Grandmothers are the best story tellers. At least I know my Granny was the best. She fascinated me with stories of ancient Hindu Gods and Goddesses, the legends of Ramayana and Mahabharata, filled with adventures, mystery, magic and mesmerizing super natural powers. Classic Good versus Evil tales. You might wonder that those stories were written centuries ago by great authors so why is this guy crediting his Granny? Well there is a good reason.
As I grew older (8 year old at that time) I got attracted to comic books and TV shows of Spider man, Bat man, He man etc. Those characters were larger than life and I could watch them. I didn't have to visualize anymore. I saw their huge muscles, their super powers, their gadgets and their zeal to save the world. They were already visualized, written, designed for me, and all I had to do was read or watch them. I was not imagining the characters or the journey or the stories anymore. I dreamt "What if I have powers like Spider Man? What can I do with it? I can catch robbers and then be rewarded with candies." During all those reading, watching and imagining the new super powerful characters, the stories of Granny faded. I went only if I needed money for candies or if she was cooking my favorite food. I know I would have been a lousy selfish super hero if my dreams came true.
One night there was a power cut. It was a hot summer night and I was sweating profusely. I was irritated. During such moments, we think about how unpleasant it is and it keeps getting worse. It is all about the feeling. If you feel bad, you attract worse and even if anything good happens, you disguise it as bad. Your perception changes, so you need to change your perception. Much later when I was in my early twenties, waiting for a bus under the blistering sun to go to Bangalore, which is a 20 hours drive, I was livid with the sweat, the dust and everything around me. My then best friend looked at me and smiled. Imagine I got irritated with his smile as well.
"You and I are in the same situation. We both are standing under the hot sun, sweating, and will be traveling 20 hours straight, but I am enjoying it and you are complaining about it." He said.
"I hate it" I replied.
"Hate is a strong word, but so is love, all you have to do is switch." He said like it was easy.
"It's not easy dude, I hate summers, I wish I could be in some cold place, some mountain right now." I replied.
"You can be." he said.
I looked at him like he was a moron. "Yeah all I need is time travel." I responded.
My friend smiled and said. "Yes and you have it. It's called your mind. Believe me it works. Just close your eyes and do what I tell you to do."
He was too excited and I couldn't disappoint him, so I followed his instructions. I wiped my sweaty forehead and closed my eyes.
"Now feel as if you are on a mountain, the wind is brushing your face and caressing your hair. It feels nice. There is so much peace. Oh it started snowing. Little snow flakes are sliding through your fingers. It is getting nice and cold. You can see your warm breathe...."
I was imagining exactly what he was saying. I felt the slight breeze on my forehead and arms. It go nice, peaceful and pleasant. I opened my eyes. My sweat had almost dried up. I still felt the breeze, but couldn't understand the logic behind it.
"Your feelings are derived by your thoughts and the more you feel, the more you attract. The breeze was always there, but you ignored it. If you fear ghosts, it doesn't matter if you are in a theater filled with people, you know ghost doesn't exist, you know it is just a horror film, but you will still be afraid, because you FEEL afraid." he explained.
I guess in short he was saying our brain feels and starts imagining the feeling and that is exactly what it attracts. A bit spiritual, but if you can create that feeling in your story, then you have a winner, because people will attract that feeling and spread it.
Back to the hot summer minus the electricity and sleepless night, I was cranky as usual complaining about everything in sight. My Granny came and sat besides me with a little hand fan. She started fanning around my face and I felt a bit relieved. She smiled and said "Let me tell you a story. Long long ago there lived a king and he had seven daughters."
"I know this story." I interrupted. Granny thought for a moment and said "Oh I have one that I had never told you." My 8 year old eyes lit up. A freaking new story. AWESOME.
"Demon Kali is immortal. His sole purpose in life is to corrupt people and make sure all the human beings have sinned before the Mighty Kalki avatar comes and destroys all the corrupt human beings. It is a cycle of four yugas. Kaliyuga is the last yuga. After Kalki Avatar destroys all the sinned human beings, he takes handful of righteous humans and starts the cycle again with Sata yuga." Granny narrated.
(Well if you have seen Matrix - The Movie, you will know what I am talking about. The core idea of Matrix the movie is taken from Hindu Mythology)
"But this yuga is brutal. Kali has managed to corrupt almost all the human beings except for one. His name is Moksh and he is a bit disabled mentally." Granny continued. "So blah blah blah blah blah enters spider man to rescue Moksh."
I couldn't believe my ears. I got more interested. To cut the long story short my Granny spontaneously inserted all my favorite characters one by one with more twist and turns and more problems for the protagonist, creating multi-layered tracks, merging mythology and the fictionalized commercial heroes to create a story that I would love to hear. She was 63 year old and she used all her experience to create that story, but the most important thing she knew HOW to tell a story. Every 3 minutes she would insert a crazy plot and I would be like WHAT? She knew me well enough to include those perfect plots, which I will like for sure.
Story can be anything. If you think hard you might be able to think something original. But that is just the start. If you don't know HOW to tell or narrate that original idea, it would sound like one lame original idea. My Granny's story thought me three things about her story telling ability.
1. She had experience. Do your research on the subject before developing the story. Half knowledge can be harmful. I am pretty sure Granny might have watched Spider Man and He Man because she knew all about their powers, their enemies, their character, their pseudos etc or may be I spoke too much about those characters. She was a good listener.
2. She knew her audience. She knew exactly what I wanted. Set your target audience and know about them as much as you can. Their latest trend, likes, dislikes, tastes etc. If you know them well, you will know exactly how to tell them your story.
