Spice of life: The world can never get enough of storytellers

People take on a variety of roles and responsibilities in life. Some become academicians and businessmen, others consultants, teachers, and technocrats. But it is storytellers who have always intrigued me the most.

People take on a variety of roles and responsibilities in life. Some become academicians and businessmen, others consultants, teachers, and technocrats. But it is storytellers who have always intrigued me the most.

It was my mother who introduced me to the world of stories. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Storytellers are a special breed. What begins as just an idea in their head is poured over endless pages to form a vivid picture, a piece of the author’s heart, a story. Every time that story is read and reread, a new facet comes out.

It was my mother who introduced me to the world of stories. With each bite of aaloo parantha, she also fed me a staple diet of Usborne’s classic fairy tales. Bedtime would be incomplete without a reading of Panchtantra. Such short tales, such big lessons.

Good grades in school made me eligible to have a month’s supply of Archie comics. As I graduated from primary school to the secondary wing, so did my love for St Clare’s to Mallory Towers. I gained and lost many friends during tumultuous teens but Enid Blyton remained my constant companion.

In my 20s, I read ‘Maximum City’, saw Mumbai through Suketu Mehta’s eyes, and decided it was my favourite city in the world. ‘Dongri to Dubai’ by Hussain Zaidi kept me up all night. I met “the man of my dreams” with Mills and Boons, long before Fawad Khan became a sensation. Shobha De’s ‘Starry Nights’ gave me a sneak peek into the dark, captivating world of the Indian film industry.

‘Forty Rules of Love’ by Elif Safak became my inhouse counsellor. A piece of my heart still lies with the abused and tormented Hasan of Khalid Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’. Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’ taught me a simple yet profound lesson about what careless words did — make people love you a little less.

Since then, I’ve “known” many a writer. Reading someone’s work is almost like knowing them at a personal level. A reader establishes a strange yet wonderful connection with the author. With every word, one hears a voice. With every sound, one paints a picture. How powerful are storytellers! They engage, bind, and transport us to a different world. American literary scholar Jonathan Gottschall puts it beautifully: “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”

Storytelling is a little bit of magic. Only instead of a waving a magic wand, you weave a story — an inspiring, gripping, enchanting story, woven with words from the heart.

seeratsandhu25@yahoo.com

The writer is a Chandigarh-based freelance contributor