareecha. Mareecha has faced Rama twice before and wanted nothing to do with their plan, but under threat from Ravana, he capitulated and assumed the form of a golden deer (actual solid gold, not just golden color) to lure Ra

Leaked still from Avatar 7 (source) Hello everyone, NitroDubbz here. I have begun reading the R. K. Narayan version of The Ramayana. I will start off with some first impressions. I thought my reading comprehension would be lower, what with all the unfamiliar Indian names, but it's really not that bad. The Ramayana is very dramatic with very large, nonsensically large in fact, scales of things. For example, digging up the Earth to find a horse and inadvertently creating the oceans. Praying for 30,000 years, Vishnu's incarnation walking across the entire universe in two steps, Indra being covered in vaginas, Rama stringing a giant bow. I don't know if you've ever tried to string a recurve bow but that's hard enough without it being 100 feet long and belonging to a God. I thought that the story structure would be similar to the classic hero's journey, or bildungsroman. While it certainly consists of similar events, it lacks the character development impo

Absolute unit  (source ) Parashurama:  I find this story interesting because it's so similar to our modern day stories of killing-machine action heroes with a heart of gold. Some of the plot summary sounds like John Wick, from his calf (dog) being stolen (killed), or like Doom, where Parashurama is the reincarnation of Vishnu. He is a divine power set upon the earth to keep law and order, very badass. Parashurama should be easy to add a modern day twist to. Garuda : Fun fact: the first search result on Google for this story is an airline from Indonesia. That's pretty cool, like if we had a Hermes airline or an Icarus airways, actually scratch that one. I think birds of prey are dope and apparently, so do Indians (this is a generalization) so I think that a story about a birdperson who kills serpents sounds pretty cool. Weapons of the Gods:   Weapons in stories typically serve as MacGuffins, very rarely do we see a super-weapon used in a way that changes the course of t

This guy lives in my head ( source ) That saturnine character at the top of the page is Anton Ego, food critic from the movie Ratatouille. I picked him because in the movie he's known for being extremely harsh, but his cold heart is softened at the end when he is humbled by the talent of Remy the rat, and he realizes that passion and work ethic are more important than the end result, because those two qualities will allow anyone, even a rat, to become a master. I am my own worst critic, but I feel that my criticisms are fair. I may not achieve what I would have liked to, but as long as I feel that I learned and showed improvement I cant be too upset. I chose to read Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head , and Fixed vs Growth Mindset at Work and in Life . The first article is about focusing on the positive to balance out the negative criticisms, lest you be driven insane. The second one is about viewing mistakes as learning experiences, rather than shameful failures.

Artist's interpretation of the Taco Shack ( source ) The Taco Shack story has moved! https://sites.google.com/view/nitrodubbzportfolio/taco-shack

The Crane and The Crab  Image Source Howdy folks, NitroDubbz here. The story I really like was The Crane and The Crab, translated by W.H.D.Rouse https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/crane-and-crab This story makes me think of one of my favorite tenets of the "Art of War": "Hold out baits to entice your enemy, feign disorder, and then crush him." also "Appear weak when you are strong" The crab feigns ignorance to allow the Crane to give him an advantage without even thinking about the repercussions. So blinded by gluttony, he gives the crab power over his own life just for another bit of food. A lot of these stories feature animals outwitting one another, but I think this example is the most strategic. I also enjoyed this story. https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/rabbit Ellen C. Babbit Well, that's all for today lads and ladies. Until next time, I'm NitroDubbz.

Image source Howdy everyone, Nitrodubbz again. I chose this picture because I thought he looked funny. I have chosen R. K. Nrayan's translation of the Ramayana. It sounds like the language will be easier to comprehend, and I like physical book copies more than PDF's. Some comics that looked interesting: Parashurama: a story about a guy who is so out for revenge he kills every single generation of this one family. He's jacked and looks like an action hero. http://ackguide.blogspot.com/2015/07/guide-parashurama.html Garuda: about a man with a beak https://www.amarchitrakatha.com/us/uc-garuda Well that's all for today folks. Until next time, I'm NitroDubbz.

