Birth and Death Portfolio Guide

Story 1: The Songbird's Fate
This story elaborates on the life of the little songbird in the opening of Buck's Ramayana.

Story 2: Chatterbox's Worst Day EVER
A story of a manipulative brother and a poor gullible little girl.

Story 3: Loving A Crazy Lady
Santanu's thoughts, ideas (and maybe a few regrets) about marrying that crazy lady Ganga. 

Story 4: The Fate Of The Disobedient
We all disobey our parents from time to time, right? But this time, for Ferra, things end tragically in her world.

Week 11 Storytelling: The Fate of the Disobedient

“Dad, I’m so sorry! I didn't mean to be out that late!” began Ferra as she was startlingly confronted by her father who was posted waiting in the living room.

“You KNOW that you have to be home for dinner. Do you have any idea what time it is?” her father sternly stated, attempting in vain to hide his anger.

"I'm sorry! It won’t happen again! I promise!" she said with sadness.

“You’re going to have to prove yourself,” he said trying to be understanding. “If this ever happens again, you’re going to be in some serious trouble."

“I promise! This is never going to happen again,” Ferra said as she gave her forgiving father a hug.

A few months went by and Ferra was the usual good child that she had been her entire life. She feared what would happen if she disobeyed her father and knew better than to cross him. 

Ferra managed to keep her promise, that is, until this incident happened again. 

"THAT'S IT!" her father screamed as she, once again, attempted to sneak into her home without her father noticing.

"You're in serious trouble, Missy. I gave you a second chance and you blew it. What were you even doing? It's midnight! Dinner is at 7 o'clock every day. I was patient until 8 o'clock.... and then 9 o'clock came and went and then 10 o'clock rolled by, and you NEVER answered your phone. Do you know how worried I was? Do you have ANY idea what that feels like? To have no idea where your kid is?"

"Well, no. I'm not a parent," Ferra thought as her father looked at her with angry eyes. She suppressed her sarcasm and expressed another apology.

"Really, Dad. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? How do I make it up to you?"

Ferra's father was silent as thought for a moment before he came up with the perfect solution. Suddenly, it came to him. His eyes lit up and Ferra saw evil wash over his face. Her father smirked as he looked at his daughter and dictated her punishment.

"So….Ferra…” he maliciously began.

"Think of your most HATED task. You know, one I never make you do because you hate it so much? The one that I always do because I'm just such a nice father? Now dig deep," he arrogantly and teasingly stated. 

Ferra's face dropped and her eyes filled with terror as she realized what was happening. 

"Oh God. No. Dad, ANYTHING else. PLEASE. Please, don’t make me do it. Dad! Anything!" she begged.

Her father giggled as he realized the genius of his plan.

"Come on. Why don't we start right now?" he said as he walked toward the back door.

"Dad! No! PLEASE! Anything else! Don't make me pick up the dog poop!" Ferra wholeheartedly begged as she hesitantly began to walk toward the back yard.

"How long are you going to make me do this?" she asked already dreading the answer.

“Every weekend,” her father replied.

“Forever?!” Ferra gagged as she filled with fear of the impending doom of dog poop.

"Oh, no, of course not forever,” he said, hardly settling Ferra’s worry.

“Then how long?” she hesitantly asked.

“Oh, you know... We will see, but I'm thinking until, well, you're married!" he said teasing her as he grabbed his sulking daughter's hand.

Image of Father and Daughter
Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the story of the Eleventh Goblin in the story of The Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. In that story a King falls in love with a Fairy and asks her to marry him. She agrees to marry him as long as he lets her disappear four times a month. The King cannot hold back his curiosity and follows her. The Fairy is swallowed by a giant and the King nobly saves her, or so he thought. The Fairy was punished to this fate of being eaten because of an issue she had with her father long ago but she does not remember the pain of being eaten until the King "saves" her. I found the back story so incredibly interesting. In writing this story, I explain the series of events that led to her fate with her father in a modern-day situation. I changed the Fairy to "Ferra" and used a different story-line but the plot stays similar. Both the Fairy and Ferra were late and needed to be punished. While it may not seem so to Ferra, the severity of the is drastically reduced in this modernized story. The end of my story hints to the fate of the Fairy in the Twenty-Two Goblins when she meets her King and is married.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder (1917)

Week 9 Storytelling: Loving a Crazy Lady

Santanu’s Story

Have you ever been in love? Well, I have, and let me tell you...it is NOT worth it.
You might ask "why?" Good. Let me tell you my story. Let's begin by introducing myself. Hi, my name is Santanu, and I am a hopeless romantic. AA-meeting-style introduction aside, let's jump into my tragedy. 

