The Hindu : Stories enhance reality, says Ananthamurthy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 03, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Stories enhance reality, says Ananthamurthy

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, FEB. 2. If you know a story, tell someone. If he or she re-tells it, the story grows in meaning. And adds to communication itself. This was the essence of Jnanpith award winner, U.R. Ananthamurthy's speech at the United Theological College here on Monday.

Prof. Ananthamurthy's topic was ``Communication: The Art of Storytelling'', a talk organised by the college's Department of Communication as part of its Dr. Eapen Endowment Lecture Series. The lectures are meant to honour the contribution of K.E. Eapen, regarded as a pioneer in the field of communication studies.

The talk was more of a story itself. Prof. Ananthamurthy began with various folk tales, heard from grandmothers, friends, some read and some re-told. His friend, Chandrashekara Kambar, had told him a remarkable story. "But I forgot it soon after because I did not re-tell it." So, he had to hear the story all over again, he said.

The story was about a beautiful woman who knew one song and one story. But the possessive woman would not tell them to anyone. So the story and the song decided to come out of her body while she was sleeping. The song became a coat, the story a pair of slippers. When the woman's husband came home, he saw a strange coat and a pair of slippers, and leaves his wife for he thought she had been unfaithful. But eventually, the man heard a story about a woman and how a song and a story became a coat and a pair of slippers. Realising he was wrong, he returned to his wife, he said.

"In this way, stories are eager to get out of a story-teller. They are after all, born out of a desire to share experiences," Prof. Ananthamurthy said.

He said stories transcended cultures - the Arabian Nights, the Panchatantra, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were everywhere in various forms and versions. "There are a 1,000 `Ramayanas' in Kannada. And the Ramas and Sitas who tell these stories, are in most cases, not even literate," he said. Sometimes a story enhanced reality so much that you found reality disappointing, he added.

He said, "I learnt `slokas' in the front yard, got the village gossip from the backyard." The tales and affairs he heard then "have given me enough material to last a lifetime. If you are not interested in gossip, you will never become a novelist," he said. "India has a great front yard in its Sanskrit traditions and now, its English. But its backyard is even richer - in its tribal dialects and various languages," he stressed. When both factors came together, the story and writer became stronger.

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