Importance of storytelling

Today we were celebrating July 4^th – the US Independence day. While waiting for the fireworks show to begin, the kids asked me to tell them a story. Even before I could start, the younger one interrupted me with a question – "Why do we tell stories? And how do you know all the stories?" the question left me thinking for a long time. Today's blog is my attempt to answer the same question with inspirations from many great storytellers.

Recently, I had come across another alumni of my college. He has taken up a full time profession of being a story teller. At the same time, a lot of other colleagues have been stressing the importance of storytelling. What is storytelling and why is it so important?

Let's first understand what is a story? A story is an expression of an idea along with the situation that helps explain the idea in a better manner. The entire scenario is laid out in such a manner that the central idea is easily understood by listener or the reader. The perception and meaning of the same idea might change from one place to the other and also from time to the other. Thus creating differences in how one values the idea as compared to the other. Remember the readers of Jane Austen refer "gay" to happiness, while the readers today have a completely different meaning for the word. Similarly, when the food in the western countries is meant to be served in multiple courses as controlled by the chef, the food in India is served as a meal – allow the person eating to create his own taste.

In our day to day life we experience multiple transactions – whether in the market while buying something or dealing with others. Negotiations happen every moment, everywhere whether we talk to our children or our bosses. Each transaction is a business of its own capacity where something is exchanged causing gain to someone involved in the exchange. The tangible value of the transaction can be measured but how could we measure the intangible value? The intangible value differs in the perspective of the parties involved in the transaction as well the ones observing the same. The key to understanding the intangible value is understanding the psyche or the thought process of the parties involved. In order to understand the psyche of someone it is important to understand the ideas that form their belief. The belief is constructed using the stories that a person hears and grows up with.

We all tell stories to our kids. Sometimes as a bedtime story, sometimes to put our point across. Many times, we tell the same story to our kids. But none of the renditions are all the same. They differ as per our own understanding and our beliefs. It also reflects what happens in our background. These are the stories that stay with our kids too when they grow up. In a large manner, these stories shape them up as well. Thus, the responsibility to make the next generation "good" lies on us.

Tell the right story, tell the right meaning and also appreciate that there might be other possible renditions as well.

An ode to parents - Janak - Janani

हरी कोंपलों में
जन्मे थे, मजबूत शाखा से लग
सपने भी तो देखे थे?
फिर, आज इन पीले पत्तों से
मुंह क्यों मोड़ लिया?
इन्हें भी तो, समय ने
यहाँ ला कर छोड़ा।
इन्हीं के तो तुम रूप हो,
इन्हीं की हो छवि।
यह तुम्हारे जनक हैं,
और यही तुम्हारी जननी। 

The story of a River

कल कल, कल कल करती,
मस्त चाल से चलती नदी,
चली जा रही सागर से मिलने।

पर्वतों की गोद में खेलती,
धरती के ह्रदय में अठखेलियाँ करती,
देखो तो सागर से मिलने चल दी।

कितने युग बदले,
कितनी सभ्यताएँ बदलीं,
नहीं बदली तो यह नदी।

सब देखा है इसने,
सब सहा है इसने,
फिर भी देखो चञ्चलता आज भी उतनी ही है।

कभी गाँव लीलती है, तो कभी सिंचाई करती है,
कभी पत्थर काटती है, तो कभी खुद को बंधवा लेती है,
फिर भी सबकी प्यास मिटाती जाती है।

जो छूट गया, ना उसका दुःख,
जो आगे आएगा, ना उसका भय,
इसे तो बस चलते जाना है।

पर्वतों का सन्देश सागर तक पहुंचाना है,
अपना रास्ता स्वयं ही बनाना है,
जन्म से वृद्धावस्था तक बस चलते ही जाना है। 