It all started out swell! I was born as heir to an absolutely beautiful kingdom. I was happy; my people were happy. We were flourishing! Absolutely everything was perfect… except for one little detail of my life; I was single.  In my defense, running a kingdom is really time-consuming! I didn't have time to date! A few years passed and I was starting to realize just how old I was getting and couldn’t help but begin to consider ending my bachelor ways and settling down with a beautiful girl. I wasn’t searching but I definitely wasn’t going to stop myself from finding love if it happened to wander into my life. 

One day, I decided to go on a hunting trip. I absolutely love being outdoors and taking in the beautiful trees and grasses and animals. I get a stupid little smile on my face every time I think about it. It's just so calming!

Anyway, I went out hunting one morning. It was a normal hunting trip like every other trip I've taken. Near the end of the day,I was tired from all the action and decided to go to the river to sit down, take a drink and relax. Just as I was approaching the river, my eyes were trapped on the most beautiful woman I had ever seen! I simply couldn’t begin to think of how my life would be without her. I guess you could say it was love at first sight. As nervous as I was, I walked up to her and began to talk. You know how it goes; eventually one thing led to another and I asked her to marry me! I know, "Yay! Santanu, you're getting married!" But everything was NOT as I planned.

She agreed to marry me on one condition: I would let her do what she wants without questioning it. Okay, yeah, that’s reasonable. After all, I'm not a mean, controlling husband. She should have freedom to do what she wants! I trust her.

Everything was great! She was exactly the wife I was looking for! She was loving, and caring and oh, so kind. She took such wonderful care of me. Marrying her was the best decision I had ever made... that is, until she went absolutely psycho. We finally were going to have a baby, again "Yay Sanatu!" but no. This crazy lady took the baby as soon as she gave birth and ran to the river. And I mean AS SOON as the baby was out, she was gone. Not only did she run to the river RIGHT after giving birth (can I just say ouch?) she DROWNED our child. She MURDERED our kid. I didn’t want to report her. She had been such a wonderful person. She had to have a perfect answer as to why she did such a thing. I wanted to understand, but I vowed to never ask questions. I had to keep my promise! 

I simply put my pain aside and let it be. I grieved and accepted our child's death and kept moving forward. Our marriage soon recovered and things were going well. Or so I thought. It kept happening. Every time she gave birth she would get up and run to the river (again, can I say OUCH?) and drown our baby. WHO DOES THAT?

This happened seven times. SEVEN TIMES before I couldn’t take it anymore. After the birth of our eighth child, I had to confront her. I could not stand being with this crazy lady anymore. I HAD to know why she kept doing this. I asked her why she did it and she immediately went on and on and on with this crazy crap about how she’s the river.

Uhm…. You’re standing right in front of me… how can you be a river? 

We kept fighting and fighting until she agreed to give me the child, Devavratha, after he grew up. AFTER HE GREW UP! She drowned our children and I am supposed to let her RAISE Devavratha? Before I could do anything, once again she was running to the river. She was gone. She was gone with our kid. I was so heartbroken, I didn’t know what to do. I tried my hardest to move on but I just couldn’t do it. She didn't kill him, but she took me away from me. Knowing he's out there somewhere being raised by a CRAZY LADY worried me so much.

Yesterday, fourteen WHOLE years later, Ganga just shows up at my doorstep to drop off Devavratha like this is planned out and okay. And just like that, I had my son back and she was gone forever. Again. I have no idea what he’s like. I don’t even know if we will get along. What if she raised him to be just as crazy? What has she taught him?

Now, guys, I’ve gotta run and get to know my son, but I will tell you this: STAY AWAY FROM CRAZY LADIES. Seriously. Don’t do it. It's not worth it. 

Image of Ganga Running away with their child
Provided by Wikipedia

Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the story in the very beginning of the Mahabharata-the story of Ganga and Santanu. In this story, Santanu fell in love with a beautiful woman who only had one request: do not question her. They were married and had children. Each time Ganga would give birth, she would drown the child in the river. This happened seven times before Santanu questioned her actions and, in turn, ironically still cost him his child. The whole series of events was rather crazy and very quickly discussed in Mahabharata. Upon reading this story I was quite literally shocked at not only the story, but how casually it was told. Narayan's version of the story was told as a bit of background to set the scene. It was such a huge and bold way to begin a book-- I couldn't help but elaborate. I wrote this story in the point of view of Santanu and his thoughts and feelings looking back on the birth, and death, of his children. Being such a dark topic to discuss, I wrote this story in a humorous, dramatic dialogue to lighten the mood without having to exclude information. I found this image earlier in the week and used it, but I included it in this post as well because it so accurately depicts the story in its entirety all in one image. 