3. She wanted to tell an amazing story. If you don't have that inner need to tell your story, then you will never do justice to it. I didn't ask her to tell a story. She wanted to impress me, to be closer to me, to love me and she did the hard work of paying attention to details and created a fantastic story which I will never forget in my life.
As I grew older (8 year old at that time) I got attracted to comic books and TV shows of Spider man, Bat man, He man etc. Those characters were larger than life and I could watch them. I didn't have to visualize anymore. I saw their huge muscles, their super powers, their gadgets and their zeal to save the world. They were already visualized, written, designed for me, and all I had to do was read or watch them. I was not imagining the characters or the journey or the stories anymore. I dreamt "What if I have powers like Spider Man? What can I do with it? I can catch robbers and then be rewarded with candies." During all those reading, watching and imagining the new super powerful characters, the stories of Granny faded. I went only if I needed money for candies or if she was cooking my favorite food. I know I would have been a lousy selfish super hero if my dreams came true.
One night there was a power cut. It was a hot summer night and I was sweating profusely. I was irritated. During such moments, we think about how unpleasant it is and it keeps getting worse. It is all about the feeling. If you feel bad, you attract worse and even if anything good happens, you disguise it as bad. Your perception changes, so you need to change your perception. Much later when I was in my early twenties, waiting for a bus under the blistering sun to go to Bangalore, which is a 20 hours drive, I was livid with the sweat, the dust and everything around me. My then best friend looked at me and smiled. Imagine I got irritated with his smile as well.
"You and I are in the same situation. We both are standing under the hot sun, sweating, and will be traveling 20 hours straight, but I am enjoying it and you are complaining about it." He said.
"I hate it" I replied.
"Hate is a strong word, but so is love, all you have to do is switch." He said like it was easy.
"It's not easy dude, I hate summers, I wish I could be in some cold place, some mountain right now." I replied.
"You can be." he said.
I looked at him like he was a moron. "Yeah all I need is time travel." I responded.
My friend smiled and said. "Yes and you have it. It's called your mind. Believe me it works. Just close your eyes and do what I tell you to do."
He was too excited and I couldn't disappoint him, so I followed his instructions. I wiped my sweaty forehead and closed my eyes.
"Now feel as if you are on a mountain, the wind is brushing your face and caressing your hair. It feels nice. There is so much peace. Oh it started snowing. Little snow flakes are sliding through your fingers. It is getting nice and cold. You can see your warm breathe...."
I was imagining exactly what he was saying. I felt the slight breeze on my forehead and arms. It go nice, peaceful and pleasant. I opened my eyes. My sweat had almost dried up. I still felt the breeze, but couldn't understand the logic behind it.
"Your feelings are derived by your thoughts and the more you feel, the more you attract. The breeze was always there, but you ignored it. If you fear ghosts, it doesn't matter if you are in a theater filled with people, you know ghost doesn't exist, you know it is just a horror film, but you will still be afraid, because you FEEL afraid." he explained.
I guess in short he was saying our brain feels and starts imagining the feeling and that is exactly what it attracts. A bit spiritual, but if you can create that feeling in your story, then you have a winner, because people will attract that feeling and spread it.
Back to the hot summer minus the electricity and sleepless night, I was cranky as usual complaining about everything in sight. My Granny came and sat besides me with a little hand fan. She started fanning around my face and I felt a bit relieved. She smiled and said "Let me tell you a story. Long long ago there lived a king and he had seven daughters."
"I know this story." I interrupted. Granny thought for a moment and said "Oh I have one that I had never told you." My 8 year old eyes lit up. A freaking new story. AWESOME.
"Demon Kali is immortal. His sole purpose in life is to corrupt people and make sure all the human beings have sinned before the Mighty Kalki avatar comes and destroys all the corrupt human beings. It is a cycle of four yugas. Kaliyuga is the last yuga. After Kalki Avatar destroys all the sinned human beings, he takes handful of righteous humans and starts the cycle again with Sata yuga." Granny narrated.
(Well if you have seen Matrix - The Movie, you will know what I am talking about. The core idea of Matrix the movie is taken from Hindu Mythology)
"But this yuga is brutal. Kali has managed to corrupt almost all the human beings except for one. His name is Moksh and he is a bit disabled mentally." Granny continued. "So blah blah blah blah blah enters spider man to rescue Moksh."
I couldn't believe my ears. I got more interested. To cut the long story short my Granny spontaneously inserted all my favorite characters one by one with more twist and turns and more problems for the protagonist, creating multi-layered tracks, merging mythology and the fictionalized commercial heroes to create a story that I would love to hear. She was 63 year old and she used all her experience to create that story, but the most important thing she knew HOW to tell a story. Every 3 minutes she would insert a crazy plot and I would be like WHAT? She knew me well enough to include those perfect plots, which I will like for sure.
Story can be anything. If you think hard you might be able to think something original. But that is just the start. If you don't know HOW to tell or narrate that original idea, it would sound like one lame original idea. My Granny's story thought me three things about her story telling ability.
1. She had experience. Do your research on the subject before developing the story. Half knowledge can be harmful. I am pretty sure Granny might have watched Spider Man and He Man because she knew all about their powers, their enemies, their character, their pseudos etc or may be I spoke too much about those characters. She was a good listener.
2. She knew her audience. She knew exactly what I wanted. Set your target audience and know about them as much as you can. Their latest trend, likes, dislikes, tastes etc. If you know them well, you will know exactly how to tell them your story.
3. She wanted to tell an amazing story. If you don't have that inner need to tell your story, then you will never do justice to it. I didn't ask her to tell a story. She wanted to impress me, to be closer to me, to love me and she did the hard work of paying attention to details and created a fantastic story which I will never forget in my life.
Amazing , thanks for writing :)
ReplyDeleteyou are welcome :)
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