Reading Notes: A Flowering Tree, Part A

I have chosen to begin reading A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India by A.K. Ramanujan for this week and the coming weeks. It is filled with multiple small stories, very similar to Aesop's Fables. I grew up reading Aesop's Fables, so I figured I would really enjoy this book and so far I have! Plus, I feel as though I can get a lot of good ideas from these stories for my storybook project.

This week, I read the first six stories from A Flowering Tree. Some of them were very odd and there were multiple occasions where family members wanted to marry their sister or daughter. Each of the stories were very interesting and fun to read. I really like how these stories are written because they are short and easy to read. It's also nice to have each story be completely different because this way I don't lose interest in what I'm reading.

The first story tells the story of a woman who would never tell a story that she knew or sing a song she knew. Eventually they escaped and disguised themselves as a coat and shoes. This caused problems within her marriage. This story is very important because it shows the repercussions of what happens if you don't tell stories and why stories need to be told. I fell as though this goes back to my storybook because it is all written in a journal setting about the main characters life, which can be represented as a storytelling!

As I was reading, I was thinking how I could possible re-write these stories and these are some ideas I came up with:

1. A Story and a Song

• I could write what the song and story that the woman kept in was
• I could write in my storybook how Betsy had to write what happened so she wouldn't forget

2. Acacia Trees

• I could write themes of karma and dharma in my storybook

3. The Adventure of a Disobedient Prince

• I could write in a fairytale setting where the Granny is the fairy god-mother
• I could write where after all the things happen, he goes back to thank the Granny for being the reason he got his first wife in the first place

4. Bride for a Dead Man

• I could write where Chennavva kills herself

5. A Brother, a Sister, and a Snake

• I could write how the stepmother wouldn't leave

6. A Buffalo without Bones

• I could write how she actually dies
• I could write where she chooses one of the three cousins

Bibliography

A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India by A.K. Ramanujan, Online Source

Photo of coat on a coat rack, Web Source