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.

Week 6 Storytelling: Chatterbox's Worst Day EVER

 Just a few years ago there was a happy little family just outside of town. This family lived a wonderful life. They had everything they ever could need. The mother and father had only had one child, and this child was a very quiet child. The father often being gone on business and the mother busy with housework, the poor little boy learned how to play nice and quietly by himself. The mother often went to check on him just to make sure he was still there he was so quiet! This family was very calm and collected and happy…. But that was soon to change.

One snowy winter day, the time came for the mother to give birth to a beautiful little girl. The parents were so in love with their new child. They were sure she would make a wonderful addition to their quiet family.

Everything was well. The siblings played and laughed, filling the mother and father’s souls with joy. They lived such a peaceful life, that is, until the little girl began to talk. She slowly picked up words taught to her by her family and loved it. Her family was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to stop talking! The older she got the more words she learned, and the more and more and more she talked!

The peaceful, quiet brother was becoming quite annoyed with this. He liked his quiet time by himself and his rambunctious little sister kept pestering him.  She would barge into his room, asking him questions. He wondered if he would ever experience quiet again! He just wanted one day to be alone.

One afternoon, the brother being much older and manipulative, came up with an idea. He would trick the little girl into thinking she would lose her voice forever if she talked at all for the entire day tomorrow.

“You’ll never talk again if you say even one word tomorrow,” said the brother to his poor gullible little sister.

“What? Nu-huh. You’re lying!” the little girl retorted.

 “MOO—“

“SHUSH! If you tell mom, you’ll never EVER be allowed to talk. Tomorrow is a special day, and you can’t talk. There once was a turtle that couldn't keep quiet and he tomorrow is the day he DIED because of it,” the brother continued, slowly convincing the little sister.

"Anyone under 10 has to keep quiet the WHOLE day or they won't talk again," the brother added, conveniently excluding his 11-year-old self.

The brother hardly ever lied to her; in fact, he often looked after her like another parent. 

"Surely he isn't lying about this," she thought.  "Surely he would lie about something this serious." 

The little sister thought about the things her brother told her and realized that she must not talk tomorrow. After all, she couldn't imagine losing her voice forever!

The next morning, everything seemed to start well. The little sister was, however, unusually quiet.

“It’s working!” thought the brother. “I can play the WHOOOLLEEE day by myself without any noise!”

A few hours passed by, and the little girl became rather frustrated. She had so many new things she wanted to talk about!  The mother, too, became suspicious of the unusual quietness.

“Honey, what’s wrong? You seem rather down today,” the mother said to her poor, frustrated, quiet child.

The little girl just shook her head and looked away.

“You can tell me,” the mother went on…

The little girl gave no response.

“Well, alright, I’ll be in the kitchen if you change your mind,” the mother said as she continued to worry about her child.

 A couple more hours passed by and the little girl couldn't stand it anymore! She began to cry as she walked up to her mom, pointing at her mouth. Thinking something terrible had happened, she asked her son if he had seen her do anything.

“Uhhh nooo! She’s fine. I don’t know anything!” he said nervously.

 He would definitely get in trouble if his mother found out of his little trick.

The little girl cried and cried as the mother tried to figure out what was wrong. Feeling guilty, the brother finally confessed.

“Uhhhh Mommy…” he began, “I kinda tricked sister into not talking… I told her she would lose her voice forever if she talked today.”

Instantly, the mother ran to her crying daughter informing her of her brother’s trick.

“I have an idea…” the mom said trying to cheer the confused little girl up. “Why don’t you go take your new book to your brother’s room? I’m sure he would LOVE to hear ALLLL about the things you read this morning.”

“OKAY!!!” the little girl screamed, grateful to be able to talk again.
 She instantly ran to her brother’s room chatting the evening away.

