Storytellers ought not to be too tame. They ought to be wild creatures who function adequately in society. They are best in disguise. If they lose all their wildness, they cannot give us the truest joys.
Ben Okri

I was a gypsy in my previous birth. I love reading and collecting folktales from different parts of the world. As a child, I got the opportunity of reading folktales, which made my childhood warm and delightful.

I wish I could tell stories one after the other like those old gypsy storytellers!
Isn’t it fun, narrating stories with a room full of children and adults eager to listen to stories on almost everything?

There is folklore on everything ….for entertainment and grieving; for laughing and crying; for loving and quarreling.

I love the sense of drama, warmth, generosity and also the wickedness in these stories.

In the old days, gypsies who initially migrated from India to Romania wandered from place to place.

They weaved magical stories on whatever they saw and experienced. Sun, clouds and mountains, rain, caves, mouse, music, death all find a place in ancient folklore.

Gypsy folk tales across the cultures have a different theme and style but what binds them all together is a universal longing and yearning for the wild.

The stories have an excellent quality that they are all things to all people, but primarily they invoke our memory to the world of inner and outer wilderness.

The flying rats and dancing rabbits may seem magical and mystical now, but inherently they depict the complexities of life.

The folktales take us to the lands within which we have forgotten. The stories are deeply intuitive and are of inquiring nature. They fundamentally deal with our relationship with nature and open a passage to the beauty of the creator and its creation.

To me, these folktales have universal meaning and message of love and belongingness.

I am starting a new weekly series in which I will share one folktale every week from different parts of the world. I will then try to explore the various facets of human life that the story is trying to draw our attention towards. I will be specifically looking at interpreting them from the perspectives of women.

So come, be a part of this colorful and vibrant journey where I will be traversing through the soul of these folktales.

Lets spread some fragrance of love and wilderness!