A lady once approached Albert Einstein seeking
advice. Inspired by his work and in a bid to nudge her little son into the same
field, she wanted to know the kind of reading her son must do to be adequately prepared.
“Read Fairy tales, he quipped. When the mother protested for a more serious answer
Einstein said a tad loudly, “read more fairy tales!” Einstein believed that
creative imagination was the essential element for scientists and fairy tales
provided the much-needed stimulus at childhood.
Have our traditional fairy tales become
passé? Can today’s 5-year-olds relate to
kings, queens and the pricking of spindles? Along with their dinner are we
feeding our little girls clichés of princesses who yearn to be rescued and need
a Prince Charming to gallop into their ‘happily ever after’? Growing media
research and semiotic studies have exposed and debated the political
correctness of these bedtime rituals. Fairy tales began as oral tradition until
the Brothers Grimm and the French author Charles Perrault curated and re-wrote
the stories, as we know them today. Most of the stories were watered down
historical events that could not be openly spoken about or were social mores
masquerading as tales. Simple on the surface and filled with one dimensional
imagery and characters that are either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ these stories contained
simple messages of love, sacrifice and safety but also undercurrent themes such
as ‘rape’, ‘incest’, ‘torture’, that one feels uncomfortable talking about.
The Little Red Riding Hood is a story about
a little girl in a red cape who is accosted en route to her grandmother’s house
by a wolf. The wolf reaches the house before she does, gobbles up the grandma and
lures Little Riding Hood into his trap, until a passing woodcutter saves her. Sanitised
versions have the grandmother locked up in the closet. Either ways the tale served as a warning,
admonishing young, naive girls from straying from the ‘safe world of the
village’ into the ‘dangers of the forests’. Big bad wolves are lurking everywhere
they seemed to say. If independence is what you crave, only a burly Samaritan can
save you. Professor Arthur Asa Burger,
in his book ‘Media Analysis Techniques’ offers different interpretations of the
same story, including a Marxist reading. In 17th century France, red
was the colour associated with prostitutes; ‘fertile’ women who strayed and thus
doomed to this fate. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud found fairy tales replete with
sexual symbols that resonated with the human mind because of their archetypes.
Five-year-old Zoya struts around the house
with a blue duppata for a cape, announcing that she is queen Elsa. The
stupendous box office success of Disney’s ‘Frozen’ and ‘Maleficent’ magnify the
undying appeal of fairy tales. “But I find it hard to narrate these stories to
Zoya or answer her subsequent questions” says Lakshmi a new grandparent. “ Hansel
and Gretel for instance is so violent, with the children pushing the
cannibalistic witch into a hot oven.” Today’s kids are extremely curious and
are not shy to question logic. Zoya wants to know why a man has two wives and
already thinks that fair is beautiful.
Research indicates that Cinderella was a fair
complexioned Greek woman called Rhdopsis who was sold into slavery and taken to
Egypt. Snow white was Margarete von Waldek a 16-century Bavarian noblewoman
whose brother made children work in his copper mine, causing severe deformities
and hence known as dwarfs. Celebrated modern-day fairy-tale writer Neil Gaiman,
who tweaks fairy tales to give them a feminist spin, thinks otherwise. His
latest work, ‘The Sleeper and the Spindle‘ is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty
and Snow White. “Snow-white tells you that even when those who love you put you
in an intolerant situation you can make friends and cope with life.”
 |
| Neil Gaiman |
Some young and new mothers like Shruti
Mathew are not convinced. An avid
bookworm herself, Shruti has been collecting books for her baby Isha from the
day she was born, mostly award-winners based on Amazon’s top 100 books for
children. Her recent picks were ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon and Miss Rumphius.
“These books boost creativity and make children care for issues that they can
relate to, like the environment than hunters and witches.” Shruti concludes.
Neha Bhalla is a busy mother and a busier teacher.
