Oh, the unfortunate kids that don’t get to hear stories!
| Date :18-Aug-2019 |
Vijay Phanshikar: JUST as the group of youngsters felt a sense of shock last when I suggested that an odd failure was okay and manageable, it also felt a sense of pleasant surprise when I told them a few interesting stories and anecdotes from the lives of great personalities across time zone. “Uncle, nobody ever tells us such stories in an interesting manner,” a short and slightly plump girl said. Of course, that was not new. Countless hundreds of children of all ages have often lamented that they never get to hear well-narrated stories and anecdotes either in their respective homes or in schools or colleges. And this brings us back to one of the most troublesome issues -- absence of story-telling culture in homes and schools and colleges. Why? -- is the big question.
Really, why have we forgotten this art of story-telling? Why don’t we realise that story-telling is the most effective method of verbal communication with people of all ages and genders and socio-economic statuses? Really, why? But somehow, for reasons nobody cares to explain, as a society, we are fast forgetting the art of story-telling. And as we do that, we are actually making ourselves bereft of a great experience in communication. This is an old subject that has cropped up in ‘Loud Thinking’ at least a hundred times in the past 20 years of the column’s life since inception. All that persistent writing did create some positive effect. Mostly, however, the people have ignored this aspect of family living and educational communication. That was the reason why that group of youngsters was pleasantly surprised to hear a few anecdotes and stories. “We do read such stories in our text books, but very rarely do we hear such stories told to us in such an adorable way,” a boy said.
His grandfather did tell him stories, but after his demise, there is no one in the house to take up the activity, he added. Some time ago, one parent confided that she did not know stories at all since her parents, too, did not tell her stories. Many other parents in their late thirties or early forties (with kids between 12-15 years of ages) also said the same thing. This is absolutely bewildering at least to me. For, my sisters and I grew up in a home where stories came in torrents, one after another, for a good length of time particularly in the evenings after we ate our dinner and completed our studies. Grandmother, Father, Mother, uncles and aunts -- all told us stories everyday by the dozen. We finished our dinner and studies in great hurry only because we wanted to hear stories and anecdotes from the family elders. And in those days, we heard similar descriptions of many families -- of our friends and cousins and neighbours etc. In most homes, a strong story-telling culture existed at least in those good old days.
Today, unfortunately, a good number of kids miss that. How unfortunate! What surprised me was the comment of a mother who said, in effect, “But Sir, my son is now 14 years old and does not need stories and does not like those.” That was an utterly wrong thing to say. For, when I narrated a couple of stories to the boy, he looked absolutely thrilled. He then complained in a whisper so that his Mom did not hear, “Sir, nobody tells me such stories.” The boy also said that his parents loved watching movies and left the kids at home as they went to cinema halls or watched movies on TV. To that woman I asked only one simple question: “Is not a movie a story told on film? And don’t you like those stories even when you have grown to be a parent? And so how can you conclude that your son does not need stories to be told to him?” She was speechless. ... ... I, too, became speechless knowing the kids’ lament!