image source "This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down." - Gollum Time, that inescapable universal truth that follows us all. The best we can do is shake her off momentarily, but she will always linger close behind, at times her crushing weight like the boulder of Sisyphus. Try as we might to get ahead, our attempts are futile. No matter how strong our discipline, hers is stronger.  Okay, that might be a little pessimistic. Of course, there are ways that we can minimize time-wastage. Some of the tenets of time management that I follow are list-making and SMART goals. The two go hand-in-hand. By breaking a smaller task down into its components and sub-components (specificity and attainability), you can maximize the number of boxes checked off, and consequentially, the amount of dopamine released.  My current issue is micr

Is this the future?  image source Howdy again everyone, NitroDubbz here. For today's blog I chose a picture of a robot because today's post is about the frightening world of technology. As we approach the artificial intelligence singularity, many are finding themselves drawn towards the neo-luddite ideology, which shuns technological advancement and calls for mankind to halt our advance into the future before we open some sort of Pandora's box and we are unable to turn back. One example of technological damnation is Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the last four humans on Earth as they are eternally tortured in the bowels of a sentient, globe-spanning supercomputer known as "A.M." a play on Descartes' phrase "Cogito, ergo sum" or "I think, therefore I am" On the lighter side, however, technology can be used as a tool for good. In this cl

image source Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz again. Wow, Arnold sure does look happy with that cigar of his. A really fine example that it's the simple things in life that bring us joy. Speaking of joy, I think the assignment type that will bring me the most joy will be the story-telling assignments. I like creative writing so I think it will be a lot of fun.  Wikipedia trails sounds interesting and unique as well, I pretty much do the same thing already in my free time, just without being graded, so that should be a blast.  That's all for today loyal readers. Until next time, this has been NitroDubbz.

Did somebody say Cajun?  image source Hello again, denizens of the internet. Today I will be talking about the growth mindset. I have never heard of Carol Dweck before this, but I did hear about the Angela Duckworth "grit" research through my mom I think. Personally, I can't stand TED talks but she's always sending me them so that's how I heard about the "grit" study which is pretty similar, just about having perseverance really.  Unfortunately, I don't really apply this to my schoolwork, I just study as much as I can to get the grade because that's what goes on my resume and transcript. It's not like I really want to be a master of Fourier transforms or Butterworth filters, I just want to get an "A". But outside of school I apply this mindset unconsciously. Let me give an example.  A long time ago (like 8 years ago) I went to this Cajun restaurant with my dad and I ordered chicken and sausage gumbo, never having anyt

image source Hello everyone. I am Nitrodubbz, the computer engineering student. You may know me from my other blog posts, such as: "my favorite place". The coolest thing about my major is how it makes companies want to hire me. Ideally if one of these companies wanted to pay me in exchange for my brainpower and hours of my life, I would just invest almost all of my income into real-estate and collect rent to supplement my income. Hopefully I move somewhere where housing is cheap, and the Federal Reserve's interest rates stay low.  I guess I'll talk about books now. I recently re-read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It is a pretty good book. The book is absurdist, filled with contradictions now known as Catch-22's, a term coined by the novel. These contradictions exist within the well-defined rules and command structure of the USAAF, the predecessor to the Air Force of today. The point being to highlight the weaknesses of a rigid military system, and to contr

Today I decided to look at some stories and I will be sharing with you my favorites. https://sites.google.com/view/sponge-stories/home The first one I decided to look at was a Spongebob-themed storybook. I chose it because I like Spongebob, but also because the episodic nature of the show allows for more diverse story-telling in my opinion, because the writers aren't wasting precious time and energy trying to keep continuity, meaning they can focus on each episode in a vacuum. A lot of plots are derived from myths and classic literature. For example, episode 8b, "Squeaky Boots" parodies Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart". So it doesn't feel out of place that this storybook bases each story on myths and fables. However, none of that was made obvious in the introduction, which was just Spongebob talking about how awesome his life is. I guess the first-person view was interesting but overall I don't think it gave much information

My favorite place is my home, because it has everything I need and it's where I live. I spend a majority of my time there. So beautiful (source)

Hello all I hope that this is working. Here on this blog I will be reviewing some Indian literature, attached is a picture of me I snapped with my webcam this morning haha hello everyone.