This World Storytelling Day, Let’s Believe That The Universe Is Made Of Stories, Not Atoms

The theme for this year’s #WorldStorytellingDay is voyages. I know we can’t go on voyages considering the situation world over, but what stops our mind from going on voyages?

“Tell me the facts and I will learn. Tell me the truth and I will believe. But tell me a story and it will live in heart forever” ~ Author unknown

World Storytelling Day and International Happiness Day fall on the same day, 20th March. What a beautiful way to say that storytelling is full of happiness, to the person who tells the story and to the one who listens to the story!

Back to childhood

Storytelling will take us all to our childhood when telling stories was very common. I always loved stories as a child. Reading was my favourite pastime, but listening to a story was something I loved more than reading.

My first storyteller was my granddad. He told me stories from our epics, the stories of gods, our culture and tradition. Then my dad slowly took over.

I remember sleeping on the terrace during the summer, looking for the constellations. Listening to a story when you are a kid makes you sleepy, but I used to resist sleep till the story ended. Sometimes my dad used to fall asleep before he finished the story. I used to always keep saying “hmm” while listening to the story, because I was worried that if I stop saying that, then my dad would assume I fell asleep and stop the story. Just like Abhimanyu said “hmm” on behalf of his mother because he did not want the story to end.

When you read a story or listen to a story you travel to a different world. It’s just magic.

We’re all storytellers

Each one of us is a storyteller. Haven’t we all spun stories to get out of unfavourable situations?

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I remember telling stories to my younger cousins, stories which I had heard and read. I knew I was very good because they really listened with complete attention.

I became a story spinner when I became a mother. I could tell a story in a jiffy, just like that, in any situation, and make it very convincing. My son still remembers the stories and just laughs as to how he believed all of that, and then he says but mom you were really good!

Now that all of us are staying indoors, let’s all try storytelling at home for kids. Trust me, they will like it more than their gaming consoles, Netflix and Prime.

Let them tell stories too.

Yesterday, after finishing a story before bedtime, I was telling my son that a few years later he would be telling a story about the coronavirus and how we all overcame it.

Stories need not be from epics, fairy tales, Panchatantra. Each of us is a story.

Let’s get lost in the world of stories.

Image source: shutterstock

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