Of Grimm Realities and the Irony of Fairy Tales

Today, 20th December 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of  the publication of the first volume of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Undoubtedly, their fairy tales, along with those of Andersen's, Perrault's, and many others more contemporary to my childhood (Enid Blyton?) have shaped the way I relate to literature, and to the world as a whole.

Fairy tales are usually the first stories of gore and violence that a child hears/ reads. For some strange, unfathomable reason, they are considered appropriate to be consumed by even 3-4 year olds. Just like any movie made in animation is deemed fit for juvenile viewing. As an example here, I could mention Madagascar. The plot is suitable enough, give or take a few stereotypes that pepper the narrative. It is in the specifics that I get my hackles up. How could a movie deemed suitable for children - and believe me, 3-4 year olds are taken to these movies by their misguided doting parents - have steamy scenes like the one with Moto Moto the Hippo and Gloria? It's beyond ridiculous.

Anyway, I digress. I was speaking of fairy tales, and Grimms' tales in particular. Their tales are a 'collection of tales' - collected from folklore and cautionary tales that reflected the unsavoury medieval European life. They are therefore, more replete with sexual undertones, gender/ class stereotypes and violence than the Andersen ones. This also underscores the fact that the Grimm brothers were more of curators of local folklore - a lot of what we know of medieval Europe is certainly thanks to people like them - than creators of stories for children. The tales were the then equivalents of the 'bogeyman' stories (again misguided) people tell children to keep them in line. Certainly not what I would classify as 'fairy-tales' as the very name conjures up a benevolent image.

This Wikipedia article says it all: 

The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel (shown in original Grimm stories as Hansel and Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naïvely revealing her pregnancy and the prince's visits to her stepmother—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.

Disney adaptations of these tales are another story altogether. They have not only sanitized these stories, they have 'Barbified' them beyond tolerance - the exact opposite of what the above quote states. Violence has been toned down to almost saccharine- sweetness levels, with characters losing their grey shades, becoming more polarised, and a big dollop of sexualisation added. Unfortunately, they, too, have been gobbled up by children and parents alike. 

So, speaking of Grimm realities, today's Google Doodle is a tribute to the 200th anniversary. Do check it out. The artwork and wordless storytelling is phenomenal.

Their most famous tale- that of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

Coming at a time when crimes against women are escalating - it seems like a fairy tale no more. It is a very real horror story. Being enacted day by day in different parts of the country. The world even. It is the ordinariness of the settings in which these horrors take place that is so menacing. A simple walk down the street to the neighbourhood grocer's could become fraught with frightening nuances.

How do we explain these things to children? Maybe the Grimms' Fairy Tales do not seem a bad option anymore.

Book Review: It's All The Same!

You read a book. Then you go and watch the movie made on the book. You find small and big places where the movie has deviated from the original.

It may be as large a deviation as having inserted a whole new subplot or scene. Think the scene in HP and The Half-Blood Prince where the Death Eaters come en masse and create havoc at the Burrow, the Weaselys' home or the change in the reason why the Death Eaters realise who the real Harry is in the opening sequence of Deathly Hallows 1. (Yes, that is a large deviation in my eyes- I can be a purist that way!)

It can be a small deviation like having a trim-slim protagonist in the movie version of Louis Sachar's Holes versus the plump, podgy one in the book - a wonderfully made movie - one movie which certainly improved on the book - a difficult feat indeed!

The point is, that it a reader's/ viewer's understanding and memory of the story depends on the version they have imbibed, and thus starts the metamorphosis of the original story - happens with the writer, too, doesn't it, with each subsequent draft?

It is these versions that we are celebrating - Tulika Books had recently held a Celebrating Our Myths blogathon, in which I was declared one of the winners. My prize - this book.

Folktales and mythology. There are as many versions as the cultures that tell a particular story. Every storyteller worth their salt adds embellishments to it- some of which get incorporated in further generations. A sort of branching out in oral tradition. So the same story at the root may spawn many culturally different variations.

pic courtesy matsyacrafts

Here is a book that focuses on this very aspect of storytelling, with the help of the kaavad. I have seen one of these amazing contraptions at Artnavy's home. It is a fold-able picture book of sorts, that can be used to tell the story. The storytellers, called the Kaavadiya Bhaats, unravel the story from the seemingly intricately folded kaavad. This is a storytelling tradition that is still alive in the villages of Rajasthan.

pic courtesy tulikabooks

It's All The Same!
Written by Nina Sabnani
Illustrated by Satyanarayan Suthaar
Published by Tulika books
Ages 5+

Pappuram and Kojaram are both Kaavadiya Bhaats who go from place to place telling stories with the help of their colourful kaavads. Both tell the story of why Ganesha is worshipped before any other gods or goddesses. Both the stories take completely different paths. Both stories begin with Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha's parents. Where one version speaks their two sons, the other has a disgruntled Rama being prevented from reaching his own wedding.

