What could happen if one keeps stories to themselves? They could turn up against you to plan your doom. Stories are meant to be passed on. Once shared by the teller, they become entities with lives of their own, which feed on other stories. Thus, making up a universe of their own. The lifespan of a story surpasses that of its teller easily, and lives on through its many retellings. Folktales too tend to live on through generations, adapted to suit both their teller and the audience.
The story Pet Mein Chhupi Kahaniyaan belongs to the folktale genre, in which a friend comes to the rescue of another friend— but what is the threat? This story has ‘stories’ as anthropomorphized characters which take on animal forms to seek revenge on their wrongdoer. The consequences of sleeping on a story could be ghastly. But it is also a story of friendship saving the day. The story seems to have been cut from the same fabric from which Teji Grover had created Akam se Puram Tak, and it probably is, as they are both publications of Eklavya which boasts of many folktales in its pitara. While the story’s illustrations in Gond style stand strong, the styling of the text and its imposition over the illustration often comes in the way of fully experiencing the story and its illustrations. The title of the story does justice by being literal in the plotline, when culturally the phrase ‘stomaching a story’ is used figuratively—used to refer to a person who is of weak stomach, is unable to digest a story and ends up spilling it over.
Well, what would become of stories without these ‘weak-stomached’ tellers of tales?