Week 5 Reading Diary B: Santal Folklore

The Tigers and the Cat: I liked that this story told a lot of background of why tigers and cats do certain things. It made me mad that the tigers wanted to eat the cat just because he didn't come back very quickly. I didn't realize that tigers and leopards eat dogs, so that was a very scary thought. I'm glad that the cat was able to stay safe in the village.

The Elephant and the Ants: This story made me sad when I read it. I thought the elephant would be the good creature in the story. I was almost certain that elephants were praised in Indian culture; that they were considered smart and gentle creatures. I think this would be a good Storytelling post because I could relate it a kid threatening to step on an ant and then the ant saying, "Why would you do that? I'm just trying to provide for my family." And then somehow the kid would shrink down to an ant's size and the ant would show him around the ant colony, and the kid would never step on an ant again. This would be different from the original story, but it would say the same thing: that we should never think that something is of less value just because it is smaller than us.

A Fox and His Wife: When I first read that Mr. Fox and Mrs. Fox were comparing how much wit they each had, I pictured Mr. Fox smirking when Mrs. Fox told him how much wit she had. It makes me sad that men often times will doubt how smart women are sometimes. It is funny that Mr. Fox did not know how to escape from the tiger, so Mrs. Fox ended up saving all of their lives. I pictured that after the tiger left Mr. Fox apologized and thanked his wife profusely for saving their lives. This would be a good Storytelling post for this week because I could somehow relate it to the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. A lot of the male characters on that show constantly make fun of Penny for how she doesn't have that much of book smarts, but she has a lot of street smarts. I could make this my Storytelling post by having Penny save them all from a situation.

(The cast of the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Source: Flickr)

The Hyaena Outwitted: It made me sad to read that the animals decided to outwit the hyaena by killing him. I was just hoping that they would throw him outside the jungle or something like that. I guess the animals decided to kill him because they were jealous that the tiger decided to make him his dewan instead of them. I don't think that hyaenas would have learned a lessons from this experience. I think they would have just said that the other animals were jealous and would have taken revenge on them instead.

The Brave Jackal: I thought it was sad that the jackal got injured even though he was just trying to help his friend. I think if anything, the leopard should have been the one that got injured! I also found it impressive that a goat was able to scare away both a leopard and a jackal. I think that would be an interesting Storytelling post-- to tell the back story of the goat and tell how he got so brave!

The Jackal and the Leopards: I hate that the jackal was able to get away with being rude! I hate that the crocodile was too dumb to fall for all of his tricks. If I used this for my Storytelling post, I would base my story off of the jackal and the crocodile, but I think I would somehow tie it to the cartoon Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry always liked to play pranks on one another, so I figured this would be something that was relatable to this story!