Once upon a time, there were two vultures named Sampathi and
Jatayu. They were the sons of Aruna, the charioteer of the Sun God or Surya. When they
were young, they used to always fly together. They liked to visit new places
and go on adventures together. Like Rama and Lakshmana, they seemed to be
inseparable.
One day Jatayu challenged his brother, “ I bet I can fly higher
than you. I bet I can even reach the heavens, where the gods reside.”
Sampathi, being the
older and wiser, said, “I don’t think it would safe for us to fly that high. We
might end up in some kind of danger and plus we don’t want to disturb the
gods.”
Jatayu replied, “You
are just scared and know you will lose. That is why you won’t accept this
challenge. ”
Sampathi said, “ You won't understand.
You are still young and foolish.”
Jatayu replied
stubbornly, “ I’m going to fly up there with or without you. I’m not going to
let you stop me just because you are scared.”
After saying that, he took off to fly as high as he could. Unaware
of his surroundings, he flew right in front the Sun god’s
chariot, making the Sun god furious at what had just happened. “Who dares
disturb the Sun god, as I am a busy person and must maintain my schedule?” said
the Sun god.
Jatayu replied, “ It
is I, Jatayu, the son of Aruna.”
The sun replied, “Son, do you not realize that
you can’t just be wandering around as you please? We gods are busy
and don’t have time to be distracted with kids like you flying in our way and distracting us.”
Jatayu said, “ I was
just trying to see how high I could fly. You are the one that ran into me.”
This angered the Sun and he replied, “How can you say I am at
fault? How dare you disrespect your elder? Now, I will show you. From now on,
you won’t be able to fly any more.”
Seeing what was going on and that the Sun was going to punish his
brother, Sampathi, for his actions, he hurry up and flew over to his brother to
protect him. The Sun turned his full energy in their direction to try to burn
Jatayu, but Sampathi uses his wings to shield his younger brother from the energy of the Sun God.
Sampathi fell down
as all of his feathers had burned off from the energy of the Sun. Jatayu, realizing his mistake and seeing his
brother’s condition, went to the Sun god to apologize.
Jatayu started off with, “ I am such a fool. I am still young and
have a lot to learn. My brother had warned me about this and now he suffers
because of me. Please forgive me and restore my brother wings; I beg you.”
Surya replies, “ Sorry, son. There is nothing that I can do now.
You are lucky to have a brother that cares so much about you. Unfortunately, I cannot
restore his burned wings, but I am aware of a curse that was placed on your brother and that he
will only regain his wings when the avatar of Vishnu passes by. That is why he lies here. He must stay here till he hears the problem of Vishnu and by helping Vishnu and his devotees, his wings will be restored.
After saying this, Surya continues on his way and Jatayu goes to check on his brother.
 |
| Jatayu and Sampathi. Source: Wikimedia Commons. |
Bibliography
Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.Author’s note
In this
story, I tried to include more dialogue, than the original story I read about. I
also didn’t separate the two brothers from one another, which is what happens in the original story in the book. Sampathi falls down to Earth and Jatayu spends all of his life in search for his older brother. This was mainly due to
the fact that I have a bother of my own and wouldn’t want to be separated from
him. There were two main morals in this story. One moral was that you
should never disrespect your elders. If Jatayu had just apologized to Surya and
moved from his path, the consequences might have been quite different. The
second moral of this story is that you should always heed the warning of your
elders. Elders tend to have more knowledge about situations and, usually, try to stop you from creating a problem. If Jatayu had just
listened to his brother and not flown up as far as he did, he wouldn’t have
caused his brother to lose his wings. I really like this story because it had two morals and it is
also about their brotherly love. Even though Sampathi had warned Jatayu, Sampathi takes the punishment for Jatayu and never even
blames or gets mad at him for his foolishness. This is exactly what I would
expect from two true brothers. The older brother usually has to deal with more
problems and always makes sure his younger brother gets a better and easier life than the struggles he had to go through. This is why this would be a great story for kids. There are
a lot of great lessons to learn from this story.
How interesting! I almost did my topic about these two brothers too, actually. I liked your story because it gave it a moral background and it also retold the story how the brothers were together. That was cool. It makes me feel bad for Sampathi that he lost his feathers, but also it makes me feel good about that situation because he was acting as a good brother so that he could protect Janayu. I think it's important to find positive things in negative situations. Good post!
