“मेरी story… real है… Life में end में सब ठीक हो जाये, यह ज़रूरी तो नहीं…”
“इसलिए तो हम happy ending कहानियों में ढूंढते हैं!”
-Kapoor and Sons (2016)
The night is spread over with a sheet of stars and the moon shines above her. She is dreaming in her sleep; sleeping in her dreams. She's been asleep for a long time but she’s waiting for the prince charming who will wake her up and take her from that dungeon/palace protected by a dragon. Wait a second, why would someone curse her this? Is that really a curse or a boon? I mean, she’s literally protected by a “dragon”, and yeah, she’s not getting her freedom but who needs it in their sleep!! What are these stories!?
The fairy tales have been retold in their newer versions, the ones we feel attached to and want the next generation to keep up to. We don’t want the kids to wait for someone; rather, we want them to be the saviour of themselves. We want them to live in the worlds where the real witch does not come up with a fruit, but a laptop saying you must do the work as the work will make you wealthier.
I’m in search of stories. My family used to tell me bedtime stories. In them, my Dadi taught me how to make Khichdi; Dada told me how the king didn’t bear injustice; sista advised me how seven of the sisters were adult enough to make their own homes; Mi & Paa never missed a chance to suggest me a good one to read and I remember how inspiring that was to see Sudha Murthy being a female engineer and a writer, and Dr. I K Wijaliwala being the Messiah Doctor. (Even my little brother used to tell us stories when he was four or five.) I’ve slept well in my childhood. I’ve got to know that your body heals faster when you rest – and what could be better than healing your souls from little injuries of reality?
I love Tamasha. I’m not “that attached” to stories and the fictional worlds, but at the end the plot shows how easy it is to change your own story. And that’s the thing, the concept that I loved. When at one point we have Kapoor and Sons with the above dialogue, the same movie ends with the resolution of Tamasha's concept: rather than “end में सब ठीक हो जाता है”, it’s more about “अपनी story है, तो ending बदल देते हैं”… You can change your beliefs; you can change the story; you can change your life.
The stories are always the same. It is said that there are 7 types of stories and whatever we listen to as a story is from those 7 kinds: always the same, just some different version. So, I realised I liked to listen to only a few stories which have good ending, cliff ending, which have this and that; I realised my demands were not high. It’s out there, the story, but not everyone can make you listen to theirs. There are people whose stories are interesting, literally in the way you want to know because something similar has/had happened to you. Now when you’re listening, you already know where it’s going but you keep listening just to make that happen; just to have your heart be blessed in the same situation again. Sometimes you start advising based on your stories. Sometimes it’s something that you wish should happen to you in future. And sometimes, the storyteller is a boring one that you don’t listen to and that’s fine too. BUT THE STORY YOU ALWAYS LISTEN TO.
Nowadays, I’m not reading much novels. My priorities have changed. The story I used to search in books, that search is always there, just that now I search it in myself; I search the different versions I want to hear in my writing pieces. It can be anywhere; as a kid, you may have the bedtime tales; in school, you may have the textbooks of languages that you may have read twice or thrice or more times; as an adult, you may have tried to write a letter to your loved ones; as a matured experienced person, you may have courage to tell your story or your version of the story. Be it any ways, you must have searched for the stories when talking to your God, right? Right?
Let me be honest, I listen to stories on YouTube, whether they’re by Nilesh Misra or an unknown person in some open mic – I listen to them. But there comes a point where you know that you don’t want the story to continue. It may be negative. It may be non-related. It may be written badly. But when you’re searching for setting your stories in the words' game, sometimes the emotions may get missed. And nowadays, when there are so many people presenting their lives before us through open mics and social media, I think the real meaning of the stories gets digged in the mind-sets of people. Because you just can’t say anything that rhymes and that comes to your mind. I’ll definitely get attached to a postman story as the post system brings nostalgia, but you can not just present some random written piece on feminism that shows meaning-less rage! You’ll find me all ears to the story of a chocolate factory but I’ll definitely be sleeping when you’ll speak about her Zumkhas as I’m not impressed with the most cliché descriptions of love stories. When you say the person dies but it’s still a good ending, I will watch the film, but if you convince me to watch a typical masala movie and the movie is forced to end with a happy ending, I’ll kill you then. XD
This does not refer to readers and writers only but all the people. The portrait photos are captured as live: the eyes should speak in the photo; just that way, I want the living people as alive and their emotions living parallel; I want the inanimate to get the lives.
No filmy time here, just the story time. Many of you shared your secrets with me on Instagram. I’ve kept them safe. But here is the time and here is the chance. Comment or mail your stories you want to share. Just for the sake of telling it. Just for the sake of sharing some pleasure and some pain. I’m good at listening. And I’m good at making you listen to me if I wish to ;)
Stories are made with memories and sharing them is the only way we’re connected.
