Overview

This class caught my attention just because my background is from India and I've always wanted to learn more about the folk tales and epics of India.  I know that India has a bunch of history when it comes to its lore and I've always been interested in the stories.  When I was a small child, My grandma would tell me stories during bedtime and I always found them very interesting. My grandma would even get me books made for children about the different gods and their upbringings.  I read the description of the class and I thought this would be great because it is something that I would want to read.

Krishna

Growing up, my parents always told me that this is Krishna, but when I went through the pictures in the Indian Epics Image site, it showed that his name was Ram. I'm not completely sure if they are in fact both the same entity, or if they are two different ones.

Storybook Favorites

One of stories that caught my eyes was How I Met Your Mother.  I really enjoyed the show on television so I decided to check out this story and I was not disappointed. There are aspects from the show that is in the story, and there are three different stories that follow three different couples.  There is even a couple that shows that man's point of view from when the wife is the one that is pursuing a husband.  It gives the story a little twist from the ordinary and I like the differences in the three stories.

Image Information: King Shantanu Meets Ganga

Source: https://sites.google.com/site/howimetyourmotherfather/

Another one of the stories is Animal Tales from India to Oklahoma.  This seems interesting just because we're at the university of Oklahoma and the story takes place on campus.  The squirrel is over 2,000 years old and so the squirrel exchanges stories with the students that walk down the south oval.  I just think the concept of this is so clever because the OU campus is known for having so many squirrels on campus. Having a squirrel that actually interacts with the students and being able to tell stories of India would be an interesting thing to see. Especially since there is such a difference in cultures, I feel like it would be a great addition to the campus if this were a real thing.



The last story I enjoyed reading about is 1000 Ways to Die: Demon Edition. In High school, I would watch this show with a bunch of my friends and so when I saw the name of this story, I had to check it out.  Just from reading the introduction of the story, I could tell it is going to be interesting. The story i sbased off of old Indian folklore and I really find that stuff interesting.

Introduction

Hello, My name is Dharam Gandhi and I am a senior going for a Health and Exercise Science Major with a minor is Psychology.  Ill just give out a short summary of my life to sum everything up nice and quickly. My parents were from India, but I was born in Canada along with my sister.  I have one older sister who's name is Anjali and she is 26, four years older than me.  I moved to Oklahoma when I was around 5 years old, and ever since then, Clinton has been my home until I came to Norman for College.

(The entrance to our High School Football Field)

Since moving to Norman, I've branched out into different organizations and have definitely broken out of my shell that I was in during my Clinton days.  I am in a fraternity called Delta Epsilon Psi, in which I was the president for for two years in a row. I've been a member of the fraternity since my freshmen year, the fall semester of 2011.  Along with being in a fraternity, I am involved in other student organizations such as OUIS (Oklahoma Undergraduate Indian Society), HESSA (Health and Exercise Science Student Associations), and Psych Club, 

(Our chapter picture taken at our formal last semester)

This past summer I've been trying to teach myself how to play the guitar.  It's always been something that I've wanted to do and this was the only summer where I wasn't completely swamped with work, classes, or both.  This was the first summer that I actually got to bum around for a majority of the time instead of still having to run around because of classes or work.  I've had a guitar for a while but I never learned how to play it and so this summer I learned how to play one of my favorite songs on the guitar, the song is "Swing Life Away" by Rise Against.  I struggled at the beginning of it, but now that I have that one song down, I've got the movement of the fingers pretty well and so it isn't that difficult to learn new songs.  I feel that the first song was the hardest for me just because my fingers weren't used to all the movement it takes to play a guitar.

Week 1 Storytelling: The Lucky Man and the Sea

Two good  friends, Jim and Danny, were in the middle of the annual fishing trip.

(Fishing boat on a lake)

 All was going well in their trip, jokes were being made, a couple beers between the two, it was just like their college days.  They were reminiscing about old time and recent times. Danny was talking about how his daughter just started high school. As time went by and the fishing trip continued on, and the two friends continued to drink more and more beer.

(Jim and Danny on their fishing trip)

 As the drunk conversations continued, Jim told Danny how he has never learned how to swim and that he was becoming scared because of how much they have drank and how much the boat was rocking.  Danny assumed that Jim was joking so Danny started rocking the boat even more and ended up tipping the boat over.  Jim got freaked out and started splashing around in the water trying to stay afloat.  Danny on the other hand just stood up because he could feel the bottom of the lake from when the boat tipped over. Danny couldn't help but laugh at Jim while he struggled to stay afloat in three feet of water.  Eventually Danny helped Jim up and couldn't help but laugh at Jim as Jim's face became red with embarrassment.  Jim got angry at Danny because Danny just watched him struggle.  Jim started to walk away from Danny and just started to go towards the car that they came in.  Jim ended up leaving Danny at the lake because of how mad he was at Danny, but after about five minutes of driving off, he turned back and returned to go get Danny because Jim started laughing about the scenario after he had some time to let it simmer. Danny was infuriated that Jim had left him and that Jim had drove off when he was way too drunk to drive. Once Danny got back into the car they both stayed in the car for a while just to talk and joke around some more. They were both too drunk to drive away so they both waited until they became sober enough to drive. It is an understood rule that whatever happens at their fishing trips stay with them and they don't tell anybody; not their wives, not any other friends, just between Jim and Danny.

Author's Note. This story was based on the fable "The Lucky Man and the Sea" by Ramaswami Raju. In this fable, there were two men fishing out at sea. A storm comes by and overturns the boat the tow men are in.  One of the guys says he's an unlucky guy and it was his fault why the storm came and overturned their boat because of his bad luck. The other guy had good luck and managed to find a rock in the sea that the two friends could stand on to stay above the water.

"The Lucky Man and the Sea"  by Ramaswami Raju, from Indian Fables (1923). Web source: Indian Fables

Favorite Places

A few of my favorite places.

Daytona, FL

This past spring break, me and a few of my friends went to Daytona for Spring Break.  It was a great vacation and this was the view from the balcony of the resort we stayed at on the beach.  Just the views of the beach or even just sitting on this balcony was so soothing and relaxing because of the sounds that are emitted from the surroundings; the birds, the waves, etc.

Oklahoma City

I was born in Canada, but I moved to Oklahoma as a young child, maybe when I was four or five years old.  I claim Oklahoma as my home and what better picture than to have the capital of Oklahoma as a picture.  The picture was taken from on top of the Chase building in Bricktown.

Alva, Oklahoma

Alva is a hidden treasure of Oklahoma.  My friends and I went on a weekend trip to Alva and we went 4-wheeling at the Great Salt Plains. It was the first time I went 4-wheeling and it was an amazing time so just because of how great of a time I had here makes Alva one of my favorite places I've been. 

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