The Stories Within Stories

We all love to read stories or hear stories or sometimes weave  stories. Neil Gaiman once said,  “Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you, it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.”

I find that my random thoughts sometimes rekindle the memory of some of the stories that I read as a child and suddenly, there emerges a link between them and the world.

Remember Rumpelstiltskin? The story of a miller’s daughter who was blackmailed by the imp that if she was  unable to find his name, he would take her baby away? She was able to find his name and she reminds me of the way we all sweat when we have to  answer for  something, are supposed to be  accountable but are somehow on unsteady ground. In the end, we mumble and fumble, trying to spin straw into gold! If the girl had admitted that she did not know how to spin the straw into gold, there would have been no story but also not so many lies. How many times does it happen in exam halls, before interview panels, during conversations that we come across a question we do not know how to answer but don’t have the courage to say, “Am afraid I don’t know!”

Remember Beauty and the Beast? And promises made and twists of fate and a tragedy? Remember deadlines we have missed, promises we could not keep?

And Puss in Boots? The story of a boy who inherited nothing but a puss from his father. But who later won the hand of the princess with the help of the same puss? Just goes to show that we may have something that we underestimate and that very thing may change our life. Maybe, all we need is to make the best use of our resources and persistence to realise our dreams.

Alice in Wonderland? Although not a fairy tale, this story still captures the imagination of children and adults alike. So our Alice nodded off gracefully when she was not interested in her sister’s History lessons. Her mind was immersed in something else and there the story begins.

When Alice asks the Cheshire cat which road to take, it offers the timeless wisdom-

“Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered.

“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

So where do we want to go? Loaded question. Many answers.  Why are you where you are? Out of passion or pressure? Where do you want to go from here?  Whose dreams are we following? Ours? Or those dreamt for us by others?

As CS Lewis put it, “It is my opinion that a story worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.”

Even though these stories are part of our childhood, they still belong everywhere.

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