Image of my family. 
(Provided by Chon Henderson, my mother)

Author’s Note: This story was inspired by the story “The Talkative Tortoise” in the collection of Indian Fairytales by Joseph Jacobs. In that story, a tortoise needs to be transferred to another pond. Two birds offer to help him by carrying a stick he has held onto with his mouth. In order for them to successfully carry him he must not talk or else he will let go of the stick and fall to his death. The Tortoise ends up cracking in half because he cannot force himself to stop talking long enough to be taken to another pond. While I found this story a bit brutal it is such a good reminder that sometimes silence is the best form of speech. Upon reading this story, I was immediately reminded of my childhood; being nick-named “Chatterbox,” I couldn't help but laugh at the memories of being told that “Someday your words are going to get you in trouble” by my father.  This story, while I may not exactly remember, is more than likely to have happened to me growing up.  Being the pampered gullible baby of the family, growing up with a brother who is seven years older than me, he often managed to trick me into doing things even if I had no idea why I was doing them. The image I chose may seem a little random, being that it is a picture of my family but it is actually one of the few family photos that we have that I don’t have my mouth wide open trying to say something (being the little chatterbox that I am), so I found it quite fitting for the story.

Bibliography: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, with illustrations by John D. Batten, (1912). 
Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Week 4 Storytelling: The Songbird's Fate

          Many years ago, in the heart of the forest lived a family of happy little songbirds. These songbirds were undeniably beautiful. Each bird of the family was a different vibrant color. Some members of the family were green, some yellow, some red; some were even a mixture of the colors. Other creatures of the forest argued that they were the most magnificent birds on earth.

          These birds were known throughout the forest not only for their beautiful feathers but also their song. They sang each day filling the forest with their warm, joyful songs. These creatures were exalted by everyone near and far. These birds were a blessing to the forest.

          Time went by and the songbird family continued to be loved by every creature in the forest, and beyond. One day, something strange happened. A mother was ready to have children. She laid her eggs, incubating them diligently and carefully, but one of the eggs was simply unlike the others. Unlike the usual bright, blue color of the eggs, this egg was a dark blue-purple. Some even thought it was black.

          This made no difference to the mother. She loved her children equally and incubated them all the same, until the day they hatched! The mother was so proud of her children as they each one by one began to break through their shells. Every single egg was beginning to hatch but the dark little egg. The mother, worried that she might lose a child, began to examine the egg. She gently rocked it in hopes to encourage this little baby songbird to hatch. A few days went by, and the mother mourned, assuming her child was dead.

          The mother few off to get food for her other children only to be shocked upon her return; the dark little egg was no longer, but instead replaced by a beautiful, multicolored little songbird. The mother rejoiced as she saw that her child was alive. This little bird was the most wonderfully beautiful bird anyone had ever seen. He lived its entire life being praised and loved, and all this praise began to get to his head.

          “I am the best bird in the entire forest!” sang the little bird, “There will never be anyone as beautiful and sing as perfectly as I do.”

          The gods heard this little bird, hoping he would someday realize how arrogantly he lived his life, but the bird did not change. He continued to live his life entitled and mean. He took things from others saying, “I am the most beautiful. I should have what I want.”

The corruption of his ways never once crossed his mind despite the warnings from his family. The gods could take it no longer. They took the bird's beauty away. He was cursed to die in a terrible, sudden way if he did not change his ways and humble his heart.

          The bird, while distraught by his new feathers, was not fazed. He continued to be a mean, terrible bird tormenting members of his family. His fate was coming for him, but he did not heed the warnings, even teaching his children to be as arrogant and selfish as he was.

          One day, as the bird was singing loudly and arrogantly to his family, he was shot. The hunter tip-toed upon him with no sound, no warning. His life ended suddenly, and tragically, just as his curse predicted.

          As the poor little bird took his last few breaths, he sang to his family above, “Let me be an example to you. No longer should you live as I did or you will see the same fate.”

Image of a Mountain Bluebird provided by Wikipedia 

Author’s Note: This story was taken from the introduction of Buck’s Ramayana. In this story, a songbird was going about its day, only to be maliciously killed by a hunter. It was a seemingly insignificant story as a rushed explanation as to how Valmiki became the poet. In the story, Valmiki saw the songbird's death and cursed the hunter. The words he used to curse the hunter came out in the form of a poem, and hence the beginning of his career as the poet of Ramayana. While it seemed that the bird was killed for no apparent reason by the hunter, I took a different approach to the story. I took the story to display a story of birth, death and also the circle of Karma. The bird was born different. He was given a gift of undeniable and incomparable beauty and song. He was exulted far and wide, and he let this interfere with his character. Valmiki only saw half of the story. The bird received warning after warning, but still did not listen. He lived a terrible life, and in turn received a terrible death. Karma and character are two very important aspects of Indian culture, and this story simplified that to the small, seemingly insignificant life of the songbird. I chose this image because it is such a beautiful picture of a wonderful native bird. This image captured the stark beauty of the songbird I was trying to convey through my description. In my story, the songbird's blue feathers were bright and extravagant much like that of the Mountain Bluebird. 

Bibliography: Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.