ECHOES OF BEDTIME TALES

By Tanya Chauhan,

(Political science, department, 3rd year)

Designed and edited by mehak koundal,B.com

(program) 1st year

“Long before I understood the world, stories taught me how to feel it.”

Today is a cloudy Sunday cloaked in winter’s lingering chill as I sit alone on my balcony late into the night with a hot cup of coffee. I am slowly losing myself in reverie, an imagination that was once my lived reality. A past laden with enormous memories so vast and profound that they refuse to fade from my thoughts.

I never imagined that the bedtime tales my grandmother narrated would one day unfold before me with such clarity and relevance. I still remember the day my father brought home a book brimming with tales populated by anthropomorphic animals with deep moral resonance. The story of “The Monkey and the Crocodile”, remember? It imparts a perennial lesson that trust must never be given blindly and genuine friendship is devoid of self interest. Then there was “The Lion and the Clever Rabbit,” a tale that gently yet firmly reminds us that wisdom can triumph over brute strength and innumerable stories of the same kind.

Once, the stories I longed to read or heard solely for fun. Now realizing that they were never mere jollies, but vessels of deep and enduring wisdom that will make the world more understandable, easier to navigate. These narratives are so deeply woven into our cultural fabric that nearly everyone encountered them whether through the gentle voices of elders or through solitary moments spent reading.

What I treasure most is the memory of drifting into sleep beside my grandmother, lulled by her voice beneath silvered skies, where stars shimmered softly above. In those quiet moments, I was unknowingly falling in love with the night slowly, gently and forever.

Then a familiar voice broke the silence of the night, gently calling me back indoors. I stepped out of my illusioned world, searching for new ways to fall in love with the night once again knowing that while time moves forward, some stories never truly leave us they simply learn to whisper, again and again.