Kaleidoscope of stories and tellers

 

398.2 , A story place for you!

Where stories brew, and we grew.

Where stories drew, and we flew.

Yabba Dabba Doo!!!

On the 2^nd of September I was at the launch of 398.2 Storytelling Festival. 398.2 is the Dewey decimal classification for folktales. The Dewey Decimal Classification organizes library materials by discipline or field of study. The system comprises ten classes, each divided into ten divisions, each having ten sections. 

What did I see? 

As many tellers, those many styles and stories! 

As many listeners, those many reactions and rejoinders!

There was fun, frolic and fiesta!

There was din, drumming and dostana! (Hindi for friendship)

There was an extravaganza of stories in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil!

The three erudite tellers in the Tamil Storytelling session were enthralling. One bilingual telling especially evoked much laughter. from the energetic and supportive audience.

One of the tellers shared a story called “Ekki Dokki,” a story with lots of cultural references that would otherwise be lost to younger generations. It was a fun time of learning and enjoying stories.

Let me share this story with you.

Ekki Dokki

A popular folktale from Maharashtra, India. 

Once upon a time in a little cottage by the edge of a forest there lived two sisters, Ekkeshvali and Donkeshvali. In Marathi, Ekkeshvali means girl with one strand of hair on her head, and Donkeshvali means girl with two strands of hair on her head. Their names got shortened and they came to be known as Ekki and Dokki.

Ekki and Dokki were happy little girls but as they grew up, they got laughed at and teased, Ekki more than Dokki, and Dokki began feeling special and proud. She was the beautiful one as she had two strands of hair. Sometimes, she bullied her sister too.

One day, Ekki set out to gather some firewood. As she walked through the forest in a pensive mood, she meandered slowly taking in the sights and sounds of nature. She passed by a withered henna shrub, which looked like it could do with some water. Ekki found an empty coconut shell by the stream and watered the shrub.

She walked on, and soon came upon a cow tethered to a pole. The cow looked tired and hungry and the noose around its neck was fastened too tightly. Ekki, being kindness personified, loosened the noose, plucked some fresh grass, fed the cow and filled up its pail with water from the stream. The cow mooed with satisfaction. 

At the other end of the forest lived her grandmother. 

She had not had any visitors in a very long time and was incredibly happy to see Ekki. Ekki helped her clean the cottage, prepare lunch and do the dishes. Ekki’s grandmother’s weary bones felt lightness that morning. She then told Ekki to have a bath, so that they could have lunch together and share stories. 

She handed Ekki some herbal shampoo and oil and asked her to apply the oil and wash it off with shampoo. Ekki did as she was told, and when out of her bath, Ekki found her head full of long, lustrous hair!!! Her joy knew no bounds. 

She spent a few days with grandma and then set out back to her home. On her way back, the cow offered her some milk, and the henna bush asked her to pluck some tender leaves and use them to make henna paste to decorate her palms. Thanking them, she continued on until she reacher home.

As soon as Dokki saw Ekki’s long, lustrous hair, she began to burn with jealousy. She wanted hair just like Ekki’s. She waited until the next morning and set out to go to grandma’s house.

She was so angry that she did not pay any attention to anything on the way. As soon as she reached her grandmother’s house, she angrily asked for long, lustrous hair like her sister. She demanded oil and herbal shampoo from her grandmother immediately. Old grandma was tired. She still had a lot of chores left to be finished so she asked Dokki to wait a while. Dokki just screamed and would not calm down.

Seeing Dokki’s impatience, she handed her herbal shampoo and oil and gave her the same instructions that she had given Ekki. Dokki did what her grandmother asked. To her horror, when Dokki felt her head, she realised she had lost the two strands of hair she had and was now bald! She screamed!

Grandma was sad! She said, “Please understand, dear Dokki. When Ekki was here, I was so relaxed as Ekki had helped me with the household chores, and so I remembered to sprinkle magic dust into her shampoo but this morning I was so flustered, and along you came screaming and demanding immediate attention, that I completely forgot to sprinkle magic dust into your shampoo. Forgive me, Dokki,” she said.

Dokki furiously stormed out of grandma’s house and did not look where she was going. She got too close to the cow, so the cow butted her with her horns. As she rushed on, she stumbled and fell into the henna bush and was scratched by the thorns.

A miserable Dokki went home and lived with her baldness for a while. Hopefully, she had learnt her lesson and eventually became a kinder person. 

Perhaps, her grandmother, seeing Dokki’s change of heart, would have surely sprinkled some magic dust into her herbal shampoo. 

And that is the story of the two sisters, Ekki and Dokki.

“Stories create community, enable us to see through the eyes of other people, and open us to the claim of others.” – Peter Forbes

 

References:

National Council of Educational Research and Training

Ekki Dokki by Sandhya Rao