The price of growth

When Parikshit was bitten by Takshak, his son Janamejaya started a yagna to burn all the snakes in the fire. All the snakes rose in horror and cried foul over this mindless massacre. At this time, Astika – newphew of the serpent king Vasuki, told the story of Indraprastha to Janamejaya. Many years ago, the Pandavas approached the king of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra for their share of the kingdom. The kauravas very shrewdly gave a forest – Khandavprastha to the Pandavas to build their own city. Under Krishna's suggestion, the Pandavas burned the forest in order to clear ground for Indraprastha. Arjuna build a barge of arrows all around the forest and all pandavas killed any living creature – Yaksha, human, demon, bird or animal that tried to escape the burning forest. The forest incidentally was home to the families of serpents. Living under the earth, they escaped the burns but were forced to flee to save themselves from the heat and the manhunt. On this cleared ground, the Pandavas built the magnificent city of Indraprastha. Indraprastha was envied by kings, gods and asuras equally. It rivalled the Indra's palace in beauty and graciousness. Astik told Janmejaya that the seeds of revenge were sowed in Khandavaprastha. At that time, the serpents were the victims and were burnt to support the cause of Pandavas and today, Janmejaya is burning the serpents to avenge his father. This will continue to enrich the enmity between the two creatures.

The story bring out two main points –

1. Every action has a reaction – could be equal and may be opposite too! But every action, even inaction, has a reaction.
   
2. There is always a price for every growth – however the payee may not be the same as the one who benefits
   

The first point was also the focus of my previous article – "What I learned from Bhishma?". Sri Krishna explained the importance of action and fulfilling the purpose in his discourse to Arjuna, known to us as Geeta. This is the same idea seen in the story of Rama. When Rama tries to be an upright king to hold the virtues of his kingdom, he has to part with his innocent wife. Even when Ahilya tried to follow the wishes of her husband he was punished to lie down as a rock – just because she was disillusioned as Indra disguised as her husband. Hence, actions – your own or of others – associated to you will have consequences. Never worry about them. They will happen – like it or not. Do your best and stick to your principles and remember the purpose.

It's the second point that excites me today. There is a price to everything. We all have heard it in multiple formats – "there are no free lunches!", "nothing comes for free". In a yagna, the yajman provides offerings to the gods to obtain their blessings in return. In a business, the entrepreneur puts in his ideas, efforts and capital to produce and appease customers. Professionals have to react as per the requirements of their employers and help them succeed in return for their own employment.

Innovation – probably the most sought after term in the business vocabulary today – focuses on growth by performing the tasks differently. However, with every innovation, there is a change introduced – sometimes good, sometimes bad. When the calculator were invented to help people with the calculations, the mental math lost its glory.

Thus, when someone asks the measure of success, I laugh! I simply ask the person to define the parameters of success. If the Indraprastha was a success, Khandavprastha was burnt for t. To build a great palace for 5 Pandavas, innumerable living beings had to die. Whose success was it? And at what cost? Many finance professionals develop deep purses rapidly, however need to retire soon as they start missing the family and other factors in the life. While reading in the newspapers, I came across great many sportspersons, who earned millions just through a single game. However, you may also read many different stories about the same people later. One such example is Justin Bieber's story!

In common societal terms, the success is still measured by the financial capacity of oneself. Any social gain as a family is considered as a greater success. As per the Indian scriptures Lakshmi is associated with Wealth, Durga with Emotions and Saraswati with Knowledge. Knowledge is the basic requirement to gain either wealth or emotions.    

What I learned from Bhishma

At a time when there is no dearth of historical or mythological serials on the television, Star Plus went on to produce yet another version of Mahabharata. And they made it big – making it India's most expensive TV series – spent close to 100 crore as per statistics disclosed in September 2013. The producer of the show commented that it took him nearly 20 days to shoot the most iconic scene – "Draupadi's cheerharan" due to the grandeur that needed to be created. Since both, my wife and I grew up watching BR Chopra's – then state-of-the-art, now lackluster – retelling of Mahabharata, often find the current TV series appalling for various reasons. The topmost being the time spent in bringing out the emotions during the 'most iconinc scene rather event'. Definitely this is the turning point in the history which started the avalanche brining the entire India to a halt. This event is also a reminder of shame.

While we kept discussing the efficacy of the epic and its retelling, I always watch it with the curiosity of a kid. And alas, I found my golden nugget yesterday!