With a decade of experience in special education, Neha often weaves fairy tales
into her curriculum, as she believes that they enter the subconscious of the
child and become a base for studying history in the higher grades. “I feel they still have magic’’ she says. “As
for the violence in a tale, when they are taught by a teacher and not watched
on TV, children handle it better and it gives them a good understanding of good
and bad.” Dr Sandhya Rajasekhar, Head of the dept. of Journalism, MOP Vaishnav
College for Women, with years of experience in decoding media texts agrees. “Fairy
tales pass on simple messages, are optimistic and end on a positive note, which
is important. I guess they hoped these messages would hold good in different contexts
and circumstances. This is what Perrault himself says in his prologue to Sleeping
Beauty.”
Every child’s first library comprises of
these western classics, but Indian epics as retold by grandparents or read in
Amar Chithrakathas are not any short of stereotypes. It is easy to dismiss the
Mahabharata as adventures of gallant men, who subjugate women and go on an
indiscriminate killing spree but it also contains little nuggets of wisdom
about friendship, honour and moral dilemma. Samhita Arni’s ‘The Mahabharat’ is a retelling that lays out
these fables in a simple form without sounding preachy. Zoya has just started
reading mythological stories and is brimming with questions. “ Doesn’t Krishna
cheat in the Mahabharata? If he cheats how is he god? How can you kill your own
cousins? What are they doing to Draupadi?” she batters her grandmother. Lakshmi felt helpless, unable to satiate her
granddaughter’s curiosity until she chanced upon Devdutt Pattnaik’s books. Dedutt Pattnaik is India’s latest
storyteller with a twist. Taking the familiar canvas of mythology, Devdutt
paints fables that kids can relate to without losing the moral or the essence.
In his ‘Fun in Devlok’ series Krishna dons a teenage avatar
and is about to embark on a flight journey when he is stopped and asked to
produce his ID card. The story goes on to explain why all gods carry a flag
with a designated signage. These new versions have made epics relevant for the
changing times.
The Indian
publishing industry is flourishing now and books by contemporary Indian authors
are slowly creeping into the bedtimes of children. Sandhya Rao is one of India’s leading
children books writers. Closely associated with Tulika Books, her book ‘My Mother’s
Sari’ among others has won international accolades. When quizzed about fairy
tales, she reckons that its good sign that people have intellectual problems
with them, the stereotyping of the stepmother or stepsisters in Cinderella for
instance. “I feel it's a
good thing that of late we have become more alert to the question of
stereotyping, gender bias, cruelty to children, horror, and so on. Fairytales,
like our folktales, were not really intended for children, they were for
adults. These days we are very careful about exposing small children to
sadness. My personal take on this is that if such stories are told well/shared
sensitively, then it's okay. That's the key,”
Nestled into the nooks of one of
Bangalore’s busiest hubs is ‘Lightroom’ a quaint bookstore filled with light,
space, and tons of books, the essentials of a happy childhood. Lightroom houses
an eclectic collection of books for children handpicked and recommended by its
owner, Aashti Mudnani. “I personally avoid housing Disney stories, and would
pick the little Red Hen vs. Sleeping beauty”, Aashti says. Lightroom has almost
the entire Duckbill, Pratham, Tara and Tulika titles, all Indian publishers.
‘The alternative.in’ recently
published an exhaustive list of best Indian fiction for children which contained
titles such as the humorous ‘The Moustache Man’ and ‘Why are you afraid to hold
my hand?’ a story that articulates the concept of normalcy and the differently
abled. “Mayil will be not be quiet’,also among the list, by Niveditha
Subramanian and Sowmya Rajendran went on to win the Bal Sahitya Puraksar award for
2015 and is recommended by the CBSE. Written in the form of diary jottings of 8 year
old Mayil, it deals with questions of gender. Niveditha also edited “Girls to the rescue’ a retelling of
fairytales by Sowmya. “The question of fairytales being relevant now soley rests in
the hands of the writer and the illustrator,” Niveditha opines. And perhaps
parents too who choose what their kids read.
“Fairy tales are more than true not because
they tell that dragons exist but because they tell that dragons can be beaten,”
A Neil Gaiman quote welcomes Shruti as she scours through Amazon. “Isha doesn’t
need fairy tales for that, she will read Harry potter” she smiles. But it may not be long before Isha stands
in front the mirror blue duppata around and croons, “Let it go”!
Originally published on March 5th 2017 in thenewsminute.com
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