Magic and Faerie Dust

Pirates and Princes

This week was punctuated with "Tell a Fairy Tale Day" and it had me reflecting on childhood memories, faery rings, magical creatures and a love for stories and reading. My love affair with stories began before my memories did. My father was an avid story teller. He told long, detailed tales of far away places and long distant times. He told stories of his own childhood, the adventures and the mischief. Tales of squirrels being captured and trained, tales of skipping school and snake temples, of paddy fields and stealing eggs. He wove worlds with his words and peopled them in my imagination. My fondest memories are of dragging mattresses out onto the verandah on a hot Summer's night, the whole family sandwiched together, laughing banter flying easily between us, a dark sky dotted with twinkling stars, the night air still and choking, and my father's sonorous voice intertwining threads to weave tales that played like movies inside our heads.

But my father's stories were not confined to only tales of his and his brothers' adventures. He told stories that appeared unbidden into his head. He retold stories he'd read or heard long ago. He remade stories from Shakespeare and Aesop to fit our lives, our world, our experience. Did you know Hamlet was an Indian prince? Or that Aesop's lion, king of his jungle, wore a turban and licked his paws after a meal? He conjured magical worlds like some verbose fakir, and sparked in me a love for narrative.

Cowboys and Indians

Once ignited, my imagination knew no bounds. Imaginary friends followed me everywhere. I talked to myself (if I were completely honest, I'd admit that I still do), creating scenes and singing songs. I was never lonely. My world was always peopled and too often, I would be lost in that world. I laugh now as I remember walking home from school, down dirt lanes, lost in my own world, singing or talking to myself, completely unaware of my surroundings. More than once I was caught mid-song or mid-story by strangers, who had the great good heartedness to simply smile and shake their heads as they walked by. More than once, I was caught unaware by dogs, who were more intrusive and would bale me up against rickety fences, barking and slavering till their owners arrived to rescue me. More than once, my daydreaming ended in someone shouting at, or for me.

Highwaymen and Pirates

The magic didn't end in Australia though. Holiday trips to India were inevitably boring for me. This was the 70s and adults didn't care particularly if children weren't having an exciting time, and they certainly didn't feel responsible for entertaining them. The adults all went off into their own worlds, cousins were still at school and I was often left to my own devices. I was surrounded by readers and writers. A grandmother who read in many languages, uncles who were authors, aunts who loved to tell tales, even a great uncle who captured my romantic imagination at a very early age and taught me Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman.

Even the scary stories are fun

This magical wonderland was amplified by my sister. Eleven years older than me, and doing a degree in Literature at the time, she fed my hunger for poetry and prose. Witches, dragons, and rabbits and small girls in wondrous worlds were my regular bed time diet. I had vivid dreams and talked in my sleep. I wrote stories and poetry. I made up games to play by myself and with friends. I made up stories of my own and entertained my friends with them. So much so that I have wonderful friends who still remember the telling of those tales, more than 30 years on. It was easy. Telling stories was not effortful, it was second nature because I lived those stories in my head. They felt vivid and real to the listener because they were vivid and real for me. I told all kinds of stories and made up all kinds of games. Bunnies, spaceships and evil blue dolls all inhabited my world. I still remember, to my chagrin, the telling of one particular horror tale of vampires that caused my dear dear friend such torment that she wouldn't even let her mother kiss her goodnight for many weeks (in my story, the mother had suddenly and surprisingly turned into a vampire at that crucial moment when she was leaning in to kiss her daughter goodnight). Boy, did I get into trouble for that one! We all laugh at the story now, but I can only imagine how her mother felt at the time. Now that I have children of my own, I can imagine the shock and confusion. I'm sorry Aunty Janet!

Run run as fast as you can...

