Re-visiting Childhood: My Favourite Fairy Tale/ Folklore/ Fable

Re-visiting Childhood: 

My Favourite Fairy Tale/ Folklore/ Fable 

                                       ELSA Online Meet, Sunday, 30 January, 2022

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a family called ‘ELSA’. It was headed by Dr. Nibir Ghosh. They often met periodically to exchange wonderful stories about ‘the topic of the meet’. On Jan 30, 2022, the topic was ‘Revisiting Childhood: My favourite fairy tale/folklore/fable’. Members came from ‘far and wide’ to share their story.

Dr. Ghosh welcomed all to this first meet of the New Year – 2022. He shared how the response to the topic was overwhelming. Setting the ball rolling, he invited our youngest member, Mrigakshi who talked about ‘Cinderella’ and what it meant for her.

Saurabh Agarwal, our next speaker shared about ‘Panchatantra’ with special reference to ‘When Lion comes alive’. 

Debashish Chakraborty talked about ‘The Postmaster’ by Tagore and its everlasting impact on him.

Dr. Santosh Gupta spoke about the stories that impacted her childhood.

Dr. Manju told about Ruskin Bond’s ‘Tree Goddess: Treasure house of Morality’.

Speaking on ‘A Reprisal of Little Woman by Louisa Mary Alcott’ was Dr. Pramila Chawla.

And a new member Akanksha Chaudhary, Research Scholar (Economics) with a bent towards stories in literature also highlighted the ‘Contempory relevance of the Boy who cried wolf’.

Dr. Rajan Lal from Amroha recounted his favourite story from Aesop’s fables ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’. Anjali Singh also chose another of Aesop’s fables ‘The North Wind and the Sun’.

Dr. Seema Sinha talked about the ‘Relevance of Fairy Tales’ as she mentioned the film adaptation and retelling of them in recent times. Dr. Chanda Singh who had joined us after a gap spoke impromptu about ‘To kill a mocking Bird’ and its multiple messages.

Jessica Joel talked about 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' by Baroness Orczy. 

 As the time came to bid ‘Till we meet again’, Dr. Ghosh emphasized how these stories kept the hope alive…that there was light at the end of the tunnel…that they sustained the belief in ‘the good’ over evil…as mirrored by the narratives of childhood by the ELSA members…who as always lived happily ever after!

My Favourite Fairytale: Cinderella

Mrigakshi Singh

When mom told me about the topic, I got so confused! Should I take Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, or Alice in Wonderland? Well, Cinderella is my favorite fairy tale. The reason I chose Cinderella is because the moment I hear the word ‘fairy tale’, the image of Cinderella’s glass slipper flashes in my mind. Now, I am sure that most of you know about it, as it is a very famous book and movie.

It is about a girl, who, with the help of her fairy godmother, goes to a ball, in which all the maidens in the kingdom are invited to meet the prince, who ‘needs’ to get married.

I like the character of Cinderella because she is hardworking, humble, kind, and pretty.

It has also been made into a romantic animated film.

There has been a movie recently, in which Cinderella (who, in this movie, prefers to be called Ella) has a dream of her own (to make dresses).

She goes to the ball, not to meet the prince, but to make business deals! My favourite part is when the minister is trying to tell the king that Cinderella escaped.

I think it is very nice for someone to think of making such a movie.  

I feel good to think that someone decided to make Cinderella an independent and a thinking woman.

Writings of Ruskin Bond:  

Exploring Importance of Ecology to the Children’s Psyche

Manju

 In the modern time when the children are gifted toy guns on their birthdays to play with and they grow up with games like angry birds where it is a fun to kill birds and animals, the writings which can make children sensitize to environment and other creatures that we share our planet with are the need of the hour. There are many writers who are doing a commendable job as they are making sincere efforts to mend the frayed threads of life with the tool of their compositions and Ruskin Bond is a glittering name among various other such names in the literary world.  Ruskin Bond uses the age old technique of telling stories to the posterity to make them wiser in true sense. Many of his stories can be very helpful in safeguarding this planet as environment degradation is the most serious concern of our age due to increasing pollution, deforestation, extinction of species, illegal poaching, forest fires and all that concerns environmentalists today.  Human race does not know where to stop and tramples plant and animal life under the cruel feet of temptation for money and power. This is the need of the hour to revive age old traditions of respecting nature to promote environment related literacy. This paper is an effort to reinvigorate Bond’s stories by highlighting how they reflect, influence and suggest the remedies for our ongoing mode of being in the world.

This wisdom is being conveyed by Ruskin Bond, a prominent name among the few contemporary writers who re-evokes the traditional wisdom buried in the folk tales through his stories. There was a time when the stories full of knowledge and morality easily reach children through families. These stories were not only entertaining but also recognized for their contribution in enhancing the Bio-centric education which primarily stands for the belief that everything in this biosphere has “an equal right to live and blossom” (Devall & Sessions, 1985, p.67). 

