Topic Brainstorm

Map of South Asia; Web Source: Wikimedia

One topic I am interested in is Pakistani/Indian Folklore. I read Love Like Salt, and I liked it a lot. It was very interesting to hear the story from the perspective of the king and the perspective of the daughter from different countries.  I am interested in this topic because I am Punjabi/Kashmiri. I understand the history of the region. My family lived in present day India before the partition. I am very familiar with the culture.  I would want to switch up the characters for this story. I am interested in incorporating the stories of Raja Rasalu.  The story behind his birth is very intriguing as well as the jealous maidens test for him. 

 I am also interested in Indian Nights Entertainment for the same reason that it is an Indian story. I am interested in the romantic tales because my parents are very traditional. They met for the first time on their wedding day. I am assuming these romantic tales will be unusual than the typical American love before marriage. I read the Love Story of Mirza and Sahibanh on page 208. I flipped to this one because that is my boyfriend's name. There are many disturbing aspects about this story, but I can relate to this one a lot because Sahibanh has to hide Mirza from own family and society or face repercussions which is unfortunately the case with many Pakistani couples. The story of a planned betrothal between two families is a story that I have heard of, but thankfully my parents despite being traditional and wanting me to have a semi-arranged marriage would never force that arrangement. This story was essentially a Romeo and Juliet. I could tell this in a different perspective maybe a more modern perspective. 

My father loves to talk about different folklores, and I am interested in learning some that maybe he doesn't know or does know and hasn't told me yet. I am interested in learning more about it. I would want to extend and combine the stories in Tiny Tales of India especially in Reading C I found these stories very interesting, but they are short. 

Another topic that I think could be interesting is a folklore from different countries' national dishes. I am currently working on a project where I create the national dish of every country (unless it has pork which I do not eat and then I create another famous dish or dessert.) I am interested in the folklore behind each of these dishes. The first country that I looked for was Afghanistan since I started this project alphabetically. There is called Kabuli Palaw. I could not find any specific folklore for this dish. I found this website that gave more context to the dish Kabuli Palaw I am not certain where to find sources. The second country alphabetically was Albania. They have a dish called Tave Kosi. Again, I could not find any mythology and folklore about this dish. I am having a hard time finding sources. I am very interested in this idea and would have each dish with a folklore about the dish.