The scene was of Bhishma plundering the Pandava army and Arjun refusing to cause any harm to him as Bhishma is his elder. Inspite of being advised by Krishna, Arjuna was not ready to raise weapons against Bhishma. Bhishma, on the other hand agitates Krishna and keeps on with his attack on the Pandava army. Rightfully, there is no match for him. Also equipped with the boon of immortality from his father, Bhishma is invincible. Krishna took an oath prior to the war that he would not fight in the Mahabharata war as he supported both Kauravas and Pandavas in different capacities. Bhishma took opportunity of this oath of Sri Krishna and continues to agitate him. Finally, Krishna took the wheel of a chariot and ran towards Bhishma as if to chop his head using the Sudarshan chakra. At this time, there is an interesting dialog in between the two which intrigues me.

Bhishma asks Krishna for what he did wrong to cause Krishna break his oath and run to kill him? Bhishma goes on to say that all his life he followed the promise provided to his father, and caring only for the betterment of the throne of Hastinapur. Bhishma asks that "Is giving up every personal aspiration is a crime? Is following my promise a crime? Is protecting the rule established by my ancestors a crime? Then for which crime am I being punished?"

Imagine Krishna's answers!

Krishna answered "To follow one promise, you gave up on your all your karma. To follow the dharma you gave up on karma. What was needed was to follow the karma, and leave out the expectation from the same. Your crime is to stop the nature taking its regular course. Your crime is to follow the promise even when the times changed. Your crime is to follow the promise when the entire system failed. Your crime is to make follow is to follow your own duties, rather than enforcing others to perform their duties as well. Your crime is that you lived for yourself and did everything to make yourself upright. Your crime is not to think about other's dharma". Krishna then reminded Bhishma of the various extremities subjected to others to help him keep his promises – to princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika; to princess Gandhari; to Draupadi by keeping quiet in his reverent duty to the throne; and later when Duryodhana refused to give Pandavas what was rightfully theirs. Krishna accuses Bhishma to have turned away from his duties just to follow one promise. Bhishma had shied away from the harsh decisions that were needed at the appropriate times to have steered the mankind for a better future.

Doing the right things is not always the correct option. Doing the appropriate thing which is considerate of everyone is most important. Never turn away from your duties. Leaders are born when decisions are taken. It's the leaders who take the decisions, followers only follow the decisions. Decisions may be right or wrong. Their responsibility lies with the leader. Hence, the win or the loss is said to be of the leader and not of the follower. Never shy away from the decisions you have to take.

The world is all yours. Don't shape it like Bhishma. He was great, but selfish. Please don't be so.

Have you asked the question - WHY?

Time and again I have questioned the purpose of the happenings around us or even my own actions. Many a times, I have been able to find a suitable answer and sometimes I have suited myself to the answer that came to me and moved on. My teachers in college and school always complained that I lost my focus quite easily ad went too deep looking for meanings when others kept moving higher. Probably, I never grew as fast as them because of my questioning why. But ask yourself the importance of the question "Why?"
The importance of the purpose in everything we do is critical. The purpose is what defines the path taken in the journey. A very famous quote of all times is that life is but a journey and we all need to travel it tirelessly till the last breath. Sure we do. But how? What path do we take, what companions we shall have, what company we shall keep, what shall we see and what we will choose to avoid – all of this depends upon what we want to experience during the journey. Even when the destination is known, the path taken or the mode of transport shall define the journey.
Have you seen the rangoli made by the south Indian women outside of their homes? It is a geometrical pattern of dots connected by lines – constrained by only two principles – cover as many dots possible and never take off your hand while drawing the lines. Sometimes, the number of dots is more and sometimes, the colors used. No two designs are ever the same. While the mission statement and the objective statements are both defined clearly for them, yet the outcome are very different. Ever wondered why? The design patterns, the colors used and their complex arrangements represent the thoughts churning in their mind. It's the journey they take from the dots to the rangoli depending upon the state of mind.
If only the life was simple as start to end, or there were only two colors – black or white, the management principles would have been great. But someone actually described multiple shades of grey! And went on to mix multiple other colors and played with hue, saturation and other factors to make it incomprehensible to a human eye.
A very basic fact of the management is anything that is measurable, can be managed. In order to manage, every measurable factor is considered and it optimized within acceptable limits. Any factor falling outside of the acceptable limits needs to be controlled. The question is – What is acceptable? Who determines the limits? It is the purpose of the act that will help us determine the acceptable outcome.
To make the matters worse, the purpose may seem different for everyone. It is the perspective that one takes with what they want to do. An interesting parallel from the Indian Scriptures is summed as follows (Thans to Dr Devdutt Pattnaik) –

