Storytelling on a virtual platform: “Desidarata – Words for Life” – Max Ehrmann & “The Lord of the Dynamos” – H.G.Wells

As part of our ongoing story reading sessions, we covered the following today:

1. Desiderata – Words For Life – Max Ehrmann

2. The Lord of the Dynamos – H.G.Wells

Ehrmann‘s uplifting message of being simple and steady in life is told in words which are simple but effective. I was introduced to this by my Sister-in-law very recently. When I decided to read it for the members of our group, I had no intention of pontificating on morals and good ways of life for them. The idea was to give a memory of this simple yet pregnant piece of wisdom for them to draw from it later in their life – if and when a need arises.

Wells‘s piece is a popular classic horror story dealing with a London transplanted African working in a power station containing three dynamos which generate power for locomotives and his crazy and dangerous belief that the largest of the dynamo is an incarnation of an ethnic African deity needing a ritual sacrifice and the horrible consequences there of….It was a mixed bag of opinions from the children. While a majority of them said they liked the story, some admitted that the notion of sacrifice was not to their taste. I had to tell them that one way to look at the story was to see what happens when advancements in science and technology encounter traditional religious beliefs and notions of God.

Overall, a nice session with good involvement and attendance.

Storytelling on a virtual platform: “The Gypsy Trail” – Rudyard Kipling & “The Stolen Bacillus” – H.G.Wells

As part of our ongoing story reading sessions, we had read the following today:

1. The Gypsy Trail – Rudyard Kipling

2. The Stolen Bacillus – H.G.Wells

Kipling‘s poem paints a nice picture of the wanderings of gypsies around the world, the call of a gypsy man to a gypsy woman and in doing so compares the attraction of various animals to their natural habitats (Deer – Wold, Boar – Swamp, Hawk – Skies, Pied Snake – Rifted Rock etc..) with the trail which is a gypsy’s natural habitat. The poem has a tinge of melancholy but still enjoyable. It is a joyous challenge to introduce poetry to children. It takes time for them to get it but when they get it, the glow of appreciation on their faces is a treat to watch.

Wells‘s story deals with the dangerous intentions of an anarchist who tries to poison the water supplies of London with a stolen sample of cholera culture which actually turns out to be a damp squib as the stolen material is actually a harmless fake.

Both the poem and the story were well received by the members of our group.

Book Bees Reading Club_The 100th Story Celebrations

Today is a special day for our reading club activities: We reached our 100th story mark which is a culmination of a year long effort of collective story reading sessions. To celebrate this milestone, we had a small party for the members of our group at my place.

We started the session with this wonderful poem by Emily Dickinson:

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

A brief explanation of this poem was followed by an elaborate 10 round pictorial quiz put together by me and my batchmate/friend/neighbour G.K.Suresh, covering themes, ideas, events from various stories that we read till date. It was heart warming experience to see children diving into the memory of their emotional experiences that the stories gave them to dish out the answers.

To make the celebrations memorable, Madhavi and I created some simple mementos based on our logo created by one of the members of our group and liked by everyone within and outside the group.

This was followed by cake cutting and a sumptuous brunch.

It is my idea to create a tool kit of 500 stories which will equip story tellers better than me and story listeners better than our group to come together to embark on a life affirming habit of reading. I do hope more people will come forward and take this activity up in their apartment complexes to inculcate the habit of reading in younger generations around them. Among the many things our country needs urgently, a generation of citizens with deep habits of reading and refined sensibilities is one.

Here are some photographs from our proceedings of today.

Storytelling on a virtual platform: “The Hobo and the Fairy”– Jack London

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As part of our ongoing story reading sessions, we read Jack London‘s “The Hobo and the Fairy” today. This story was recommended to me by my brother a few days back.

In my view, London is one of the finest in English literature and there is a very peculiar virility to his prose with “Man vs. Nature” theme playing in the backdrop in most of his stories. “To Build A Fire,” “To The Man On The Trail,” “A Piece of Steak” are some of the stories that we read as a group through this year. Children remember these stories quite fondly. The story we read today is very unusual for the softness of its prose. Its emphasis on the positive change human kindness and magnanimity can bring in others is very well told through the unconscious and innocent acts of a well mannered, well groomed, dainty young child putting a hardened jailbird hobo back on track to a life of work and hope.

Children had a good time listening to the story and I had too had an opportunity to explain to them some facets of itinerant way of life of hobos and gypsies – in general. The story also has an important conversation centered around the parable of “The Good Samaritan” which I could explain to them in detail including the biblical context.

All in all, a good session marking the completion of our 99th story.

