This lecture was a very interesting one because of the cultures these folktales were told in. It is very different from our way of seeing folktales. This was very interesting to me because, many people see fairytales as a means of entertainment and small stories made for children to learn rules. In this culture it's different, they see it as a strong belief for all generations. An example if this strong belief is the Taj Mahal, built out of a story, the tomb proves it real. The word for fairy tales is "Ropkoth" meaning "beautiful words." I find this very interesting because that is what fairy tales, it is necessary to inspire us and make us believe in something, because those words are beautiful. In general, the story-line is based on good vs. evil and greed vs. generosity, vice vs. virtue. However, in a lot of stories virtue is rewarded, like normal, but evil instead of being turned around and taught is punished and harshly. Characters in these stories are generally demons and monsters as well as royalty. This is somewhat normal, as well as talking animals which is very constant in some our cultures stories. Magic is highly believed in, as well as animal-plant-monster transformations. For example, a widely known talking animal is the "wise parrot" which appears on several occasions in the Bangladesh stories. We also reviewed the story of Neelkamal and Lalkamal. This was a story very similar to some of our culture's fairy tales. There was a demon queen which is similar to the evil stepmother. Overall these stories are somewhat similar, the difference is that they believe in their stories more than we do, they have respect for the stories and their origins.
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