THE SOUL OF YOUR STORY













Pic.: Anima D'Cunha
I am never tired of telling our young boys and girls, even little kids, during the PD sessions, that everything they tell in the class - be it on stage or in groups – is a story. “Everything you tell here is a story… everything can be told as a great story,” I remind them, “and you are a great story-teller.” I, also, remind them, “Our life starts and ends with stories…. As little kids, we listen to stories told to us by our parents and grandparents… Then, when become parents and grandparents, we tell stories to our little-ones.”

Stories sustain life… They give meaning and hope to our existence!

Last evening, my wife and I watched the latest edition of the movie ‘The Jungle Book’. Like almost everyone around us, I, too, have watched the earlier version of ‘The Jungle Book’ many times over. I have read the book, too, several times…  And, yes, the story doesn’t cease to fascinate me…

Such a simple story… but, how timeless!

Rudyard Kipling had spent his initial six years as a child - and, later, another six and a half  years working as a young man - in India. Many of us may not know, that he had written the stories in ‘The Jungle Book’ for his little daughter, who died at the age of six! That explains why his stories have such an emotional appeal in them… why we all are able to connect to them!

A story is a story only when it is told with raw emotions… the feelings. Any piece of creativity – be it prose or poetry, be it a book, play or a movie, be it a speech, painting, song or a piece of music… yes, whatever piece of creativity be it, unless the creator pours into it his emotions, his feelings, it is devoid of its soul… It simply fails to touch us. It is dead.

The characters in The Jungle Book – Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan, Kaa, Raksha, King Louie… are all real… They speak with real emotions…

I, truly, feel, that the young boys and girls, these days, are not expressive enough as they block their emotions when they write and speak… They tell their stories without soaking them in emotions!

“God is not present in idols… Your feelings are your god,” said Chanakya, “The soul is your temple.”

GERALD D’CUNHA

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