What happens next? How do such completely different trajectories reach the same conclusion? Read it in our book, It's All The Same- for, at the end, it all is.

The illustrations by Satyanarayan Suthaar, a kaavadiya himself, are in rich detail, full colour, in the tradition of the kaavads, as is obvious from the two pictures here. Check out this video of the making of this book - watch the two kaavadiyas in action.


    

Abhijnaanashakuntalam: Truth & Lies

Mythological stories and folktales that have been around since ancient times are constantly evolving. They are a part of our oral storytelling tradition, and every storyteller tells it differently, infusing it with the cultural milieu, social and religious practices and his/her own world-view. This means that the same stories necessarily change over times and geographies, even if infinitesimally every time. This, for eg., accounts for vast differences between the Ramayana of Valmiki, the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas and the Indonesian version which has been derived from the Kamba Ramayanam of South India taken there by people who migrated there in the 8th century AD from Srilanka.

A notable example of different tellings of a mythological story is that of Shakuntala. Any self-respecting book reader will swear by the story immortalised by Kalidasa in his Abhijnaanashakuntalam. Shakuntala’s existence is forgotten by Dushyant on account of a curse by Durvasa rishi as she had been daydreaming about her husband when she should have been hastening to attend to Durvasa who is a guest. When she pleads with the seer to take back his curse, he tells her that if she can produce a token given by her husband in front of him, he would remember her. Then follows the whole story of the loss of the ring (careless woman!) and the serendipitous producing of it by the fisherfolk in the court after Dushyant has denied recognising Shakuntala as his wife in public.

I, too, believed in this version of the Shakuntalam till quite recently. The genius of Kalidasa and the beauty of his rendering ensured that the world believed it to be the real version. Far from it. It was merely the more popular version, that even little children learn (unfortunately!), thanks mainly to ACKs.

pic courtesy flipkart

It was quite recently, that I came across Women of the Mahabharata: The Question of Truth. Its author, Chaturvedi Badrinath, is a scholar on the Mahabharata who has won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 for his books on the epic.

In his book, he speaks about the various women characters in the epic, known and relatively unknown. The chapter on Shakuntala made me sit up and take notice of the fact that Kalidasa had redefined the term ‘poetic licence’ drastically. Searching more for the original version, I found it again in Ashok Banker’s The Forest of Stories and a few online versions of the truth like this one.

In the original, there is no Durvasa-Ring episode. When Dushyanta disowns Shakuntala publicly, she berates him, and teaches him a few essential things about the Truth and Dharma. In the process, she comes across as intelligent, dignified and resourceful even under the grief of her husband’s denial of their marriage. Dushyant comes across as weak-willed coward, who was more worried about his image if he admitted to an impulsive marriage in a faraway hermitage. Of course, as it is mythology, he ‘accepts’ her after a convenient akashvani proclaims Shakuntala to be telling the truth!  

Kalidasa’s Abhijnaanashakuntalam is a beautifully written love story. However, he had adapted the original tale of Shakuntala, infusing it with the beliefs and social mores of the times: the 4th century AD. The status of women was at a low as a direct result of the Manusmriti written a few centuries earlier. And of course, the hero of a romantic tale could do no wrong. How is Dushyanta to be blamed for his behaviour if he was a victim to a curse? In this, Kalidasa's genius has done women a disservice, as following generations have till today believed in his version rather than the original. Unfortunately, this is something that will shadow many such originals, as Sanskrit no longer remains a living language, and there will be fewer people who can study our original works.

This is my entry for Tulika's "Celebrating Our Myths" blogfest. 

Book review: Letters from a Father to His Daughter

Letters from a Father to His Daughter
Written by Jawaharlal Nehru
Published by Puffin Books, Penguin books India
Ages 8+ yrs

A father and his daughter. The bond has to be seen to be believed. When I see A and her father together, the affection is palpable. They often get into discussions about deep things- of late it has been religion, as we have friends of many faiths, and gender issues, especially those encountered at school!