Quality	I follow all the rules	I will break all the rules
What I think of myself	Rama	Krishna
What the superiors thinks of me	Duryodhana	Ravana
Why the difference	Duryodhana is the pretender – who follows all the rules but never accepts them. Typically a professional, who abides by the organization rules but may not agree to them.	Ravana is an epitome of a non-follower and a rulebreaker. While Krishna broke the rules that lost their meaning, Ravana chooses the blanket statement – All rules are meant for breaking.

 
Without the "Y-" axis of the purpose, all of the characters look the same. It is the purpose and the philosophy behind the act that differentiates them.
Please do ask yourself the purpose, or try answer the question "WHY"

Rejuvenation

We were celebrating our daughter's birthday over the weekend. She chose to enjoy the day with her friends in the water park. While playing in the water park, I accidently pulled the lever on one of the taps and a jet of cold water soaked me and my mind almost immediately. My very lovely daughters offered a facial for me to help revitalize my facial tissues later that day. The water and the facial left me thinking of something that had always amused me and troubled me at the same time.

Years ago, when I was a little kid, I visited Sri Shravanabelagola – a small city in Karnataka, close to both Mysore and Bangalore. The city is a famous pilgrimage center in Jainism for the statue of Gomateswara Bahubali. Every twelve years, the giant statue is bathed in water, milk, sugarcane juice, saffron paste and is sprinkled with powders of vermillion, sandalwood and turmeric.

Later, I visited Jatipura – one of the many villages around Mathura – a place associated with the advent of SriNath Ji and also the place where the people of Braj offered their worship to Lord Govardhana upon instructions of Sri Krishna. At Jatipura, every morning devotees offer buckets of milk and water to bathe the lord in the hope that their demands shall be met by the lord himself.

Every year, during Janmashtami, Sri Krishna idols are bathed in various ways common being water, milk, oil and honey.

Observing all the rituals I have often been appalled by the wastage of the resources in the name of belief at a time when many are deprived of their bare minimum hunger needs. I have often asked the question on the necessity of the pompous show and the prodigal use of the resources that could have been utilized elsewhere?

After all these years, I have realized that this is the belief system of many and possibly I shall not be able to modify the same. However, if a conscious effort is done to understand the symbolism and the meaning behind the ritual, the human kind may be benefitted.

Each of the above acts of belief symbolize the act of rejuvenation or rejoice. We bathe the statues symbolizing washing away all the wrong doings that the God has taken away from us and helping him revive himself to come again with new vigor. Every time the idols are bathed, they are said to have reorganized themselves and our belief in them. Drawing a parallel here, it is quite similar to us taking a bath every morning to feel fresh and infused with new energy. Almost every time the bath is followed by "Abhishek" or anointing and sprinkling of herbs. This symbolizes recognition of the grown mental state. Remember humans have a bigger head as compared to animals as they have a better developed mind. And the expansion of the mind is what leads the humans to divinity. The ritual of abhisheka recognizes the well developed and grown mind. This is similar to the house hold ritual of applying tilak on the forehead before starting any important work. The tilak symbolizes a reminder to grow the mind.

So, the rituals were started for a reason – a good cause. However, our execution of those rituals turned them into monstrous criminal acts. And yet, the popular thought is to shun the rituals and anything related to religion or our history without understanding the meaning. What are we doing? Are we avoiding the sin or are we committing the sin in a new name? Or are we performing ablutions through the pompous display of devotion?

The God never wanted greatness in offerings. All he wanted was truth and knowledge in heart. Why else did Rama ate the fruits at Shabari' hut? Why else did Krishna refused the grand reception in Hastinapur and dined with Vidur?

In my views, physical rejuvenation happens through our daily schedules and activities. A mental rejuvenation is required. It is an act which we all need to go through and experience. Unfortunately, it cannot be measured or recorded. However, the easiest form is introspection.

So what are you rejuvenating?

Think, seek answers and think again.