Folk Tales & their Pertinacity!

 Folk Tales What are They

Simply put they are byproduct of an out of box thinking, which is so high in creativity and positivity that its impact and relevance is felt for generations to come. "जहाँ न पहुंचे रवि वहां पहुंचे कवि" the famous lore encapsulates this feeling beautifully.

In my quest to touch diverse topics, while brainstorming with Nandini, this topics sprang up and was lobbied heavily by her.. 

Man has been a great storyteller since ancient times. Story telling has been in various forms running in parallel to human evolution from being a loner to a thriving civic society. Homo Sapiens probably knew  importance of  this trait since early, that is why they have been documenting this in varied forms. This might have started even before any vocal or written language. It is found in form of murals in caves at various locations.

Story telling must have served two purposes to them, first being the entertainment,second as a cumulus of knowledge for future generations. Folk tales consist of mainly traditional oral narrative which includes legends, proverb, music, jokes and stories which belong to a particular culture or social group.The pictographs found in various caves show the various form for story telling; in the form of pictures, Dance and music, stage plays and a form of deity worshiping which was confined more around Earth till very late. Religion as a mode of worshiping came in practice much later in advance civilizations. 

Folk Tales Fundamentals

Some basic rules of these are:

• Tales believe in Time-Travel, being passed from one  generation to the next one with losing none of the ethos and soul of the very first version

• Tales make  impact only if the are narrated by eldest person of a family to the youngest one.. Dare if some mix-up is tried .. like if  narrator and listener are of same age the outcome will be a victim of Chinese whisper syndrome and will sound more like a stand-up comedy.

• Listener must be more keen to hear the folk tales rather than other way around.  Failing this, means narrator has self interest behind the initiative and the outcome will sound more of GYAN SESSION. 

• More often than not, main characters of the plot shall be animals, birds. This gives more imaginative approach to the plot and builds curiosity element of the listener. Another more important reason to take imaginary characters is not to offend human sensibilities by any act or message from the story. 

• The best time for story telling ? No, no! from sunrise to sunset, when even the youngest of the family must labor, not a word; but from sunset to sunrise, when no man can work,the tongues chatter glibly enough, for that is story telling time.. Good old village days were like when stars twinkle overhead, the mosquito sings through the hot air, the village dogs bark at the imaginary foe. 

• Little audiences listen, doze, dream and still the willy Jackal meets his match, or Gopal bold and brave returns rich and victorious from the robber's den, Hark! that is Soniya's voice, and there is an expectant stir amongst the drowsy listeners as begins the old old formula-

         'Once upon a time-'    

Here are 2 from a set of many.. Enjoy!!

Ondaa: The Witty Beggar (a folk tale of tea-tribes of Assam)

In a village there was a poor old man called Ondaa, with a family of 5. The sole bread earner for his family, Onadaa used to do errands to make the ends meet. One Amavasya night, while returning back from a nearby village, he got late. As he was crossing a river in the thick of night, he got frightened as very strange voices were coming from bushes. As it was a secluded place and the night time, ghosts were merrymaking around all the place. A ghost named Chirkun kindled the fire from one mouth and with other was savouring the human limb. Other ghost Ghouns, who was looking much more frightening took out his long slender tongue and started licking a corpse. This scene brought shrills in Ondaa, and for a moment he thought of running back to the place from where he came,but then thought of his starving family who must have been waiting for his return made him to think otherwise. 

Suddenly he saw red and blue lights from a far heading towards his direction. Thinking of them as people from nearby village, and hope of finding some company brought some respite, which was soon to vanish.. As this group started closing in towards him, a screaming deafening sound filled the atmosphere.. "We ll suck your blood, we will feast on your flesh". Ondaa realized soon that they are none but many more ghosts.. Thinking of his imminent end nearing, Ondaa thought to give a determined push back!! Holding his stick with force he approached the army of ghosts instead and screeched : "Who the hell are you all? Get lost".

"Muk juui taapate de" ( let me sit near the fire) saying this he started shaking the wooden stick in frenzy. This sudden change in approach was kind of little push back for the ghosts and situation came to a halt!! As Ondaa uttered "Taapate de" the ghosts named Taapate felt perplexed "Oh No , this human knows me by name and calling me out"! Frightened he answered to Ondaa: "what do you want sir?"  Hearing this Ondaa felt confident and decided to take full control of the situation now.

"So Taapa, I have been searching you to recover my loan of seven pitchers of gold along with interest. I warn you of solid beating if you fail to do so." Taapa swallowing his spittle in fear pleaded:"But I don't remember taking any loan from you" . Hearing this, Ondaa gave 2 sets of canning to him and told him that it was taken by his parents. 

Witnessing this ferocious approach of a human for the first time in their lifetime, all ghosts sat kneeling down on their knees and pleaded for mercy and assured Ondaa that they all will collectively deposit this gold to his place. Acting brave of him Ondaa told them in stern voice that he will hang seven pitchers at his roof and money shall be deposited before the break of dawn; saying this headed towards his home.

As per plan he hanged seven pitchers with holes in the bottom of all, so he could hear sound of the money dropping in and kept quiet. As soon as ghosts started pouring in coins in pitchers, the cracking sound of coins can he heard inside home. Silly ghosts thinking that pitchers were not filled in kept on bringing more coins, until the full room was filled with coins and pouring in more coins was not possible for ghosts.  

As dawn was about to break, ghosts called out Ondaa for the last time and offered their gratitude for his kindness and sought permission to leave, before morning sun rays would have blinded them.. 

"This is only Capital, but i do exempt from giving interest. Now you may leave", replied Ondaa. Ghost disappeared immediately. 

Ondaa took a huge sigh of relief after and felt ecstatic for his overnight riches.