By the nature of his work in the struggle for the freedom of India, Nehru was often away from his family, and his daughter was away at boarding school. Letters being the prime means of communication at the time, Nehru wrote these, which, according to the foreword written by him, were 'personal letters addressed to a little girl, ten years of age.' They, however, speak of many things. In the preface, written in 1973, Indira Gandhi writes, "they deal with the beginnings of the earth and of man's awareness of himself. They were not merely letters to be read and put away...they taught one to treat nature as a book."

The letters speak of the beginnings of the universe, the formation of the earth and its landforms, of pre-history, the beginnings of mankind, the migration of human beings- he shows great learning and vision in his conclusions- "It may be that the German and the Negro are descended from different types of men, but some time or other they must have had the same ancestor. The differences must therefore have come in by the process of adaption to their surroundings...so we find that people's complexions are the result of the climate they live in. They have nothing to do with the worthiness or goodness or beauty of a person." Explained wonderfully in this vein in language easy enough for a 10 yr old to understand.

He goes on to speak of races, religion- early beliefs and faiths, religions as we know them now, languages- the beginnings of communication by making meaningful sounds, of making meaningful marks leading to writing, of the relationships of the different languages of the world. He speaks of civilisation, the division of labour - leading to the patriarch- which led later to kings and kingdoms. And of ancient civilisations all over the world. About trade and travel.

He speaks of the coming of the Aryans to India, and the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha- I loved the simple way in which he has explained the gist of these great epics- again, putting them in an interesting perspective.

Of the Ramayana, he says, "The Ramayana, as you know, is the story of Ramchandra and Sita against Ravana, king of Lanka, that is now Ceylon...it may be that the story of the Ramayana is really the story of the fights of the Aryans against the people of the South whose leader was Ravana."

And the Mahabharatha- "It tells of a great fight between Aryans and Aryans. But apart from the fight, it is a wonderful book, full of great ideas and noble stories. Above all, it is dear to all of us because of that jewel of a poem which it contains--the Bhagavad Gita."

The book comprises 30 letters in all, short, independent reads each, or read in a sequence. Each is a story lucidly told, a father's affection for his daughter coming across in each. These letters were written over the summer of 1928, and retain all of their freshness for every child who has the opportunity of reading them. They have to be, of course, read in the context of terminologies used in the early 1900s, some of which might not be politically correct today.

This 2004 edition by Puffin is hardcover, printed on crisp white paper, and an easy-on-the-eyes font. With a fresh foreword by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Nehru's great-grand-daughter.

A loved it.

A logical follow-up to this book would be Nehru's Glimpses of World History, which was written from October 1930 to August 1933, as letters addressed from prison to his 13-16 year old daughter,  published much later.

Pic courtesy flipkart. Crossposted at Saffrontree and Bookreviews.

A story written by A, with illustrations by Artnavy's 6-yr old. For Children's Day.

A, my 10 yr old, has always been big on books and stories. Like all kids, she is also extremely curious about everything around her. This, coupled with a hyperactive imagination, has spawned quite a few stories. She has been writing since she was just 4-5 yrs, the early efforts being not much than a few lines, sometimes with improbable plots, and unintelligible logic. As her mother, I love all her stories. Lately, they have begun to take a much better form.

Here's one that she wrote a few months back, and I'm very proud to share it with all of you as part of this Children's Day celebrations. The illustrations are by a SaffronTree kid, the extremely talented artist Anushka, Artnavy's six-year-old., who just sat down with her colours and drew them as soon as she read the story.

I chose this story because it fits in well with our Five Elements theme that we had for CROCUS just gone by. Obviously, the story has been influenced by Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories.'  As also by the fairy tale 'Henny Penny' and all the fantasy fiction that A loves.

So here goes!

THE RAINBOW BIRD

Long long ago, when there was hardly anything on earth, a little shoot emerged from the ground. It had only a single green leaf. It was the first life form seen in the Thra-Thago desert. The sun realised that there was no one to care for the new shoot.

"Who will help me give it food?" he asked.
"Not us," said the stars.
"Not I," said the moon.
"Then who will help me?"
"Do it yourself," came the reply.

The sun was now alone, for the stars and moon had left.

So, the sun sent one of his ray-messengers to search for someone else who might help. At last, after a couple of weeks, the ray came back with some clouds from above the faraway sea of Brimbleting.

The sun shone down on the shoot and the clouds sprayed water on it. They did this everyday.

The plant grew rapidly. One day, they noticed something. A flower, with seven petals, each a different colour. After a few days, the petals withered and fell off. Inside, they found a minute and colourful fruit.

Another couple of weeks passed. Then came the special day. The fruit popped open. Something came out. It was a small bird with the same colours as the flower.

