“So, children’s stories…basically, a lot of them had to do with Lord Krishna, who is another god that we have. And basically his story is, you know, saving the village he lives in and like his relationship with his wife-to-be, uh, Sita, uh, sorry, Rada, and uh, yeah…actually, you know, the funny thing is, Krishna was very much involved in the story of Mahabharat. So that’s how the various folklore stories intertwine. And a couple of other stories that I know, are based around Lord Ganesha, who I’d say is the most popular god in India – I don’t know why, he’s just very appealing to everybody. Probably because we have a lot of festivals in his name and people have fun at festivals, but, there are stories about how he and his brother Kartikeya travel around the world – do you want me to tell the story? Ok, so the story goes like this: Ganesha’s brother’s name is Kartikeya, or something. And his mother told them that the first person to, uh, go around the world would win a present from me, you know? Like, both of them got really excited and like Kartikeya started running immediately, and he, like, started running around the world, and he was almost there. But, the whole time Ganesha was like, eating food, just chilling, and then just when Kartikeya was about to come back from around the world, Ganesha gets up and like, walks around his mother and says, ‘Done. I went around my world.’ And then Kartikeya arrives and Kartikeya is very excited because he thinks that he has went around the world. But their mother, uh, accepts Ganesha’s act, because technically, Ganesha was right, and Ganesha gets the reward. It’s basically – every story like this has something didactic in it, you know? It teaches you some sort of lesson. It usually revolves around respecting your elders, or not doing anything bad, like killing anybody or creature, and things like that basically.”

This is a story that my informant learned from his parents, but the interesting thing that I found was in the lesson that the story teaches: It teaches children to value all life, even the lives of the animals that most Americans believe to be worthless, like wild creatures. This is something that strikes home for me as I am of the mindset that every creature deserves a chance at life and that no one being is greater than another. Therefore, my informant’s story resonated with me very deeply!

“Akbar and Birbal were just traveling around in the wild, outside their castle, and they see this super cold pond; it was winter. And then, Akbar looks at the pond and says, ‘Whoever can stay in that pond all night and not die, shall be rewarded by me.’ Then this poor guy, like a farmer or something, volunteers because he needs the money, so he says, ‘I’ll do it!’ So he basically – yeah – he just jumps in the pond and he stays there overnight. Akbar comes the next morning and he finds that the guy is still alive, so he’s like ‘Oh, amazing, um, I’ll give you your reward. How did you do it?’ And the villager was like, ‘I was just looking at that light from the castle and it gave me strength.’ And then, Akbar was like, ‘You cheated! That light was probably warm! And it gave you the strength to stay alive!’ And he didn’t give the reward to the villager. So, the next night, there was supposed to be this huge feast at Akbar’s palace, and Birbal was invited. But it wouldn’t begin until Birbal arrived, because he was that important. So Akbar was pretty anger, so he went to Birbal’s house and when he saw Birbal, he was like, um, when he got there he say this candle on the floor, and about ten feet above it, there was this pot with rice in it. And Akbar was like, ‘Why haven’t you come for the feast?’ Birbal says, ‘I’m just trying to cook my rice.’ And Akbar replies, ‘That’s never going to work because that candle is small and far away from the pot.’ And Birbal was like, ‘Oh really, then how did the village from last night get warm from the light from the palace?’ After this, Akbar understood and decided to reward the villager afterall. So, it’s essentially a story to teach the kids that they should be nice.”

This a very entertaining story to hear from my informant. I was told that she learned this story from her father as he told it to her during before bedtime every now and again. She seemed to come alive and relive her childhood for a brief period as told the story again. I’m always fascinated to hear stories wherein wit is used to conquer practical naysayers. As opposed to the tricksters that are prevalent in European culture, I find it interesting to note, that that “archetype” is portrayed in Indian culture as more of a person who outthinks another instead of trying to make the other fall victim to a trap of some sort. Personally I find this to be a very effective to inspire kids to think outside of the box and be creative using their own means instead of trying to force another person to fail, for their own personal gain.