Storytelling on a virtual platform: “Columbus Was a Dope”– Robert A. Heinlein & “The Coffin”- Ray Bradbury

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As part of our ongoing story reading sessions we read the following two stories today:

1. The Coffin – Ray Bradbury

2. Columbus was a Dope – Robert A. Heinlein

Bradbury‘s “The Coffin” is a spooky tale of rivalry among two aged siblings and how the dying older sibling gets his revenge on his spoiled younger one through a fancy and automated coffin. Ray is probably the most known and liked story writer in our group and this is his 21st story that we have read in the last 1 year. A good coverage by the group of the work of a writer who has written upwards of 300 high quality stories.

On the other hand, Heinlein is a new introduction and my own familiarity of his work is a recent one but growing fast. A brilliant story teller having a way with language which has very few parallels. The story we read today is an ode to the pioneering spirit of human race. Heinlein tells the entire story as a fast paced conversation in a bar where one of the participants decries the unfathomable and puzzling motives in risky and pioneering galactic space travels and the others pointing to him that all through human history pioneers have done what they thought had to despite enormous risks (Mayflower’s journey in choppy Atlantic from Europe to USA, Columbus’s expedition from Spain, Perry’s journey to North Pole etc)… the funny twist is that this conversation itself is taking place in a bar which has been set up on Moon due to the efforts of many pioneers from the past in colonizing the moon and migration to moon had by now become a common place occurrence.

Members of our group enjoyed both the stories. I took this opportunity to explain to children that it took a long time for the world to acknowledge Sci-Fi & Fantasy as an acceptable genre and how some of the greatest of the greats had to contribute their stories to tacky looking penny and cent magazines and earn a living (Pioneers come in all forms and shapes !). I also showed them a sample magazine cover to give them a sense of what the magazines looked like.

This brings us to our 98th story.

Storytelling on a virtual platform: “A Walk in the Dark”– Arthur C. Clarke

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After a two session break for Deepavali, we resumed our story reading sessions again today and covered Arthur C. Clarke‘s famous short story “A Walk in the Dark.” It is one of my all time favourite sci-fi short stories for the way Clarke builds the tingling atmospherics of suspense and horror.

At the edge of the galaxy on a recently colonized barren planet, a galaxy wandering astronaut has to accomplish a six mile walk from his base camp to reach a space station where the spaceship bound to earth is ready to take off. The astronaut is desperate to get away, it is a pitch dark, intense nightfall on the planet and in the midst of the walk his lighting aid fails. The terrain is utterly new and the astronaut has heard stories of the existence unknown, strange and hostile creatures that could possibly inhabit this planet…. Will he succeed in his mission of reaching the spaceship as planned is the plot of the story… with a brilliant twist thrown in towards the end.

Children listened to this story with rapt attention but also tried guessing the end twist.

The highlight and happy moment was when one of the children drew parallels between this story and Jack London‘s “To Build A Fire” which we had read a few months back in one of our sessions. What impressed me was when the child drew the more abstract similarity of “Man vs. Circumstances” in both the stories as against “Solitary journeys of hardship” – which is very obvious.

This is the fourth story of Clarke that we have read and the previous ones included his other famous stories like “The Nine Billion Names of God,” “The Awakening” and “The Possessed.” Clarke is now lodged in the awareness of majority of the group as a writer whose stories can be enjoyed.

This marks the completion of 96th story as part of our ongoing sessions. Another 4 stories, we would be celebrating our 100th story and a year long endeavour of collective effort.

Daniel Defoe’s, “Robinson Crusoe” – A twining of distinct journeys

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Daniel Defoe‘s “Robinson Crusoe” to me is essentially a twining of three simultaneous journeys viz.

1. Physical – On Sea & Land.

2. Material – From Wilderness to Civilization.

3. Spiritual – From inattentive and careless disbelief to a state of faith punctured quite often by bouts of rational ambiguity.

Defoe covers all these fronts with a command that is inspiring – no wonder he is such a central figure in English literature as a great contributor to the rise in popularity of novel ! Even among these three journeys, the portrayal of the Crusoe’s spiritual journey is what I found quite impressive. The transformation of Crusoe from a callow, hot blooded, ambitious and impetuous youth to a contemplative middle-aged man of brooding and slow glowing wisdom is what I enjoyed the most in the book.

There are potentially many ways to look at this novel and one thought provoking way is articulated by James Joyce when he wrote about Robinson Crusoe as: “He is the true prototype of the British colonist. … The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity.” All of it is so true and even I began to realize all these attributes of Crusoe as I read along barring one: “Sexual apathy.” Looking back I find it surprising that through the 300 odd pages of great and flowing prose of the novel one does not even get a remote sense of the need for opposite sex in Crusoe. However, to make that absence a prototypical characteristic of a British colonist is something I find hard to buy into. One only has to read some of the short stories of Rudyard Kipling to get a diametrically opposite picture of this characterization.

Notwithstanding all of this: Defoe‘s “Robinson Crusoe” is a marvelous piece of writing and worthy of reading at least once – seriously.