As it flew, it arched over the sun and clouds, and left behind it a stream of colours. This was the first rainbow.

Every time the sun and clouds are out together, the clouds spraying water, the rainbow bird makes another rainbow. Just like it had, long, long ago.

Story copyright held by A. Crossposted at Saffrontree.

The course of an epic

Found an interesting discussion on the Mahabharatha here. The participants are obviously students, not experts. They have given a link from where they have sourced their material, but that link does not open. The participants' being students can be gauged from some irreverent material that has been posted. We can also obviously see that they are Amar Chitra Katha and Bollywood fans.

The interesting parts are

1. A light on how the epic has been adapted to a completely different culture and religion, which nevertheless made it their own. Here- Java /Indonesia.

2. A detailed timeline of the Mahabharatha complete with dates, times, and ages of the key characters at key events. This seems to have been deduced from the lunar calendar dates and times mentioned in the original epic, and a historical perspective.

Was the epic history? I don't know. Maybe the key events really did happen, as this discussion shows (this one is by people who have really studied the epic), and have been embellished with a lot of poetical licence. After all, we do say 'a history called Jaya' when speaking of the Mahabharatha.

Let me quote a bit from the timeline here, but do click on this link for the rest of it. And let me know what you think of the life expectancy.

"3. Yudhisthira's Birth : Yudhisthira was born on Pajothpatti Ashwin Bright 5th day, in Jyeshta Star, in Sagittarius Lagna, at midday Abhijit Muhurta. That was just years. 127-5-25 prior to Kaliyug (roughly 3229-8-15 B.C)"

"45. The Great Mahabharat War started on Shubhakrit Margashirsha Bright 13/14th Day, Tuesday in Bharani Star. Yudhishthir was yrs. 91-2-9 days old. Just the previous day 11/12th Day, when armies were rehearsing Vyuhas, Arjuna fell into a gloom, occasioning Lord Krishna's famous BhagavadGeeta discourse with Arjuna."

"62. Pandavas started for their Final End after 0-6-11 days, that is, on Pramadi Ashwayuja Bright 12th Day. Yudhishthir was aged yrs. 128-0-6. Parik$hit, 36 years old, was coronated on the same day at Hastinapur.

63. Swargaarohanam is not clearly stated in the Epic. It may be 26 years afterwards. Sage Veda Vyas dictated the Great Epic to Ganapati only after Swargarohanam of the Pandavas, that is, after 26 years of Kaliyug.

64. Parikshit ruled for 60 years, coronated his 25 year old son Janamejaya, and died.

65. So, Bhagavatha was written by Sage Veda Vyas soon after Mahabharat was over, and before the 60th year of the Kaliyuga.

66. In Dwapara Yuga, human beings lived upto 400 years. There are four stages in life - Balya, Youvana, Koumara and Vriddhapyam. In Dwaparyug, Balya stage was upto 40 years, Youvana stage upto 120 years, and later Koumara and Vriddhapyam stages. But now in the Kaliyuga, Balya stage is upto 15 years, Youvana upto 45 years, Koumara upto 60 years and Vriddhapyam beyond 60 years."

Books that reminded me of my grandmother and her bed-time stories



Pic courtesy flipkart


These are a set of three books (at least for now- I hope she writes more of these!) by Anu Kumar, who has earlier been interviewed here by Satish for Saffrontree. They were picked up by A (all by herself) a few weeks back, and have been read many times since. By both of us.

Jatayu - Saviour from the Skies.
Nandi - The Divine Gatekeeper.
Jambavan - The Immortal Bear King.
Written by Anu Kumar.
Published by Hachette India Children's Books.
Ages 4+

Jatayu, Nandi and Jambavan are who one might call 'minor characters' in the Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. They are nevertheless important in their own way. Here we have our own homegrown versions of magic and divinity, fantastic creatures and gods /demigods behaving in a most human way. In each book, we go through almost entire epics from the vantage point of the particular protagonist.

I was reminded of a set of books called 'Katha Kalpataru' written in Marathi, that I have from which I had been read to in my early childhood by my grandmother, ( the books invoked some serious nostalgia!)and which I have myself devoured when I was older and able to read Marathi on my own. It is a set of 16 books, a compilation of many interlinked stories from the Indian mythology, told in the way of folktales, one story leading seamlessly to another. There are many fast-forwards and flashbacks to this kind of storytelling, but it is guaranteed to keep the attention of the audience/reader.

Anu Kumar has used this same method in her books, distilling all stories about the protagonist from various sources- which I am sure are the two epics and the Puranas.

