Sudhir’s Story.
This world of mine, met Sudhir for the first time at Teens of God – Gurugram NGO, when I taught a group of Class 5 students Hindi literature.
Hindi Literature comprised in a school curriculum book is quite scattered, but it teaches some valuable life lessons in life.
I remember narrating them a story from the book for the whole session. As it ended, I gave them homework to learn the meanings of some words and their translations in English. Everyone was joining the queue, but Sudhir took some time to pack his bag.
He was in a state of dilemma, whether to ask me this question or not. He thought he might sound silly.
But anyway, the question was – ‘Kya bade log hi kahaniyan likh sakte hai?’
(Can only people who are experienced in life write stories?)
I said No. Everyone goes through different experiences and everyone is a storyteller.
He asked me, whether he can write any story based on his life?
I immediately said ‘Yes. There’s no question to that.’
In the next class, he introduced me to his world of stories. He came up with a story on a sheet of paper and asked me to read it and not show it to anyone else as he was shy.
I read it twice and it was very sensitive and heart-touching. Story of a bird who saves the Jungle from burning. And I asked him where did you read this, did you copy it from somewhere? He said it was his imagination.
I noticed he wrote the meaning of the story in the end, but the story was untitled. I asked him, why don’t you title the story? He said, because if I title it, it will lose the reader’s touch on how he/she will think about the story.
It was Sudhir’s world and his storytelling, which is one of the story of my world today.