JOIN USHe lies on the bed, tiny palms resting on his chubby cheeks, eyes fixed on the grandmother. There’s a glint in his eyes every now and then, when the story takes an interesting turn. The youngest member in our house is a story fanatic. He needs a new story every day, one in the noon and one at night. He pauses to get doubts cleared and knows which one was already narrated earlier. His stories don’t remain just that, they find a place in his conversations with others and shape his view of the world.
Ever wondered why we love stories? The journey, for most, begins with short stories of birds and animals, progressing gradually to giants and dwarves; then come the superheroes with magical powers and not to forget, the love stories, which have, arguably, the largest reader base. There is, perhaps, a storyteller in all of us. We love stories because they allow us to experience a life already lived by us or others, words being a beautiful medium of expression. At times, it’s a slice of our imagination, creating a whole new world that never really existed.
Stories are meant to entertain, but we love stories that have a moral embedded in them. Stories inspire, stories stir a whole generation into action. Stories are cathartic. They allow the storyteller and the audience to come on the same page and experience the emotions.
Good stories evoke emotion, whether it is love, grief, revenge, humour, or even suspense. A story that puts you in the role of the protagonist is always appealing. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to imagine something that never existed; it helps you endow protagonists with powers and abilities to fight life’s odds. Stories have the inherent ability to become immortal by the sheer virtue of being passed on through generations.
For every occasion
People tell stories all the time. When the husband returns home, he narrates the happenings of the day to his wife. It is his story, told from his viewpoint. So, the boss who has reprimanded the husband comes across as the bad one, while the colleague who dropped ‘poor hubby’ in his car in a heavy downpour becomes an angel. The wife’s story similarly revolves around her life. Her narrative is
different, but it’s hers. The kids come back with stories from the school. Narratives differ, narrators change, but the act of storytelling remains the same – interesting and engaging.
We, Indians, love stories. There is a story for every occasion of life, from birth and childhood to marriage and death. Rabbits and tortoises teach us about taking life slow and steady, the monkey and the alligator give us a lesson or two about trust, and the mouse just walks away with his head held high, preaching how it can be of help to the king of the jungle.
To think of it, religion could flourish largely with the help of stories. These stories are much more engaging because they almost always deal with morals, of the victories of good over evil. Every God has his own story; every king ensured he had his own.
The freedom struggle gave rise to stories that capture our collective minds even today. People stayed in memory largely due to the stories associated with their lives. Mothers, invariably, tell their kids stories of their parents.
My mother is a fabulous story-maker. She can convert any small incident into an engaging story. She has adapted the stories of films like Koshish, Sholay and Deewar into children’s stories by infusing them with animals and other interesting characters. I realised this only when I grew up and watched the films!
Relatives with peculiar characteristics would become memorable characters in her stories. Her family’s financial struggles and her passion for education reflected in all the protagonists, who were either doctors or scientists, and women who made successful careers. I never heard a story that ended on a sad note.
Years later, when I see my son pester her for stories, I find that they have changed in setting — the hero or the heroine use hi-tech gadgets, drive fancy cars and travel in planes, but the morals and lessons are still the same.
Weaving stories around her dreams, her hardships, her triumphs and her values enabled her to create a world so real, that it took me a long time to finally reach the realisation that it was her life reflected in the stories.
A thing of beauty
From Chandamama to Tinkle, and Agatha Christie to Chetan Bhagat, every generation has its own share of stories. Man has always been a story-telling animal. His early paintings in the caves were, perhaps, his way of narrating what he saw, in a medium he knew best — the first words were yet to be spoken or written. The beauty of stories lies in their ability to replicate a world so real, you almost believe it to be true.
A kirtankaar from Maharashtra mesmerises his audiences late into the night with stories of gods and goddesses. He describes the setting, the colour of the clothes worn and the grandeur of the palaces so realistically that the spectators are left spellbound. The Yakshagana (a folk theater form) artists weave a similar magic, while several dances thrive on the stories narrated through animate gestures and expressive eyes.
In his book The Storytelling Animal, Jonathan Gottschall says that the constant firing of our neurons in response to fictional stimuli strengthens and refines the neural pathways that lead to skillful navigation of life’s problems.
Similarly, studies show that people who read a lot of novels have better social and empathetic abilities, and are more skillful navigators than those who don’t.
Stories provide a simulation to learn life skills, say researchers. While the
listener puts himself in the position of the desired character, he inadvertently
imbibes his characteristics at a more subtle level. The problems and crises in the stories that they encounter prepare them to face real-life problems.
When the story is compelling enough, the listener or reader doesn’t question the far-fetched ideas or unlikely events that make the plot. It appears so natural that animals from the Panchatantra speak in a human voice, or that the jackal is always evil, while the fox is cunning, the crow stupid and the monkey gullible.
Projecting human traits onto animals and birds, perhaps, makes it easier to accept that certain behavioural situations can be handled in life with some prudence and a little smartness.
Today even the world of management has beautifully dwelled upon the human liking for stories. It is common knowledge that presentations that begin with small stories and anecdotes keep the audience hooked on to the content for long.
New-age gurus like Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev or Devdutt Pattanaik take us on a journey of the past through the pathways of today and make us realise that life is beyond the realm of time when it comes to stories that teach.
Irrespective of the medium — from paintings to songs and books, cartoons and murals to dance and drama, cinema to VFX — human beings devour stories at all ages. Although the medium may have changed, the values and life lessons remain constant, years after the first story may have been told by the master storyteller himself.