Who says there's no magic?

Sat, May 10 12:50 AM

Most of us know our myths from Amar Chitra Katha, but please do check out a lovely old book -that many of you have probably come across already - by Margaret Elizabeth Noble (1867- 1911). An Anglo-Irish associate of Swami Vivekananda, she did a very nice retelling in English of the wisdom stories we grow up with, called Cradle Tales of Hinduism.

Its frontispiece has a painting of 'The Indian Storyteller at Dusk'. The author met Swami Vivekananda in London and came to live and work in India, inspired by him and the cause of Indian freedom.

Vivekananda called her 'Nivedita' ('one who is dedicated to God': think 'naivedyam'). Sister Nivedita's book is as much for adults as for children.

It's quite my favourite introduction to Indian myth and epic in English. I love her simple, straightforward telling and the fascinating connections she sometimes makes, like comparing Darwin's theory of evolution to the Dashavatar.

And while she takes you through the Mahabharata and Puranas as easy-to-read individual stories, it's the small stuff between that really stays with you, more than grand, terrible episodes like Kurukshetra and The Doom of the Vrishnis. My absolute favourite is 'Gopala and the Cowherd'.

I guess everyone knows it, but on the off chance that you may have forgotten, it's about this really touching miracle of faith in a modest little life. 'Gopala' is a small boy, whose father, the village schoolteacher, dies before Gopala is even old enough to go to school.

His mother keeps her heart strong for her child's sake and makes sure he goes to the nearest patashala when he's old enough. It's in the next village and Gopala has to go through a forest to get there.

While he sets off merrily enough on the first day, he refuses to go again next morning. The anxious mother asks him why and he confesses that he's too scared to come back on his own through the forest at dusk.

His mother feels terrible, because she is too poor to pay anyone to escort her son to school and back. But she brightens in a minute, remembering Sri Krishna.

She is one of those who worship Him as a little boy and so she tells her son to call out to his "Cowherd Brother" to come to him whenever he feels afraid in the forest. One day, all the little scholars are expected to bring a present for their teacher and unfortunately, Gopala's mother has nothing to send.

Once again, she tells Gopala trustfully that his brother, the Cowherd, will give him something. All the Cowherd has to give however is a tiny mud pot of curds, which little Gopala is glad to take along.

"Many and varied were the offerings and none thought even of noticing the gift of the fatherless child," writes Sister Nivedita. "This neglect was disheartening and tears stood in the eyes of Gopala, when by a sudden stroke of fortune, his teacher chanced to look at him.

He took the tiny pot of curds from his hands and went to empty it into a larger vessel, but to his wonder, the pot filled up again and #8230;and again and #8230;" Another story about children and the transformative magic of goodness, this time from the phenomenal bestseller, The Last Lecture, by American Randy Pausch. Called 'The $ 100,000 Salt and Pepper Shaker', it's the true story of how a pre-teen Pausch and his sister are allowed to roam free for 90 minutes in Disney World in Orlando.

Thrilled that their parents trust them, they pool their allowance to buy them a gift. They choose "a ceramic salt and pepper shaker featuring two bears hanging off a tree, each holding one shaker.

" The gift breaks accidentally but the kids are encouraged by a watching adult to go back, tell the truth and politely ask for a replacement, which the shop people sweetly give, making it almost seem that it was their fault for not wrapping the gift properly enough. The impressed Pausch family, over the next twenty years, spends over $100,000 taking many students and guests to Disney World.

Pausch's point: "There is more than one way to measure profits and losses. On every level, institutions can and should have a heart.

" In the long reckoning, such stories and the way they can guide our lives is the only real inheritance we have, isn't it?.

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