The patience, courage & witt is a ready cocktail to ward off any sudden trouble and always pays the dividend also. 

The Jackal and the Iguana (a folk tale of Punjab)

One moonlight night, a miserable half starved jackal Shaakal was sulking through the village and scouting for some food. To his misfortune, he could find nothing but a pair of worn out shoes in a garbage bin. They were too tough for him to eat, determined to make some use of them, he strung them both on his ears like earrings. Going down on the edge of village pond, he could gather few old bones. Since Shaakal was very resourceful in nature, he assembled all the bones and made a platforms out of these by applying mud as cohesive bond. While sitting on this platform, he looked at his reflection from the pond water and found himself very majestic, and an idea struck his mind to satiate his hunger. 

On this platform he sat with attitude and whenever any animal came to quench his/her thirst, he cried in loud voice: "Hi Stop! you can not drink any of the water till you offer me some food and a pay homage to me by repeating the verses I have composed in to make this a memorable moment".

Chândî dâ merâ chauntrâ, koî sonâ lipâî!My platform is of silver, plastered with gold!
Kâne men merâ gûkrû, shâhzâdâ baithâ hai!Jewels are in my ears, I sit here a prince!

Now as most of the animals were very thirsty and in a great hurry to drink the water; without thinking much they gabled off the words in order to avoid any dispute. Even royal tiger, treating it as a jest, repeated the Shaakal's rhyme, in consequence of which the latter became quite a cock-a-hoop, and began to believe that he has a persona of great virtue.

And then an iguana Kutila or big lizard came waddling and wheezing down to the water. 

"Hi! You there! You must not drink the water until you pay homage to me by singing-

Silver is his dais....etc blah blah ..."

Pour! Gasped the iguana. "Mercy on us o Lord! How dry is my throat! May I have just a wee sip of the water first and then I sing the laurels of your praise. At present I m as hoarse as a cow!"

With a gratified smile Shaakal allowed him.

So the Kutila, nose down on the pond and drank all the water his belly could accommodate and as it appeared that his thirst will never quench, he finally ended the flow and began to move away. 

"Hey! Hey!" Cried the Shaakal as he saw Kutila moving away.

Wise Kutila recovered and came back to his witty composure and replied "Oh Great King, Blessed you are... Let me clear my throat first, before I sing the prayer in your obedience".. While pretended of getting his melody back, he took one chance and asked jackals to tell the exact feel and emotions he wants the prayer to be sang with!

Jackal, completely blind in this charming gesture started singing his composition loudly and repeatedly, little did he notice iguana acting smart of himself and slipping away from the scene  

'Exactly so', returned the iguana; "I think I got it now and can sing they way you want it sir". And then at the top of his vocal cords this is what he blurted out-

Hadî dâ terâ chauntrâ, koî gobar lipaî!Thy platform is of bones, plastered with cow-dung!
Kâne men terî jûtî; koî gîdar baithâ hai!Shoes are in thy ears; some jackal sits there!

And without waiting for any surprise to happen, turned round and bolted for his hole as hard as he could. For Shaakal went numb and astonished as this was a big blow and totally out of the blues. Then rage lending him wings, he flew after the Kutila, who despite his short legs and scanty breathe managed to give quite a run for its money to jackal and ran real fast.

Its was a close chase, and he just popped into his hole, Shaakal manged to hold the tail of the Kutila and held on. Then it was a case of "pull backer, pull butcher", until Kutila made certain that his tail must come off, and Shaakal felt as if his front teeth would fall apart! Still not a inch little did any of the two did budge out and this would have continued till today, had Kutila thought otherwise and came back with another killer proposition.. In a sweet tone he threw his bait- "Friend, i give in! just leave hold of my tail, so that i can turn around and come out to repent my mischief?"

Shaakal was once again trumped and he let go the tail only to wait till eternity for Kutila to come out. realize did he that he has has been shortchanged one more time and his anger was venting out from all small and big holes of body. In the fist of fury he started digging the iguana hideout . 

All the reward Shaakal got for digging away until his nails were nearly worn out, was hearing the iguana sing softly and sweetly- 

Hadî dâ terâ chauntrâ, koî gobar lipaî!Thy platform is of bones, plastered with cow-dung!
Kâne men terî jûtî; koî gîdar baithâ hai!Shoes are in thy ears; some jackal sits there!

Having self belief is a hallmark of virtuous people. Overconfidence and शेखी बघारना Gasconade surely leads to doomsday .

Folk Tales: Why are the Relevant

While Folk stories are assumed pastimes activity for old people and infants to while away the time, remember that these stories convey moral as well as historical issues which effects everybody in society; today and many generations after.. It is a constant reminder of who we are & where we have come from. i.e. it takes us back to our roots.

Most Folk stories embody the hopes and aspiration of the wider section of society and are used to preserve and transmit cultural values of the group. Stories help in showing how society views itself and how it wants to be seen by the society in the lens of social causes ie justice, equality, honesty. Another agenda which Folk tales serves majestically is their veiled attack on injustice, cruelty, greed and any prevalent social evil. In nutshell it act as a mirror for society to reflect and take lessons for course correction. 

Laziness, wickedness, discontent are shown in the negative light whereas bravery, sacrifice, service is depicted as must have positive traits worth emulating by wider spectrum of populace.

In the society where morality, righteous has very bleak shine left now, Folk tales act as a tool of vital importance.  They educate future generations of society about the cultural values and act as motivation. The protagonist of any plot is is often shown as weak, inexperienced who manages to beat both physically and mentally; the adversaries equipped with mighty powers and resources,  inexplicably children learn the lesson that a person with noble cause irrespective of their size, color, gender can outgun bigger and tougher opponents.   

OMNAMAH

Hare+