ReplyDeleteHi Neeral, dang. This story was pretty interesting. I really liked how you didn't separate the brothers and had Jatayu go and apologize to the Sun God. It's sad how older siblings always have their little siblings' back, even when the little ones are at fault and don't deserve it. It was cool to see that in a story though! And I like the picture! Haha. It intertwines perfectly with your story! Good job! :)
ReplyDeleteI love that you tried to attribute more dialogue to the story. I think that the dialogue was helpful in revealing some of the main points of your version of the story. Also, I liked how you decided not to separate the brothers from one another. I have two brothers and I'd hate to be separated from either one of them. I also liked your emphasis on respect.
ReplyDeleteHi Neeral! I really enjoyed your retelling of this story! It's interesting to me how foolish Jatayu was in this story, because when he grows older, he seems so wise and noble. I felt that Jatayu and Sampathi were both really strong characters in the Ramayana, although they both only had minor parts, so I'm glad you chose to retell their story. I really liked how you added more dialogue between the Sun and Jatayu. I also loved the way that Sampathi protected his brother, Jatayu, in the story. I have two siblings, so I can definitely understand the need to protect them, sometimes even from themselves. I also really liked that Jatayu learned his lesson and apologized to the Sun god in your story! It was a rather sad story, but I thought you did a great job telling it!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you pulled two minor characters from the stories and made them into major ones! You did a great job retelling the story. I completely understand the dynamics between Sampathi and Jatayu. I feel like sometimes I am Sampathi and my little brother Is Jatayu; foolish and always challenging me about something.
ReplyDeleteI have a little brother and even when we were little, I would always have his back and take care of him. We would fight a lot back in the day, but when it came time to accept the blame, I always took it away from my brother and took it all upon myself. Sometimes I feel like I still do that and cover for him even though I know he's old enough and doesn't need me to do that.
The dialogue, your author's note, and the picture pulled together the story perfectly! Great job.
Jut one small thing, you should definitely change the color of your font! I had to highlight the story in order to read. The background and the color of your font are so similar that they almost blend together. Haha.
Hello Neeral! First off, I like your layout you picked even though it is the opposite of my bright pink one! I enjoyed your story this week. You are a very creative writer. Your portfolio is coming together very nicely. I like how you included more dialogue than the original story. I do that a lot in my stories as well because I feel like the originals are somewhat misleading at times. I actually enjoyed your version better than the original. I liked the two morals you used for your story, I agree that you can always learn from elders and respect them. I always enjoy hearing stories and getting advice from my grandparents. I also agree with what you said about the roles of the younger and older siblings. I have a younger sisters myself so I think it is very true. Great job and I hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how your story included a lot of dialogue. I think that is something that is missing in other stories I have read and I really enjoyed yours. The way you kept the two brothers together, contrary to the original story, was very entertaining because I was not sure what to expect next. I could not imagine having to be separated from my brothers forever! No way. I really liked the way you set this situation up by comparing the two brothers to Rama and Lakshmana. I wrote a story like this once and it is kind of similar to yours! I liked the way your dialogue exemplified the way that brothers talk to each other and give each other a hard time. Great job. I think you did a great job showing the moral of the story, to not disrespect your elders, with the sun and the brothers interactions. I really like the photo you have chosen to display the two bird brothers. Although these are real creatures, it helps create a more realistic image for your reader when you use actual photos rather than drawings.
ReplyDeleteThere is a typo in your author’s note: you wrote bother instead of brother.
This is a good story. I like that you wrote about Jatayu and Sampathi, since most of the stories I've read lately have been about the human characters. It's nice to come back to these minor characters and remember their story.
ReplyDeleteI like the style of your story - the dialogue you added was nice, it made the story sound more modern and simple. Your version sounds a lot like a modern fairy tale, or like an aesop's fable. You do a good job making the moral of the story clear.
Hi Neelu chodu! Your story about the two eagles in the Ramayan really reminded me of my brother Jaylo and I. we are also the same challenging each other but also having each other’s back in just like the two eagles in your story. Like usual I think you did a great of telling the story. You did a good job of separating so it is not a huge bulky read and also making it easier to read. You also did a really good job of using conversation. I really liked the overall story like usual, and also could not think of anything that you could do to make it better. The only thing that you could change, but is not really a big deal is the font color. The black really blends well with the dark gray and it was hard to read till I tilted my laptop screen, I think white would do perfect to contrast the writing and the background. I also really liked your picture I thought it tied well into the story you were telling, I also thought the eagles were kind of talking to each other so it was the perfect pick. Good Job on the machodi!
ReplyDelete