 Short Stories: August 31, 2016 Issue [#7829] |
  Short Stories
This week: Face Looking. Sharing Stories in Person Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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The warm and fuzzy feeling
after you've been on a roller coaster ride
with a storyteller
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Dear Reader,
On Sunday, I went to a bookshop for an hour of -- listening to stories.
Yes, just that. Listening to stories.
Four 'tellers' narrated their tales to about 25 of us in the audience, and we laughed, we cried, we groaned, we sighed as the tales progressed. At the end of each tale, someone from the audience had a spontaneous question to ask, or an anecdote or their own to share.
The first story, told by a 46 year old man, was about how he started a small software company 20 years ago. Having just returned from the US of A to India, he wanted in on the software boom and got friends to help him advertise for help, go through a hundred resumes, shortlist twenty individuals who would undergo written tests and oral interviews, and pick five individuals as the first employees of the new company.
Then, as he said, the fun really began.
One of the girls he had hired returned with a friend who had also undergone the interview, but hadn't been selected. "We've been together since we were in school. We're inseparable. We want to work together," they chorused.
The man said no -- they needed five employees, they had budgeted for five employees, they couldn't hire an extra one. "I'll share my salary with her. Give me half, give her half," the hired girl said, promptly.
Two for the price of one didn't seem to be a bad deal. The new entrepreneur agreed.
He went on to share the ups and downs of heading this team till they started making a small profit, and then -- the blow. The inseparable friend (who hadn't been hired to start with) fell in love with one of the guys on the team, they got engaged, she now ate lunch and rode home with her fiance (instead of with the inseparable friend, as before), and it ended messily, with the friend who had in fact, been hired first, feeling alienated and quitting the company.
"Did she get another job?" was my question.
The teller replied that he did not know, she dropped out of sight as soon as she quit. As for the couple -- they got married, one of them quit the company and then the other, but they're still in touch with this entrepreneur and his wife.
What did he learn? "Don't go in for a two for the price of one offer -- it backfires."
It was a little slice of life, shared face-to-face, with all the emotions touching everyone in the room. There was no happily ever after ending, (ironically, in spite of an engagement and a wedding) -- we were left wondering what had happened to the girl who quit first, and what would have happened had he refused the two for one offer in the first place.
Another guy told the story of how he, along with four friends, bungled their final practical engineering project in college, but managed to get top grades by using a lot of grease, some of which splattered on the walls and the examiners' clothes. One woman told of the journey of going from being a non-cook (she couldn't even break an egg) to becoming a gourmet cook, and having to settle for making simple dishes in the kitchen per the wishes of her brother and her husband. Another woman told of the moment when she realised that her husband, whom she had married in the traditional Indian 'arranged' way, actually had fallen in love with her.
It was reminiscent of being small again, gathered around grandma with all the other cousins, holding my breath and asking, "And then what happened?" and sharing the aha-moment with the family when grandma revealed it.
The Bangalore Storytelling Society seeks to do just that -- bring the personal sharing back in to stories. The meet-ups, held once or twice a month, usually center around a theme and are meant for adults. They have two types of events, one is for personal stories, like the ones I mentioned above, and the other is for stories that you have read or heard and want to share -- stories that belong to the universe at large. So, for the theme 'gadgets', I shared the story of Harry Potter buying his first wand, how the wand 'chose' him at Ollivander's shop. Someone else told the story of two people falling in love over telephone calls, on that day.
There are some rules: no props, no written script. The idea is to share oral stories, so that others can, then, re-tell them to someone else.
The 'personal' event is generally ticketed (you have to pay to get in and listen) and the other one, where people re-tell universal stories, is free. Both have a pretty good audience. Themes in the past include -- 'school'; 'beverages'; 'rising degrees'; 'food' and more ... and all have seen fun stories emerge.
I read recently on Facebook that a young girl in a ghetto during the war risked being killed to read 'Gone With the Wind' and share the story with other girls. That is the importance of shared stories, people are willing to risk their lives for them.
In this age of technology, we have many advantages (I'm able to share this newsletter with you, for one!) But let's not lose out on the advantages many of us gained at our grandparents' knee. Fortunately, we don't have to risk our lives to sit cozily together and share stories. But we may risk a vital element of life if we don't do it.
Get together and tell each other stories!
Have fun!
- Sonali |
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Thanks tor the response to "Short Stories Newsletter (April 15, 2015)"
I found your comments about Ruskin Bond's "The India I Love" interesting, because I bought a similar collection of 'daily thoughts and observations' by an author I enjoyed. It was Eloisa James' "Paris In Love" and it was just her daily observations. I had enjoyed all her novels prior to this and bought the 'memoir' on that basis. Sadly, I was disappointed. The entries were disjointed, lacking depth and for all intents and purposes nothing I couldn't have found on Facebook or Twitter.  I wonder if you would have found the same or not. The weirdest thing is how disappointed I have been with her novels since then. I suspect the experience coloured my whole perception of her and her writing.  Elle - on hiatus 
Fortunately, Elle - on hiatus , I loved the Ruskin Bond book.
It's sad you were disappointed with James' memoir, but in a way it shows how much you feel the author 'belongs' to you, that you feel let down.
I love Paul Gallico's books. His most 'popular' one is one that I don't like as much as the others -- "Poseidon Adventure" -- it was made in to a movie which did quite well at the box office. Well, Gallico later wrote "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" but that was a sequel to the screenplay, not the novel (though the sequel was also a novel). I went about raging for weeks after I read it, that he had sold his soul for money!  I mean, a guy who dies in the book is alive in the sequel, and all sorts of other nonsense! My friends laughed at my indignation, because it only reinforced to them how much I like the author, otherwise!
And thanks for answering my question: What is a short story?
In my opinion achieving a goal, or even simply a revelation in the mind is a story in itself if something has changed, primarily the protagonist. Randy Ames
A short story is a story that conveys the author's tale, be it fiction or non-fiction, in a quick and concise way. It doesn't get into too much detail, but gets the point across. delilahbrat |
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