A short Story “The King and the Tree-Goddess” by Ruskin Bond is being analyzed to examine its significance in teaching useful values to the modern children. The story was published in Children’s Omnibus. This story was told by Koki’s Grandmother and now it is being retold by the narrator. The story connotes to Hindu way of worshipping specific trees like Peepal and Deodar. Here in this well known folk tale a giant Deodar tree, house to a Tree-Goddess was bound to be cut for King’s new palace. The Tree- Goddess convinces king for not getting the tree cut by persuading:

“The birds nest in me. I send a most lovely shade upon the grass. Men rest against my trunk and wild creatures rub themselves against me. The earth blesses me, and sends up new plants and herbs under my protective arms. I bind earth with my strong roots. Children play at my feet, and women returning from the fields seek refuge in my coolness”. (Bond, 1995, p. 196)

The repercussions of cutting trees are highlighted by the writer so the story is ecologically very appropriate. Although the king who had a desire to have an extraordinary palace resting on a wooden column, represent human greed, changes his heart as the story moves towards its conclusion. He drops the idea of cutting the tree, thereby instills in everyone the basic importance trees play in maintaining ecological balance.  Many other religious and folk tales of same nature trace elements of ecological sustenance and can be relied upon to inculcate same values amongst children.

Stories like these can delightfully engage children and make them essentially aware about what goes on in the world. These stories touch upon almost all the raging issues such as deforestation, air pollution, water pollution, mining and blasting of mountains, poaching and other human caused imbalances. Another Eden can be created if the society is able to teach the children what they must know.

Dr Manju is Professor at UILAH, Chandigarh University, Punjab

More by gentleness than strength: the North Wind and the Sun

 Anjali Singh

 There are various theories about the origins and identity of Aesop, who is believed to have existed roughly during 600 BC to 560 BC (approx.). Nevertheless, his fable has a moral that would ring a bell in the reader.

 The story is about a question: Who is more powerful – The North Wind or the Sun?

 ·       Force or Persuasion

While the North Wind represents ‘force’, the Sun represents ‘Persuasion’.

·       Personification to convey human values.

It belongs to a time when ‘force’ was synonymous with ‘Power’. Thus, use of Nature to drive the learning about a challenging and sensitive subject like ‘Power’.

·       Objectification of ‘Man’:

The power-contest has a ‘man’ at the centre as an object, synonymous with an object that is used in sports/contests.

·       It is a one-picture Graphical depiction.

 Morals as stated by its various adaptations:

·       More by gentleness than strength

·       Mildness more than violence achieves

·       They cannot win who start with threats

 In ‘The Impetuous Breeze and the Diplomatic Sun ‘, a humorous adaptation of the tale, the contest is between Man and the Wind, with the Sun merely demonstrating the “‘right way of achieving one’s end’…’ tact is the lesson to be learned’”.

Another of the ‘art depiction of the fable’s theme states that

'it demonstrates people's vulnerability to cosmic forces and the inner links there are between natural events and our life as humans’.

In terms of contempory relevance, I would like to quote an example from the Political sphere.

 Revival of the ‘Sunshine Policy’ of South Korea in 2017, with the election of Moon Jae-in, the new President.

 Back in 1998, the ‘South’ decided to be soft towards the ‘North’; an inspiration from the ‘Sun’ of the Aesop’s fable. Over dinner, a Korean diplomat narrated how the idea built on the traditional Korean ways of dealing with enemies by giving them gifts to prevent them from causing harm

 “Named after Aesop’s fable about the sun and the wind competing to convince a traveler to remove his cloak, the Sunshine Policy posited that a warm engagement through economic development, tourism, and cultural exchange would lead to a more open North Korea.”

 My interpretation of the fable has been that ‘A balance needs to be maintained between Force and persuasion’. Persuasion is a choice that must be exercised first, always. If need be, only then, force should be used.

Definitely, a powerful message, the graphic image of which has always guided me in my decision making. Besides, it has been reinforced time and again by Nature itself.

Anjali Singh is Ph.D. Research Scholar

‘The Lion Comes Alive’ from 

Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma

Saurabh Agarwal

The tales of Panchatantra have a timeless flavour for the young and the old. While the huge corpus of ancient Indian literature is religious in its nature, Panchatantra tales are quite secular and thus their appeal becomes more universal. These stories are designed to educate for the author Vishnu Sharma was imparting political, social and moral knowledge to the princes who were thought to be incapable of ruling the kingdom. Simple yet profound in their message, these stories of Panchatantra have remained “most translated literary product of India.” (Edgerton 1924). The level of interest in these fables gets accentuated as the animals are given power to speak so they become apt for children. The stories have been divided into five parts or tantras.  

