A s a little child, one thing I really savoured were beautiful stories that one heard. Depending on who the story teller was, one would lose oneself, get under the skin of the protagonist, see the scenes, sounds and smells that were being smoothly painted and crafted with words, sounds, tones, emotions and actions. These stories had a way of tingling and stimulating the mind. As a small audience sat on the floor in Zydus hospital yesterday afternoon, we were treated to a lovely story telling session. This was on the lesser known ‘Ranis of India’. At the start of the session, Vikram Sridhar, the storyteller asked the audience to name some kings who ruled India. Dozens of names could be rattled off. When he quizzed us on names of queens who ruled in India, the audience couldn’t quite go beyond half a dozen names.
I soon found the young, but very consummate story teller actually carry me on the wings of his narrative. I let go of myself, sliding softly into that space where one listened with eyes wide open, jaws slightly dropped, face and self reflecting every nuance of emotion of the narrator. He started with a lullaby, for baby Komalavalli, who grew up with the staple food of lovely stories from her grandmother in Mysore.
As the young child listened to these stories with a great appetite, she soon asked het grandma to tell her stories of queens, not wanting to hear more stories of some ‘king, who lived once upon a time’. Her grandmother now narrated the story of queen Chennamma, who efficiently ruled the Keladi Nayaka kingdom for several decades, protecting Chatrapati Shivaji’s son, keeping the Mughal army at bay. She strategically entered into an agreement with the Portugese, and traded pepper with them in exchange for horses and other army weapons.
These stories fortified young Komalavalli, sowing seeds of leadership. As she walked to school and back, she was fascinated by a temple dedicated to Yellamma, a Goddess revered across different parts of India, such as Karnataka, Andhra, Maharashtra, Himachal and in other countries of South-eastern Asia. She found out that this was an inclusive goddess who also embraced the ‘fallen’ or those with other identities.
Originally known as Renuka, she was cursed and later resurrected and came to be worshipped as a great goddess of the marginalised, inscluding the transgender community. Young Komalavalli soaked in these stories, deriving great inspiration from them. Soon, her mother shifted to the big city of Madras and was now acting in films in small, supporting roles. As she studied and did exceedingly well in school, Komalavalli dreamt of becoming a great lawyer or leader.
However, her mother’s ailing health made her join the film Industry, where she showed remarkable promise and success, becoming a celebrated, glamourous heroine. Deciding to quit acting in her early forties, she soon joined politics under her mentor, who was a very popular and successful politician.
The story teller wove the story of her leadership and complete command over the political and administrative executive and her superb ability to communicate with the masses. Almost any world leader who met her went away with great admiration for her grasp and brilliance. After every hiatus, she came back to power, having won the hearts of her people, many of whom worshipped her for all that she did for them. While these were excellent qualities, she, too, had her human failings that cost her dearly. Not having anchors like her mother or her mentor, she had to cope with the struggles, insults and challenges of life almost all by herself. As she was battling cases in the court, she also fell seriously ill. She soon succumbed and was buried in one of the world’s longest beaches at Marina, Chennai. Hearing this heart-wrenching account with a soulful lullaby by the narrator to put her soul to rest, most in the audience were moved.
This narrative made me again marvel at the power of stories. Taking a cue from this story teller, can we share the stories of our own heroines?
Jayanti RaviThe author is a Harvard-educated civil servant & writer, and has worked in the education sectorjayanti.ravi.dna@gmail.com