She has also mentioned that there are various versions of the same story, as also different geneologies for the characters, and that she has taken the most interesting versions for her book. This, I think, is true of most of mythology/folklore- and it changes depending upon the culture in which the story has been propogated.

This may be an interesting addition to the book collections of those who want mythology in bite-sized portions, or for parents struggling to come up with a bed-time story for a little one- a story interesting enough, but not too long (each chapter can become a separate story)- and yet keep the child wanting more the next day. As also a slim enough book for a child/parent who may be intimidated by a bigger book. (I know many of those- I have added these books to my list to be recommended to those friends/ neighbours who would like to have a book for a child not seriously into reading, but wanted something interesting, as well as inexpensive.) Or just another interesting book on Indian mythology for someone like us here.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

On storytelling- SHAKESPEARE'S STORYBOOK

Second review up at CROCUS. Do visit here for the comments and discussion by our readers.

I once heard a well-known storyteller say- the most essential thing for telling a story is to have a story to tell.

That is exactly what human beings have been doing for time immemorial -telling stories. Even in pre-historic times, man used cave paintings to tell a story. As human beings migrated all over the world, they took their stories with them, using their immediate environment to explain things further, embellishing their stories. These imaginative additions are such an integral part of storytelling, that today we have a phrase "telling a story" used in lieu of "telling an untruth".

The re-tellings by different people led to many versions of the same story-seed. Much in the way of evolution of all species. As an example, there are many versions the world over of a catastrophic event like a flood, told differently in different cultures. This may point to a common memory of such an event.

To quote from this excellent article, "Different stories, or different ways of telling the same stories, shape distinct cultures. A people’s stories are often similar to those of other cultures, but distinct in themselves. Your culture’s stories became part of your self-identity. It’s possible that culture is rooted in storytelling."

All storytellers thus draw from experience or from stories already told, and tell the story in their own styles. And who better than William Shakespeare, the Bard, as a storyteller?

SHAKESPEARE'S STORYBOOK : Folk Tales that inspired the Bard
Narrated by Patrick Ryan
Illustrated by James Mayhew
Published by Barefoot books.
Ages 8+

In Shakespeare's day, the face of storytelling was changing from the traditional to the commercial. Storytellers before Shakespeare's time would be in the service of noblemen, the church, or the court. For the first time, there began a practice of opening the theatres to the public, and the players working in these became the first professional performers. 

Like all great storytellers, Shakespeare drew inspiration from stories he already knew. Maybe he heard them from his parents, or from minstrels, ballad singers, storytellers, who moved from place to place, or read them in books which may have been printed in printing presses which had been invented only about a century or so before his time! And then told them in his own inimitable way, enriching the English language in the process, giving us many phrases that we commonly use without realising their origin.

SHAKESPEARE'S STORYBOOK gives us a peek into the folktales /fairy tales that can easily be recognised as the inspirations for seven of his works, encompassing most of the genres covered by him. The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Hamlet, King Lear, The Winter's Tale.

The original stories are from a wide spectrum- Welsh, Irish, English, French, Scottish, Italian, Oriental, Turkish, Norse- and sometimes seem to drawn from more than one source. The storyteller at work again, where Shakespeare manages to amalgamate tales from various sources and various cultures to tell his tale, sometimes set in a totally different culture from the original tale. He also uses accounts of actual events in many of his works, as also his personal experiences as father to two daughters.

Each of these seven works of Shakespeare is separately presented as a simple tale with a discussion on the possible sources and processes behind each one, followed by the tale that seems to be the most likely source. All in a fun manner that does not overwhelm the child. And a wonderful treasury of folktales for the reader!

In the introduction to his book, the author Patrick Ryan, a wonderful storyteller himself, tells us that "...each story has many different sources- some told orally, some written down. The stories have changed and evolved from teller to teller. Shakespeare is just one more yarn spinner who belongs to this grand tradition..."

What do I say about the illustrations? Done in rich, full colour by James Mayhew, author and illustrator of the Katie and Ella Bella series, they transport us to the magical world of fairies, princes, princesses, noblemen and commoners that feature in both the original folktales and Shakespeare's stories.

There's more. The book comes with two full length CDs, so that the book can be heard in true storytelling fashion as well as read. Double the treat!

As stated in the introduction, "People have loved hearing these stories, and reading them, and telling them and re-telling them, for hundreds of years. When you've had fun with them, maybe you'll re-tell them in your own way, and do an even better job than William Shakespeare did!"

So put on your storytelling hat, get hold of a favourite story and re-tell it in your own way!

Image courtesy Barefoot books.