Topic Idea 1:
I think it would be really interesting to retell/embellish some of the major indian "love stories" from the perspective of Kamadeva. I think, flipping the script on some of these stories and portraying Kamadeva's involvement or noninvolvement would allow me to offer something unique in my story telling. For example, last week one of my favorite storybooks was about Rama and Sita going to couples therapy. I have this idea in my head that Kamadeva was not really involved in their story actively, but rather watched in sorrow as Rama claimed he loved Sita while only loving himself. I would love to play around with that idea in the next few weeks. I also think it would be really interesting to play around with the characterization of Kamadeva. I've noticed in Western Mythology the gods or goddesses of Love and/or Desire are often portrayed as very fickle beings who enjoy watching those they influence go through never ending cycles of seduction and heartbreak. I think it would be nice to give more weight or seriousness to these gods and examine how they would really feel about how humans love one another.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita
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| Kamadeva commons.wikimedia.org |
Topic Idea 2:
Another project that I think could be really interesting would be a storybook that focused on the immortals. I'm not sure how feasible this would be, but I think I could do an overarching story about the Immortals losing their immortality and have an individual chapter following each of the seven main immortals as they reckon both with their lost immortality along with their complicated feelings about eternal life to begin with. Each chapter would culminate in that immortal finally meeting the god of death and examining how they respond to that fate.
Topic Idea 3:
As we will spend a lot of time on the Ramayana, I think it would make sense to pursue a retelling of the story in some form. Since I don't know very much about Indian Epics but I do know a lot about Greek Mythology, I could see a really great project in retelling the Ramayana with Greek and Roman characters. This project would allow me a fun way to examine the difference in how each culture characterizes their heroes. Additionally, I am interested to see if their are many common denominators between the stories.
https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/
Topic Idea 4:
My final topic idea is to write a story from the perspective of a seeming normal family in india whose eldest daughter loves to read ancient poetry and epics. Once she turns 18 however, each story she reads begins to actually take place in the real world with her inhabiting the role of one of the characters. This idea is probably the least concrete in my head but I think it would be really interesting to pitch this unassuming girl into the role of a great indian hero or god like Vishnu and examine her responses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu
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