Ode to a new breed of story tellers

3 years back I read Sapiens & was stunned. I had never read a nonfiction book like a Murakami book. I just could not put it down. It was like a person with God’s eye who came back to earth and saw everything and then decided to create a movie out of it. Instead, it was a book I could carry around airports, taxi rides, loo and finished it in few days. I was addicted. I read all the remaining books but nothing compared to the first one – well success has it’s effect even on intelligent sentients. Ask Malcolm Gladwell.  

Thanks to my 12^th grader at home due to lockdown, I read Bio Mimicry by Janine Benyus. It was a fantastic look at nature, how the people in the past were much wiser than us in using things from nature. How scientists, designers are learning from nature and creating things which are more adaptable to nature. The language used and the visual description of professors, researchers and their love and passion for their subject was explained so beautifully – that you could visualize the author standing on front of a grass land or listening to a professor who has been studying about a certain variety of seed, nurturing it almost like his own baby & trying to explain all that in 30 mnts. Imagine the prof from Back to the Future.

Now, I am half-way through Origin Story, By David Christian which tackles the story of our origin, solar system, big bang theory, atom and so on so forth. Again you will read about science – where he talks about love, jealously, trench coated villain – and yes he is talking about science.

There are many people I know (and we all know) who have some knowledge about so many things. But Are you a good story teller, you may not write a book but how do you make a cab ride on the middle of night into a great story (this was a topic of a stand up comedy which I saw), or how do you explain the Arab conundrum to a 12^th grade (askmom.com – the wife) this was the conversation I enjoyed during my night walk yesterday?

Giving your story a shape take time & effort, tons of dedication and a sense of purpose, a belief that nobody have heard this before – or this can change the perspective.

Good writing & story tellers (I include movies in this) inspire wannabe story tellers like me. It re-kindles the emotion which goes dormant or gets covered under the carpet of living life for 5 days and tries to sneak out over the weekend 😊

Pause

In a time like this, the world needs more storytellers, people who can go beyond the cacophony to make sense of everything one would experience in this hyper connected world like ours from morning to evening. I am not overtly connected – on weekdays my only connection to the outside world is the business newspaper which is essentially for my job. Although many a times I wonders how it helps. Maybe it’s just a habit which I have to shed.

But weekend brings Mint Lounge which has news from here and there, articles written by people with a depth and ability to connect dots or throw flashlight on things which make you feel hopeful of this world or gives you a peek at things, wanting to research it a bit more or see a video to understand he topic a bit more. By the time I finish the paper a sense of wonder surrounds me. And for me it’s the Pause I look forward to every weekend.

This weekend I read about this article on Anthropause by Rohini Nilekani where she talks about the impact of lockdown on the animals and how it has impacted them positively. It was refreshing positive piece in an otherwise a gasping India.

Having stayed in Delhi / Jaipur where we braved the winter – we have grown with Pasmina and it’s myth’s (it can pass through a ring). I never knew that there are families living in Ladakh’s cold desert, the Changtang plateau and raise a special breed of goats in difficult conditions of Ladakh which gives the world the famed pashmina shawl. They have been doing this for generations but now are looking at stopping the same because of very low income. This gives a totally different perspective on pashmina and make you think “What really goes behind the click which we do in Amazon without blinking an eye-lid.

An article on Satyajit Ray whose birth centenary was on 2^nd May – where the writer explains about the movie ‘Heerak Rajaar Deshe’ and why it was a very bold movie to be made just after emergency because the movie was a satire on the govt. How Ray maintained the continuity and look and feel of the actual story written by his grandfather. Small tit-bits for a movie-holic like puts helps pass the days with a smile/

Then there is lockdown experience shared in columns which are meant to be talking about food / tea where the human element of a family congregating for food and takes precedence over recipe or tea. Reviews of books which not only review the book but explains the context of the book so nicely that you want to get hold of the book as soon as delivery opens in Amazon.

These days, rather for almost 2 years now – I am wearing the lens of my 12^th class daughter. Every time I would read an article or see something interesting on you tube the only thought was “Oh this is such a fresh perspective on science, sustainability, anthropology, biology and so on”. I will hurriedly take the cutting and send to her (since she was in boarding) with scribbles on top / bottom or below”.  Although I really do not know how many she read, how it helped.

But that is the 21st century quality which I want her to build, there is an abundance of data / views / articles. How do you synthesize them or connect the dots to give a fresh perspective and create a story – a life story in her case.