YES, THERE ARE STORIES EVERYWHERE AND IN EVERYTHING

Pic.: Vinod Krishnan

Sixteen-year-old Bhavesh, who has joined our PD course, was here this morning. I wanted him to write a self-introduction. A self-introduction, if we think about it, should be the easiest task in the world. But, when a young-one really gets down putting it on paper, it looks like a Mount-Everest expedition… Daunting!

Well, if you don’t believe it, ask a young one to do it. Or, try doing it yourself!

So, this morning, before Bhavesh could blink at me with, “Sir what to write… How to write… How much to write… How to start… How to end… What if this and what if that…” and all that, I handed over to him a couple of well-crafted self-introductions prepared and delivered in our sessions by some of our past participants. Bhavesh was excited after going through them.

“Beta, a self-introduction is your own story,” I told Bhavesh, “Feel strongly for your own story, and tell it well, that’s all it takes to put it on paper… Don’t’ worry about what others will think about it… You have all the right to tell what you want to tell and how you want to tell it.”

Bhavesh felt a lot relieved. Perhaps, he had never thought before, that a self-introduction could be a nice story and it could be told well gluing his listeners to it. Yes, he was more concerned about the ‘rules’… the opinions and the validation of others – particularly the authorities like we teachers.

“You don’t need our permission to tell your story,” I informed Bhavesh, “Believe in your story and just tell it… tell it well.”

In life, is everything a story? Can every experience in life – happy, sad or mad – be told as an interesting story? Will there be enough beholders?

Oh yes, yes, yes. I completely believe, that every experience in life ‘is’ an interesting story and, if we put our hearts and souls and decide to tell it well, our story will sell like a hot-cake!

Believe me when I say this: Everyone out there is dying to listen to someone else’s story!

Every time someone comes back after the US-visa experience, he brings home a very, very interesting story… mostly an unpleasant or harrowing one! Every time, my father-in-law would return home after buying fish from the local fish market, he brings home  an enchanting story, too - How the fisher-women tried to ‘grab’ him from one another… and, how the one he went to tried to ‘loot’ him and how he succeeded in outwitting her through his exceptional negotiating-skills… Every time our little-ones come home from school, and every time a married daughter returns after s short stay at her parents’ home... Every time we come back after visiting a temple or a church…  Every time we come home from a cinema hall or a cricket stadium… Every time when someone goes to a hospital or a cremation ground, he will bring home a story to tell us…

Yes, there are stories everywhere and in everything!

Life is a journey… a journey with myriads of experiences… All that I told young Bhavesh, this morning, was: capture your experiences – your stories – in your own travelogue!

GERALD D’CUNHA