✒️:. MOHD ISHAQ SHAH
Story telling has been one of the prominent components of literature and it has a special role in continuing the tradition, culture, legacy of prophets, saints and great heroes of the world who have survived for the cause of humanity and human service. In my childhood, I used to listen to the bedtime tales from the mouth of my grandparents or parents which added to my information and kept me convinced to go ahead with an ideal goal. And kept me motivated to the effect that gaining knowledge, practicing moralism, following honesty and dedication is the real aim of life. With the passage of time and the advent of technology the art of storytelling has faded. And especially after the inception of social media this art has died as today’s every household is full of smart phones and every family member is busy in scrolling the screen up and down. Hence the connectivity is lost among the human folk.
Walter Benjamin –a twentieth century critic and philosopher, in his seminal critical essay “The Story Teller” talks about the works of Nikolai Leskov. And goes on talking about the declining art of storytelling as: Less and less frequently do we encounter people with ability to tell a tale properly? More and more there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seems inalienable to us, the surest among our possession, were taken from us: the ability to exchange experiences. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is obvious: Experience has fallen in value.
Leskov was grounded in the classics. The first story teller of the Greeks was Herodotus. In the fourteenth chapter of his book Histories there is story from which much can be learned. It deals with Psammentus. When Egyptian king Psammentus had been beaten and captured by Persian king Cambyses, the later was hell bent on humbling the prisoner. He gave orders to place Psammentus on the road along which Persian triumphal procession was to pass. And he further arranged that the prisoner should his daughter pass by a maid going to the well with a pitcher. While all the Egyptians were lamenting and bewailing this spectacle. Psammentus stood alone, mute and motionless, his eyes fixed on the ground; and when presently he saw his son who was being taken along in the procession to be executed , he likewise remained unmoved. But when afterwards he recognized one of his servants, an old, impoverished man, in the ranks of prisoners, he beat his fists against his head and gave all the signs of deepest mourning.
From this story it may be seen what the nature of true story telling is. The value of information doesn’t survive the moment in which it was new. It lives only at the moment; it has to surrender to it completely and explain itself to it without losing any time. A story is different. It doesn’t expend itself .It preserves and concentrates its strength and Is capable of releasing it even after a long time.
Walter Benjamin continues to say that the earliest symptom of a process whose end is the decline of storytelling is the rise of novel at the beginning of modern times. What distinguishes the novel from the story (and from the epic in narrow sense) is its essential dependence on the book. The dissemination of the novel became only possible with the invention of printing press. What can be handed on orally, the wealth of the epic is a different kind from what constitutes the stock I the trade of the novel. What differentiates al l other forms of prose literature –the fairy tale, the legend, even the novella-that neither comes from oral tradition nor goes into it. This distinguishes it mainly from the story telling. The story teller takes what he tells from experience- his own or that reported by others…
So we can say that storytelling as an art has faded away gradually due to certain reasons and in the current scenario , the main cause behind it is the screen addiction and its consequences on both the adults and young folk. The screen has given a considerable amount of benefits like up to date information, news, entertainment, but has snatched from us much more than it has given. The art of storytelling was, in a way,natural that come down the generations. It has its own feasible impacts upon the mind and body of a person. Those bedtime tales served as a source of information, motivation and especially connectivity. The family members would sit together after dinner and share their experience. Usually it was the job of grandparents to tell the tales to children in order to make them soothed and calm for night. And it was that those children would fall asleep while listening to the sweet tale. The most effective factor of this tradition was that it would keep the fabric of the family intact. The get-together would serve as a cabinet for the family in which all the planning was discussed.
I still remember a tale that I have heard from my elders. Once upon a time there was father who had three sons. When he reached his old age and was apprehended about his death; He summoned all his sons and distributed his property among them. He wanted to give the test to his youngest son as he was inexperienced. He gave a hundred rupee note to his younger son and asked him to do the business of it. He went away and happened to come across a party of young boys who had caught a dog and were trying to kill it, but he stopped them from doing it for which they demanded 100 rupees from him. He gave it to them and got the dog with him. After he reached home, his father enquired of the 100 rupees. He showed the dog and was bullied. On the second day he got a cat and on the third day he got a snake. Hence lost all the chances of inheriting father’s property as it was his test in which he had failed. He left home for nowhere along with his three animal companions. While travelling a long they happened to reach the banks of river and sat down there for the rest. The young boy prayed to God for his help. He was granted his wish and bestowed with a bungalow and a beautiful wife with golden hair. But after sometime he was again caught in the trouble and all these animals helped him out of this tragedy. The moral that emerges out of the story is “ virtue is its own reward” and if we are compassionate with other species , nature will be compassionate with us.
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