Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Reading Notes: Folktales of Bengal, Part A

The Boy whom Seven Mothers Suckled
This story was really interesting because it reminded me of the Indian Epic, the Ramayana, a little bit. The new queen demanded something ridiculous of the king, and he did it. Another similarity between the two is that the son of the king came back and straightened things out near the end. If I rewrite this story, I think I will tell it in the point of view of the son. Usually stories like these were third person omniscient, but I think it would be cool to do one in the first person to see the journey and the thoughts of the "boy whom seven mothers suckled." I could also retell this story in modern times, and have the boy find his mother through a computer system to see who his real mom actually is. There are many ways I could retell this, so we'll see which one works out best.

The Origin of Opium
Like I mentioned in Week 2, I love origin stories! This one was specifically about the drug opium. It reminded me of the Origin of the Moon stories, where the blacksmith wanted to be numerous things. The moon was the last one that he requested before the wise man got annoyed and made sure he stayed as the moon. In this case, the Rishi never got annoyed at the person that started off as a mouse and wanted to be like ten different things. That showed patience and kindness. If I were to rewrite this story, I may add a moral of the story at the end, just to recap a life lesson. I could create another origin story with how other drugs got started or just pick another object and create the origin story of that, while keeping the same theme of a person wanting to change themselves until they become the thing.


Source: The bird who contains the boy's mother's life in The Boy whom Seven Mothers Suckled.

Bibliography: Bengali Folktales, Part A. 

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