The story ‘The Lion Comes Alive’ which occurs in the fifth tantra, titled Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ (ill considered action) of the collection, deserves a special mention. I perceive this to be an earliest example of the dystopian fiction where the science or the knowledge does not yield the desired result. The story comes as a warning that knowledge should not be used recklessly and with an intention only to demonstrate power. In these modern times we may have subdued the forces of nature to suit our purpose but we cannot be oblivious to the fact that backlash of these forces can be devastating.

The story raises the question of moral implications of the technology. In the times when genetic engineering has given tremendous options to humans with the same technology we foresee the harmful implications that can put the future of humanity at stake. Proverbial lion may have morphed into nuclear power, biological weapons, etc but our ability to control it may still be limited. 

 Saurabh Agarwal, Entrepreneur and Literary enthusiast

       W. S. Maugham’s The Ant and the Grasshopper: An Aesthetic Reflection

Rajan Lal

 W. S. Maugham’s The Ant and the Grasshopper is one of the Fables of Aesop, a collection of fables by Aesop, a Greek fabulist and storyteller who is believed to have lived between 620 and 564 BCE. A ‘Fable’ forms a part of ‘Folklore/ oral literature’, which is studied under ‘Folk Literature’. ‘Folklore’ is the traditional lore/knowledge of a particular group, transmitted from generation to generation through the mouth tradition. Originally, the term ‘folk’ was applied for rustic scenes and ethos including poor and illiterate peasants but over time it has undergone multiple changes. Now it has its dynamism to nation from rustic ethos. ‘Folk Literature’ encompasses legends, folk songs, folk tales, fairy tales, myths, ballads, folk drama, proverbs, charms, jokes, riddles, fables, parables quotes, and children's stories.

 The literary aim is delightful teaching, or especially it has hardly anything to do with moral aspect of life. Most of the people are of aesthetic bent of mind rather than of moral one.  Here the ant symbolises diligence while the grasshopper giddiness. The ant leads a diligent summer while the grasshopper lazy one. When winter approaches, she is possessed of full larder but he is of empty one. He demands for some food from her but she declines. As the moral of the fable is that industry is rewarded and giddiness punished. 

But the author, an aesthetic bent of mind, reflects aesthetic approach to the fable where he talks of windfall in favour of the black sheep character of Tom Ramsay who keeps blackmailing George Ramsay and leaving his wife, gets engaged with an old lady who passes away after leaving a lot of movable and immovable property for him while his brother,  an extremely punctual and laborious lawyer, is able to save a very meagre amount almost even by the end of his service. The author happens to meet George in a restaurant, who was under utter annoyance after hearing Tom’s windfall. He asks W. S. Maugham if this is the reward of diligence but the author bursts into laughter after seeing his anger. He has reflected life’s phenomenon through aesthetic point of view to make his readers laugh and not to teach them any moral lesson. While he himself in the outset of the fable apologises to his readers to overlook the moral of the fable, he promotes the aesthetic element of the fable.

Dr. Rajan Lal is Assistant Professor of English  at  JSH PG College, Amroha

Down Memory Lane

Nibir K. Ghosh

As I travel in the mind to revisit the stories, fables, myths, fairy tales and other narratives that fascinated me in my childhood, I am happy to recall a wide variety of tales that kept me rivetted to books and magazines for hours at a stretch at home, in the school library, and during long-distance train travels. If I have to share my reading list, I am afraid it may sound boringly long. But, at the same time, with my friends keenly listening, I cannot help mention stories like Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans; Adventures of Robin Hood; King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; Vikram aur Betaal; Aesop’s Fables; Panchatantra; Arabian Nights, countless Fairy Tales; Richmal Crompton’s William series; Classics Illustrated Comics; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer etc.

These tales contributed enormously to laying a strong foundation for the love of reading that has not deserted me even today. Through my reading engagements I could develop quite early in life an avid interest in things that lay far away and distant in the realms of imagination and in things that made me aware of the need to balance it with a good deal of rationality what I saw and experienced in my day-to-day interactions with the vagaries and varieties of life. Like, when I read about Joan of Arc I could imagine what both love of God and the nation we inhabit could be all about. Later on, as I matured and read Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, I could instantly recall the fascination I had for the thoughts, ideas and actions of a maid who was burnt at the stake for her love of God and of France. Again, reading about Robin Hood made me imagine how it felt like an adventurer who would not hesitate to rob the rich to help the poor in comparison to the mafias of today who believe only in looting the poor and the helpless to make them poorer and more miserable.

I would like to end the presentation with a remark made by Andre Dubus: “I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice.”