All of us at some point in our lives
have looked back and thought “Wow, I could write a book about it, make millions
and live the rest of it in a mansion in the European countryside with tons of
books, a cackling fireplace and a purring cat (or rather lots of purring
cats)”. Okay, I got a little carried away in my version. We all have our
versions. It’s amazing what each of us have gone through, good and bad,
encouraging and humiliating. There are little things that hold deep
significance for us. We find it impossible to explain why they do so and more
often they remain buried deep inside the things we say and do, hardly ever
talked about.
Storytelling is as old as humanity.
The desire to speak and listen of events and people, real or imaginary is
something which comes naturally to us. People have used this natural
inclination to entertain irritating children, earn lots of money, get someone
killed, get themselves killed, earn the favour of a king and quite frankly the
list is endless if you understand where I’m going.
Not only do we like to tell stories,
in fact we need to tell them. That is why tangled in urban jungles where every
man is an island we end up paying therapists just so that they’d listen to us! Just
the act of ‘letting it out’ is therapeutic. I recently came across a video of a
man from New York who was paying passers-by a dollar for their story. The idea
being that we have gotten so busy with our lives that we no longer care to
listen to the problems of others. We are the victims and perpetrators of the
same crime.
A few hours before writing this, I
witnessed an outburst by a relative who I adore very much, regarding how she
was treated as a teenage girl several years ago. A lot of it was new and unsettling
for me. Parts of it I suspect, I’d deliberately forgotten because it involved
individuals who I thought of as brightly monochromatic. That is how we think of
our elders as kids – they are either good or bad(those who don’t get you toys
or chocolates) Your story therefore is important because your story will help
me see things that I was oblivious to throughout my life or maybe point me in a
direction that I knew but had forgotten. Your story can help me realize my
mistake.
Hence not only is it necessary for
you to tell your story but it is necessary for me that you do so and by me I
mean all of us. It might be silly for you but it might as well be a lesson for
someone else. Never underestimate the power of your experience told with
honesty and humility. The basic premise of The Diary of a Young Girl by
Anne Frank couldn’t be any less promising – the diary of a fourteen year old
girl stuck in a hideout with nowhere to go and no one to meet apart from a few
people. Yet it is a beautiful and more importantly, a relatable story. Its
beauty is enhanced by its universality.
Don’t be afraid to tell your story
to the world and at the same time I would request you to be kind enough to
listen to other people’s story because you cannot expect from someone that you
do not give. It would help you to reflect upon this. Maybe it would show you
ways that you hadn’t seen till now?
