Woke up late today as could not get to sleep last night. Try as I might, sleep refused to oblige me and eyes were shut, yet open and the mind active till late in the night. Mind was darting in ten different directions and trying to recall all the action of the past couple of days. I guess it is this tendency of ours to keep thinking and regurgitate our thoughts infinitely at times that makes sleep stay away from us.
Tired of trying all the tricks in the book to fall asleep, I gave up fighting sleep or compelling it to come to me and simply let go. I drifted into an open space and suddenly I could hear my mom’s voice say “Once upon a time…..”
Yes friends, I am sure most of us still have that memory of our mothers explaining the story which always had a moral lesson at the end and it always almost began with the words “Once upon a time…..”. These words have now become firmly etched in the minds of all – young and old alike because we all have gone through those intense moments of amazement, curiosity, intrigue, suspense, joy and happiness on hearing our mother’s narrate such simple yet so wonderful stories which always had a lesson for us to learn from listening them.
Those simple lessons contained examples of the clever thirsty crow and the boy who cried wolf wolf, to the carpenter who lost his axe in the proverbial well and got a golden, silver and metal axe in return. Although the stories and examples may have varied from person to person, the start of the stories always had the opening line of “Once upon a time…..” and that is what has become etched in our collective childhood memories I am sure.
It was not the stories themselves or the learning from the stories which may have made the memories stick on forever, it was the moment by itself, the gentle caress of your mother sitting beside you and trying to get you to sleep and narrating the story with all the emotions and drama, as much as she could muster, to make you feel the moment and also to slowly make you drift into the world of sleep – maybe it was a combination of all these things which actually made those memories indelible.
Not only have those memories become indelible from our memory banks, most of us too have adopted the same technique to put our off-spring to sleep as well and the opening line continues to remain the same i.e. “Once upon a time……”. The stories may have changed, the characters may have changed, the way we narrate may have changed, but the basic start always remains the same.
So then I wonder that if something so simple has withstood the trials of time and persistently hung on to our aprons, then why can’t simple good values like honesty, humility, caring, love etc, which were also propagated by our parents in our childhood be continued to be etched in our memories forever and become part of our nature forever? Why have they for some reason got lost in transition? They were given to most of us by our mother’s as well, then why haven’t they lived on and continued to be part of us all till now? Why we have been unable to make it as lasting as “Once upon a time…….”?
The question lingers and I guess there may be plenty of answers to it. I would like you my readers to help me solve this puzzle by sending in your opinions and thoughts on it so that with our collective wisdom we can come to the right reasons of why it happened. So guys shoot in your responses and comments and we will take it forward from there…..
Good Luck,
Dr. Rajesh Mankani