When I had children of my own, it was no surprise that they were fed on a steady diet of fairy tales and imaginary creatures. We went to great lengths to keep alive Santa and his elves, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Bilby (we're Australian after all) and other fantastical creatures. When the Tooth Fairy missed HIS rounds and forgot to leave money, his helper (me) would write long, detailed letters explaining the terrible wars against the ogres in the Fairy kingdom, detailing how he had been waylaid by invading forces, but that now, more than ever, each tooth would play an important part in rebuilding the realm. My own children have grown up sharing my fantastical world. And I'm grateful that my, to-all-appearances-straight-laced LomL has the heart and soul of a poet. This man, who is eminently practical and pragmatic, is the same one who proposed to me with poetry, wrote lyrical letters and still occasionally sketches when he thinks no-one is looking. Had it not been for his indulgence and encouragement, I suspect our world would have been a lot less colourful. To new parents, or to those who just like spending time with small people, making their world more exciting, my advice is to let go of your embarrassment and self-consciousness, indulge your inner child and live wondrous, fantastical worlds. Start by sharing a fairy tale. Go on. What are you waiting for?

Wonder boys and an Amazing Amma

Image courtesy of http://superflykids.com/solid-color-cape

In case you were wondering what my alter ego is like, here are a couple of pages from one of the stories my boys and I invented (together) about our super-powered alter egos...

Once upon a time there lived two super brothers; Wonder Nik and his little brother Super Mili. The super brothers had many wonderful powers, but they still enjoyed doing what other little boys and girls did.

One day they were playing in their backyard at home.  Wonder Nik was freezing the dogs with his ice-breath while Super Mili thawed them out with his heat vision.  Finally, when the dogs began to yelp because they’d really had enough of being frozen then thawed out so many times in one day, Amazing Amma (Wonder Nik and Super Mili’s mum) came out and told them to find something else to do.

“But there is nothing else, Amazing Amma!  We’ve played with all our toys, we’ve painted the cubby house, we’ve thrown weeds to the chickens and we’ve even played Battleship and Uno said Wonder Nik.

“Yeah,” said Super Mili.

“Well, what is it you’d like to do?  Because you certainly can’t go on tormenting the dogs,” said Amazing Amma sternly.

“Well...,” said Wonder Nik, leading up to something he wasn’t sure they’d be allowed to do.

“Yes?” asked Amazing Amma very patiently because she was an amazingly patient type of mother.

“Well...,” said Wonder Nik yet again, hesitating nervously.

“Yes Wonder Nik?  Just say it and we’ll see if it’s possible,” said Amazing Amma still being amazingly patient.

“We’d really like to go to the zoo,” replied Wonder Nik nervously.

“Yeah,” chimed in Super Mili.

“Oh that sounds like a great idea,” exclaimed Amazing Amma enthusiastically, “but I’m afraid I won’t be able to come with you.  You two will have to go on your own.  I have great faith in you being responsible, and you have your super powers to help you out if you get into any bother.  Would you like to go?”

“Oh yes please!” shouted Wonder Nik.

“Yeah!” enthused Super Mili excitedly.

“But how will we get there?” asked Wonder Nik practically; he was a very practical super-boy and liked to know the details like how they were to go somewhere or how long it would take to get there.

“Well,” said Amazing Amma, “you could take the train, bus and ferry, or since you do have super powers, you could just fly there.  All you need to do is think about where you’d like to go and your super-flying-power will get you there.”

So Wonder Nik and Super Mili set off for a day of fun at the zoo.  Within a few seconds of closing their eyes and thinking hard of the zoo, they were soaring through the air.  Super Mili opened his eyes, smiled a broad smile and said,

“Yeah!”.

Pretty soon, they could see the zoo up ahead.  They started to think about landing and before they knew it, they were getting lower and lower, and closer and closer to the ground.  Amazing Amma was right, they thought, this flying business is not so hard.  She was often right, but the super brothers still couldn’t help questioning what she said.

Now that they were at the zoo, they had to decide which animals they would visit first.

“Let’s go see the tigers,” said Wonder Nik eagerly.

“No,” said Super Mili.

“Let’s go see the rhinoceros,” said Wonder Nik still eagerly.

“No,” said Super Mili who didn’t really talk a lot.

“Ok... let’s go see the monkeys then,” said Wonder Nik slightly less eagerly as he was starting to get just a little annoyed with Super Mili continually saying no.

“No,” said Super Mili.

“Well what do you want to see at the zoo?” asked Wonder Nik, getting quite exasperated now.

“Crocodiles,” said Super Mili calmly.

