“He was flying but had no wings!
He used to dance, he even sings!
He used to be the best of em all!
The king in grandma stories stood very tall!”
Grand mother and her stories! The summer vacations or the time when your grandparents come to live with you are the time of stories!
From imaginative stories from Ithihasa to their own stories of childhood, it was always fun to listen to them!
read on!
My dad’s mother loved to talk! We only had to listen!
Ask her about her village and the memories and stories would flow like water from a cracked dam! After several sessions the stories would overlap and seem the same but then they remain interesting all the same!
By default Grand father would not have many stories to tell though there were several stories about him which were narrated by my uncles and everyone else!
One story of how she used to sing in her class and when one great personality had come for a school function and was mighty impressed by her singing was her favorite! He toothless grin would be so big and her old eyes would still twinkle when she used to narrate this story! Many times the personality and her class may change but the theme was the same!
The famous story of Nala and Damayanthi she used to tell with so much emotions that it used to give wings to our imaginations!
The best story she used to tell which we later read even in our books and Ithihasa was the story of the sage and the fish! How a sage found a small fish while taking bath and he put it in a bowl! Then how the fish kept on growing and the sage kept on increasing the size of the bowl! When finally even the lake or the river was not enough and he had to shift the ‘Fish’ to the sea! At this moment she would declare with a sense of devotion and respect that the fish was none other than Bhagwan Vishnu! We would listen with rapt attention even though we knew this!
The story telling in the night was a custom in many households! During vacations and holidays it was the norm! There were great storytellers who were the favourite uncle and aunts! Unfortunately now they have been replaced by the screen! The stories now need more special effects to hold attention and must not be repetitive!
The thrill of your own imagination taking over the story is no longer there! When my grandmother used to tell about how the fish grew, I used to imagine a big whale growing slowly but steadily!
By the way if you find a fun fact, our relative the mammal ‘whale’ is actually one of the largest living thing in the world! To add to the thrill it is also the one which makes the loudest sounds!
The Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus ssp. Intermedia) is the biggest animal on the planet, weighing up to 400,000 pounds (approximately 33 elephants) and reaching up to 98 feet in length! The blue whale is so giant that its heart weighs as much as a small car and the arteries of its heart are so large that the average person could swim through them.
A blue whale’s brain can weigh up to 6.8kg! It can make sounds upto 160 decibels! The jet engine reaches around 140 decibels for comparison! Blogging about stories and big reminds me of the celebrity of the day Ram Kapoor!
Now ask Alexa to tell you a story and sleep! Or better yet listen to some instrumental music like say, Kenny G and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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