Dada Dadi Ki Kahaniyan

Few days back i was playing with my friend's four years old when she just jumped into my lap and nudged me to tell her a goshto (a story/tale in Marathi). and i did, the story i had heard so many times, over and over again from my Mom and Grandmom.

And that took me down the memory lane..... the different stories, told and retold by the elders in the same wonderful style. the stories were told with masterly sound effects and perfect expressions, recreating the whole scene.....how vivid the imagery was-one could just see the cute kittens and rabbits, the mean wolf, the pretty princess, the graceful queen and a lot more right there.

Sitting in Grandma's lap and enjoying the warmth of her shawl's bukkal (bukkal: throwing one end of the shawl over the left shoulder, known as bukkal maarna in Punjabi) in the winters or just enjoying the gentle humming of her pankhi (hand fan) under the starlit sky in the summer , every night, i would enjoy countless tales of courage and bravery, beauty and riches.....she would tell stories and riddles or bujharataan/baatan on demand :). in her mock anger, she would say "i told this story even y'day", but i would go on requesting. there were many folk-tales about phool kumari, the queen and her maid-servants, the gith-muthiyas (mythic dwarfs who live in paataal-lok,meaning below the ground), jal-pari (the mermaid like mythic crature), panchtantra, Alif-laila, Bhagat Pooran ji, stories about the legendary warriors and saints, peers and faqeers, religious stories about Krishna ji, Ram Chandra ji and the Sikh Gurus. There were stories from her own times also-stories about Netaji, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, The World Wars and 1947. and whenever i would request her for a story during the day-time, she would say "you are not supposed to tell stories during the day-time. the travellers lose their way". sure, with such wonderful stories, they would!

Here are a few stories and i am glad that i found this link to share (God bless the people who compiled this).

I just mentioned about Punjabi tales, because thats where i come from. But our culture is a treasure-trove of such wonderful tales, in different languages.This tradition of narration and dramatic rendition is fading slowly. if you/ your elders have such tales to share, please come forward :). Lets hope that "Once upon a time" just doesn't become once upon a time.....