Lore of the Land (Storytelling Traditions of India)

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Moody Mohini belongs to a legendary family strorytellers. Tellers tall tales is supposed to be in her genes. Expcept, she doesn’t think so-even though her family ( as well as just about everyone in Mithika) expects her to be the torchbearer of this rather marvelous tradition.

So, eracking under the pressure of a plot line one day, she runs far away from home, only to be held hostage by aspunky spirtit, who traps her in a strange spell and whisks her off on a whirlwind tour of India and its many storytelling tradition. How else can Mohini break the charm (you guessed it) but by telling a story herself!

Join Mohini as she receives a unique education about the untold ways in which the people of the country weave tales, using everything from stick figures and spectacular sculptures to shadow puppets and flamboyant dance dramas, while discovering the prefound powers of that special skill- storytelling.

During her growing-up years, Nalini Ramachandran aspired to be an artist, a singer, a dancer, an actress and a journalist. When she finally became a writer and editor, she drew in ideas, listened to the music of language, danced to the tune of imagination, acted on impulsive creativity and dug into research, thus inhabiting several worlds and living the lives of multiple characters at once.

Her interest in storytelling piqued when she was working as a fiction writer with India’s only all-comics children’s magazine, Tinkle. Her short stories have been published in anthologies such as Gifts of Teaching and scary Tales. She is the author of Detective sahasasimha: The Case of the Disappearing Books and the graphic novel-biography A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: One Man, Many Missions. To know more about Nalini, visit www.authornalini.com.

Abhishek choudhury is a Banglore-based illustrator. An Avid book lover, comics reader and foodie, he has worked across various fields,including theatre,video gaming and animation. He has also collaborated with several reputable publishing houses. More recently, he has illustrated and published Inferno, the first graphic novel in his comic trilogy, The Untold Chronicles.

This is the story of Mohini. Um, no, it’s the story of storytelling. Actually . . . it’s story of storytelling told through the story of Mohini. So, tell me, when was the last time you told a story? Maybe last night, when your grandfather was narrating a tale from mythology and you kept interrupting him because you already knew it? Or maybe at School, when you played the role of historical figure?

But what about the time when you excitedly told your father about what happened in class? Or the time when you recounted a nightmare to your sibling? Or when you chatted with your friends about your trip to a wildlife sanctuary?

What? You’re not sure if you can call these ‘stories’? But they are!

Storytelling is a tradition through which lore is passes on from generation to generation-be it from grandparents to grandchildren at home or from village chieftains to curious listeners sitting around a bonfire. And these stories comprise everything, from history and mythology to sciences, from local legends and mysteries to rituals, from fictional accounts and gossip to everyday happenings.

Over centuries, creative storytellers have transformed the lore of the land into diverse storytelling traditions of India. And I am going to introduce you to thirty-eight such interesting practices. But remember, these are not the only ones. Last I counted, I had come across nearly ten times that number-I am sure there are hundreds more that I don’t know about-and sadly, quite a few of these are no the verge of extinction. My hope behind writing this book and giving you a glimpse of the rich storytelling heritage of the country is that you a glimpse of the rich storytelling heritage of the country is that you and I can create some magic together and help these traditions and their stories live happily ever after.

The best part about this book, if you ask me, is that each tradition is unique and tells a variety of tales- of deities and demons, nature and natives, royals and rebels, wildlife and weapons and whatnot! All this, through the story of Mohini, who fights her own battles with storytelling, So what are you waiting for? Let’s journey to where the stories live !

Contents

	Author's Note	ix
	Into the Land of Stories	xi
1	The Reluctant Storyteller	1
2	The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea	6
3	Of Time and Tide	12
4	In a New Light	18
5	Show Your Light	25
6	As Mean as a Snake	31
7	Nature Finds Its Way	38
8	Rebel with a Cause	46
9	Loving to Death	52
10	Talking in Circles	59
11	A Barrel of Fun	66
12	Word of Mouth	73
13	Warehorse	80
14	Act of Faith	86
15	Flying the Coop	92
16	Learn to Teach	95
17	A Stitch in Time	102
18	Ward Off Evil	109
19	Back and Forth	116
20	A Running Battle	123
21	God's Own Country	130
22	Eye of the Wind	138
23	Fortune Favours the Bold	145
24	Praise to the Skies	151
25	Jewel in the Crown	157
26	Into the Wild	163
27	Rite of Passage	171
28	You Think You're Smart	178
29	In High Cotton	183
30	Turn Over a New Leaf	191
31	A Kaleidoscopic View	199
32	No Childs's Play	208
33	Far and Wide	215
34	Faith Can Move Mountains	224
35	Set in Stone	231
36	Different Strokes, Different Folks	238
37	What's in a Name?	244
38	Place in the Sun	252
39	Bringing Back to Life	260
40	Earn Your Stripes	267
41	Lost and Found	276
42	Thank You!	285
43	sources	287

 

Sample Pages