Dialectics of Stories

“Tell me a story” seems to be a magic word in all the cultures. Storytelling is a

universal human activity. Every known society on earth, at every period of recorded

history, has told stories. We create stories around us to imitate our surrounding or to

express the mysteries around us. I grew up listening to the stories of my mother,

sitting by the fire side, especially after the supper or before I go to sleep. There were

times I forced my mother to tell stories, even if she said she has no more stories left to

tell. I won’t allow her to sleep until she tells me a story. I know my mother create

stories at times, just to please me. But as I grew up I slowly moved away from my

mother’s stories and find myself in the company of friends listening to the stories

narrated by some of the elders, who are known for their skill of telling stories in the

village. The stories are of different themes, some on the myth of the origin of

mankind, some as part of religious rituals, some for instruction, and some for pure

entertainment. But the larger question is, are they still relevant today? Why should

they be shared, retold, recreated or even put into written form? Are they not just

remnants of outdated or culturally quaint stories, of little relevance today? To answer these questions one needs to look into the stories more deeply and

understand what it is made up of. The fact is that, these stories are not just a story with

or without plot, but within its oration it constantly evolves a certain way of life,

typical rituals, important mythological allusions, a collective memory and shared

experiences. It enumerates the cultural nuances and tries to capture the popular

themes of different times. The most typical characteristic of any story is that, it is not

static, it keeps moving, changing its form with every story teller, with every

generation. Therefore, they are important and not just the relic of a past, because these

tales are the gateways to the constant realm of dreaming, through which archetypes

are embodied, and the life paths are explored.

Stories remain an important tool of cultural communication not only in the

past but even today. The stories narrated by our forefathers kept the history of our

people alive. They reflect the hopes, fears and beliefs system of our people in the past.

It perpetuates the cultural identity of our people. And its values and ideas are brought

into practical world. Let’s look into one of the classic love story of our community

called “Ro and Ronai”. And see how it reflects the hopes and fears of our people in

the past, and their belief system. I am sure many of us must have heard, if not all. The

story is about two young lovers called Ro and Ronai who are madly in love with each

other. It begins with a typical romantic note, wherein Ro and Ronai emerged as

childhood friends, who later turned as lovers in their lives. The love lady Ronai

challenges Ro in many ways to test his love, but Ro like any other hero wins all of

them. The climax of the story lies in their irrevocable vows, of living and dying

together. They had taken a vow to live and die together, by placing some of their hair

together, and also had shared a slice of ginger from the same branch, which is

considered to be a taboo. As a result they both fell ill and died and brought untold

miseries to their parents. Their parents tried every possible ways to save their lives,

performed all the penance and rituals, sacrificed animals to propitiate the evil spirit,

but it was all in vain. It was believed that their vows were too strong.

As evident from the above story, how in a very laconic way story mirrors the

belief system of people and the different rituals like, sacrificing animals to appease

the evil spirit. It also comes to serve as a warning to all the young lovers not to go

against the moral codes of the society. The consequence of disobedience is nothing

but death, as depicted in the story. It also reflects men’s effort to shun the suffering

caused by death though it remains unsuccessful. Such story comes to serve as social

maxim and becomes a yardstick to judge the morality and integrity of individuals.

And at large such maxim becomes an instrument to control the society, providing

ideals to be inculcated amongst its members for individual’s well-being and for the

welfare of the community. In other words, it serves as a critique to the socio-cultural

behavior of a community.

Stories help in conceptualizing one’s culture in totality. But one cannot negate

the problem inherent in the process of understanding one’s culture in totality as

culture being very broad an inclusive. For example, from the historical perspective, it

is social heritage or tradition that is passed on to the future generation. From the

behavioral point of view, culture is shared, learned human behavior, and a way of life.

From the functional point of view, culture is the ways human solve problems of

adapting to the environment or living together. From the structural point of view,

culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols, behaviors, etc. Thus,

culture can be studied in many ways.

Raymond Williams, a cultural critic defines culture in a more inclusive and

descriptive manner. According to him, culture may mean all the signifying practices,

from language through arts, philosophy, journalism, fashion, advertising and other

expressions of a given society. But the thickness of human cultural activities and the

significant insight needed in understanding their nuances have spawned a variety of

analytical approaches to the subject. But one of the most formidable yet necessary

aspects of cultural analysis is to provide a description of the context within which

particular culture and its values are produced. Such approach proposes that we cannot

understand the culture of any given society, be it tradition or modern apart from the

context in which they are produced and consumed. Therefore, to understand the

cultural significance of our people, we need to uncover the ideologies implicit in those

stories of our forefathers and see how it captures the cultural nuances of our

community and explore the contextual meaning added to it. Then only we can

establish a better understanding of our roots and our identity, and the virtue of not

being the other.