CHENNAI: Weathered bags of rich stories and resplendent experiences as those in their silver years continue weaving tapestries of narratives for their little ones, grandchildren recall life-defining lessons they’ve absorbed from these aged tale-tellers
Mrinalini Baskaran, Montessori teacher
Unlike most kids who enjoyed bedtime stories, I enjoyed kitchen-time stories. Thanks to my lovely grandmothers who taught me cooking from an early age, to make the whole process interesting, they used to feed me with stories behind every delicacy prepared and every spice that went into its making. While my maternal grandmother Chandra is from South India, my paternal grandmother Lalitha is from Sri Lanka. I got to listen to the best of their culturally diverse backgrounds. These stories made me realise the effort that went into cooking that I ended up not wasting even a single morsel of food. It taught me patience, accurate measurement of spices and perseverance to try until I master a recipe. Today, I have 20 kids who are enrolled in my virtual cooking classes. I’m able to engage them with storytelling sessions while cooking.
Avanti Natarajan, artist
Stories have always been a part and parcel of my life. As a kid, stories used to be a bribe for me to eat, bathe and perform every activity. While my maternal grandmother, Lakshmi, narrated epics and mythological tales with a dramatic touch, my paternal grandmother, Pavai Ammal, would tell folktales. Growing up, listening to Ramayana and Mahabharata, has instilled leadership qualities and compassion. Now, being a designer and brand consultant, these formative experiences have influenced my creativity. As a mother, I also ensured I passed on the legacy to my little girl. However, in a fast-paced world, where joint families are seeing a dip, the tradition of stories and story-telling seems to have got lost. But, during the pandemic, many sought storytelling for solace. It also paved the way for many storytellers to pursue their passion as a profession. We have to spread its goodness, revive and preserve the art.
Tanvi Srivatsan, law student and stand-up comic
Stories and comedy have gone hand-in-hand for me since childhood, thanks to paati. She has had a significant impact on my stand-up comedy sets and scripts for the plays I’ve written. Growing up, I often sat with her to hear her tell me stories from the epics. For some reason, the story behind Rama’s birth was always a go-to for her. Sage Vashishta asked King Dhasaratha to get his wives to drink the sacred payasam to conceive children. It never made sense to me as a child but it was very funny because of the way she narrated it. Every time she recited the payasam story, she did it with her heart and soul. Even though I have not used any of her stories directly, her humour and her way of presenting things inspired me big time as a comic. Even in the saddest story, she would somehow find a comedic vein and say “Ellam nanmaike” which translates into ‘Everything happens for a good reason’. I use it as a guiding principle now.
Amudhan, journalist
My grandfather started telling stories from a very young age. And most of the stories were about Ramayana and Mahabharata. The beauty is, when someone who is not religious is telling you the stories he’s read, it comes to you directly as stories without the religious spin. You could see the shares of grey in different characters. In school, when we were taught all these epics as a religious text, it was all whitewashed to make it very black and white good and bad, right and wrong. In my grandfather’s stories, which I later realised were a lot more true, everybody had a shade of grey: Duryodhana has a good thing about him and a bad thing about him; so did Arjuna. So, it was about the art of storytelling where you’re able to put several shades into one person. And the way he tells it too... he’d introduce an angle of mystery, keep you waiting for something.
So, I grew up liking the Mahabharata but not from the religious point of view. He played a great role in that. In future, when I did my research and studied religion and atheism, his stories helped a lot in shaping who I am. With a lot of his stories coming from mythology and Malayalam folklore, it gave me a peek into Indian culture which I otherwise would not have had. Even now, when I analyse religion, I’m able to retain certain objectivity because of the impact his stories have had on me. Now, when my daughter is going to these storytelling sessions because you don’t have grandparents telling stories any more, I found that a lot was missing. For me, it was an entire activity. Typically, we used to go up to the terrace to water the plants and clean the place and then we’ll sit down for the stories. It had an ambience to it, of moonlight and summer breeze. That is so much different than taking your bike, going to a place and making your children sit in an auditorium and listen to stories.
Dhyaneshwar, an engineering student
Every story my paati narrated had some moral values in them right from stories of Harischandra to all other branch stories of itihasas. To this day, I feel the effect of her narration of the Mahabharata in my routine. Bhishma chose to stick to his vow under all circumstances, even when his kingdom didn’t have a king. However, Krishna who vowed to never pick a weapon to fight in the Kurukshetra war had to pick up a broken chariot’s wheel to take on the fight against Bhishma. Paati taught me that change is the only constant. If I cannot adapt to the situation, I will not be able to protect the greater interest. To be adept enough t o adapt to change is the virtue that I have acquired from her stories.
Aishwarya Kumar, journalist
In the afternoons during every summer vacation, Lalli paati laid her head down on her wooden block, and opened up her arms sideways, so her grandchildren could sleep beside her. She’d start narrating the Ramayana from the first scene. Somehow, she always finished the final battle on the last day of vacation. I’d spent my entire life listening to her narrate stories, so even before I started high school, I knew I wanted to become a storyteller. I didn’t know how to articulate it, I didn’t know how to monetise it, but I knew I wanted to emulate her. I finished my undergrad and then my master’s in journalism and there is not a day that goes by that I wonder if my paati would have had the same opportunity had she not been born then. I am a storyteller today because she taught me to be curious, empathetic and kind, sparking the love for telling beautiful and nuanced stories.
Ishwarya Balabharthy, founder of NatyaTaara Dance Company
I come from a family of three generations of storytellers. Growing up in a joint family had its share of perks. Every vacation, I used to visit my hometown, Madurai, and spend the holidays with cousins. My grandmother Ramalakshmi used to weave all kinds of stories to engage us. Listening to stories widened my attention span, memory and exposed me to our culture and religious values. It also shaped my career as a dancer in visualising concepts inspired by mythological tales, applying creativity. Selecting a theme for a dance concert and enacting it to perfection came naturally to me as I knew most of the stories. My father and mother are also wonderful storytellers. I’m grateful that my daughter has also developed an interest in storytelling and listening.
Inputs by: Anushree Madhavan, Kannalmozhi Kabilan, Sadakshi Kalyanramun, Vaishali Vijaykumar