Story of Stories

In every tradition, there are many beliefs and some stories behind it. For example, in India, people used to say

“While sleeping if you keep your head facing towards north, you will die (early)”

To support that they might say the story of how Lord Ganesha got his elephant head (the elephant was sleeping keeping its head facing north. The story has no importance here so I am skipping that). This story will keep kids away from keeping their head towards north.

(Now science has explanation for this belief in terms of magnetism and how our health is affected if we sleep that way)

In my native State,  to get relief from neck sprain there is this belief among the elderly to keep a ‘nazhi’ (a round measuring cup) under the neck and rest. Now docs and physio therapists ask us to roll up a towel and keep it under our neck and rest or use a cervical pillow (btw, some people still do not know the logic and insist in keeping exactly the ‘Nazhi’ …..its their ignorance)

If those ‘wise guys’ of the long past knew the reason behind it,   why didn’t they say it straight instead of making up some stories?

Ever heard of 'grandma stories'? Yes, every one of us. (But what about grandpa stories? Well, at least I am not sure about such stories). In every country and tradition, it was the grannies that used to tell stories. Women were the one who used to take care of the babies and kids. They used to feed them telling stories; they used to put the babies to sleep telling stories. Some stories were just stories and some stories had something within it.

Women in India never used to go to school in the past. Men were the bread earners and women were the ones who took care of the household things. The beauty those old stories is that everybody can understand it, at least the story part. Those old grannies were illiterate but they always had lots and lots of stories to tell. They gave turmeric telling a story and not telling that its an anti-septic.. they gave pepper with another story...there comes garlic with a glass of story...

We don’t need to be educated to listen to such a story or to tell a story. So, those ‘wise ones’ made things simple (well, in India, they also made stories with super depth,  which demands higher understanding, with a different purpose) – instead of trying to explain how things are and making it complicated, they passed the knowledge through stories. It is true that there were lots of people who really did not care for or understood the logic and they kept telling stories ( In this ‘modern' era too many people take even medicines without reading the ingredients!).  

Story time…

“Athazhamundal ara kaatham nadakkanam”

(After having dinner, one must walk a little)