ARE STORIES REALLY IMPORTANT?

Its hard to imagine a world without Dorothy, the tinman, the lion and the scare crow walking on the yellow brick road , or Alice's adventures in wonderland or Peter Pan and Wendy , our own tales of Ramayana and Mahabharatha . Good stories thrive on imagination , add a pinch of humour and adventure and you have a classic right there. But the question we must be asking ourselves is ,are these stories of any practical significance? After all they are just figments of imagination swen together , what purpose do they serve ? These are the questions hinted all over the book Haroun and the sea of stories indicative of Rushdie's internal conflict . The story teller Rashid Khalifa is devastated when his son Haroun asks him what is the use of stories that arent even true? . This leads to an appalling situation , the shah of blah loses his gift of the gab. He begins to contemplate , what role do stories play in culture and society , what happens when they cease to exist . His dilemma is quite clear in the contrasting lands of gup and chup that he creates , on one hand ,we have a land which lives on tales on the other hand a land where muteness is worshipped . The best part about any story is that it leaves a lot to the readers imagination , one can interpret them any way they want , this ofcourse has lead to many misinterpretations of Rusdie's intentions . Rushdie argues that stories have the power to give meaning , where before there was none. Though young Haroun was skeptical about his fathers story telling abilities , later when he sees iff the water genie busy trying to cut his fathers story supply , he too comes around and begins to see the beauty of it. For Rushdie ,a story is not a mere peice of fiction , its an echo of the author's inner voice . Stories do not just take shape out of nowhere , they are usually driven by intuition , frustration , a strong urge to express something. For instance, here he picks on dictatorial schemes like censorship and the fickle mindedness of society. Stories also give hope, they project images of an ideal society ,of ideal people, the land of chup is terrorised by Khattam Shud's reign , but still people like Mudra the Shadow warrior manage to gather courage and stand up for what they believe .

Rushdie clearly says that not all stories are written to apppeal to all people , not all stories are meant to end with and they lived happily ever after but all stories do have a purpose . A land bereft of stories will be as dead as the land of chup , a great story can bring about change in society , such that no army can ever achieve. A great piece of literary work, wrongly interpreted can instigate people to mutiny , as Rushdie himself has experienced . He feels that stories are not for the narrow minded , one must be willing to think beyond whats obvious to be able to comprehend a story. They can invoke nostalgia , tears ,anger , happiness , peace , such is the power of a good story . He sends a pretty obvious message while naming Haroun's love interest as Blabbermouth. Lastly , there many practices that are inspired from folklore that go on to this date , dont the festivals we celebrate , the god's we worship , have stories associated with them? A good story may be scorned on by some , but there will always be people who will be dying to hear it. As Rushdie puts it , sans imagination a story dosent take shape and sans stories , society dosent prosper. Megha IMT2012025