“Oh!” said Wonder Nik.  He didn’t like to admit it to his super little brother, but he did want to go and see the crocodiles and he did think that was a good place to start their adventures at the zoo.

“Oh, ok then, we’ll go see the crocodiles,” said Wonder Nik, trying to sound like he was only doing Super Mili a favour and didn’t really want to see the crocodiles himself.

“Yeah,” said Super Mili confidently.  He wasn’t fooled by his wonderful big brother.  He knew Wonder Nik loved the crocodiles, that’s why he suggested starting there.  He loved his big brother very much and loved to do special things that made him happy.

Suddenly, they heard screaming coming from their right.  They knew the lions’ cage was that way, and the screams told them that something was definitely wrong.  Wonder Nik looked at Super Mili and they both knew at once that they had to go and help immediately.  They ran as quickly as they could, and that was pretty fast because they did have super powers after all.  When they got near the lions’ cages, they came to a screeching halt.  Someone had let the lions out!  There were lions roaring and people screaming and running in every direction.

Wonder Nik and Super Mili knew they had to act fast.  Wonder Nik flew straight up in the air while Super Mili ran into the lions’ cage.  Wonder Nik used his incredible-electricity-gaze to shoot electricity bolts into an enormous fence around the lions.  Meanwhile, Super Mili used his magnificent-meat-fart-power to make the lions’ cage smell so enticing to the lions that they would want to come running back.

Sniff, sniff.  The lions could smell the scrumptious meaty smell coming from their cage.  Peeeuw!  So could all the people who had been running away.  The smell was so strong that the people all fainted, which was quite handy really because it meant that Wonder Nik could round up the lions and herd them back into their cage without having to worry about what the people were doing.

Once all the lions were in, Super Mili shut the cage and used his super-hot-snot-power to seal the cage door shut, just as all the people started to recover and cheer.

“Great job!” exclaimed Wonder Nik.

“Yeah!” agreed Super Mili.

Another bit from a story I'm working on...

This is a section of the story I particularly love...

Acha had left Kerala as a young man of 24, with a bachelor's degree, a little work experience as a taluk officer and five hundred rupees in his pocket. He had gone directly to Malaysia. Acha's oldest sister had married a man from Malaysia and Acha was convinced that he would have better prospects of finding a job and helping his own father to support the family there. Acha was determined and clever. He changed his accent by teaching himself English using the pronunciation guides inside the Random House Dictionary. He applied to become an English teacher and quickly gained his certification. It didn't take him long to secure himself a job first at the technical college and then at the University teaching English Literature. Pretty soon, his younger brother joined him in Malaysia. They were gregarious men and quickly made friends with the other bachelor teachers there. This was the part of Acha's life Sumi knew so little about. There were tantalising snippets of stories, beer and pigeon hunting, billiards and wild boar, fishing and crabbing and a care-free existence. Acha rarely spoke about these times, and when he did, Amma seemed to sense it somewhere deep in her soul. She would magically materialise and Acha would clam-up. No amount of prodding or cajoling on Sumi or Shalu's part would get him to open up again. Sumi liked to think of this time in Acha's life as his secret treasure box. The treasure he kept guarded from everyone - even Amma. The part of himself that was truly him. The only part of himself that he didn't share with Amma.

Amazing name change

At the end of last year, we had occasion in our house to change our ISP. With the resulting change, I had to think about what I wanted my new email address to be. I had used various permutations and combinations of our collective initials over the years, but this time, I wanted it to be more personal. Finally, I lit upon using Amazing Amma.

Amma means mother in Malayalam (my mother tongue) and in other Indian languages and I thought that most clearly reflected where I was at at this stage in my life. It's the role that most clearly defines me and about which I am most passionate. It's the role that fulfils me, stimulates me, engages me, frustrates me, poses the most challenges for me and satisfies me the most. You'd think the "amazing" is self-explanatory...and in fact, many of my friends and contacts did. But things are not always what they seem, and they are rarely straightforward in my world. I decided on Amazing Amma as a epithet because a few years ago, in an attempt to engage B1 and B2 in story telling and story writing, I had created a series of adventures featuring them as super heroes. They fought crime, evil and general naughtiness aided by their super powers (repulsive ones, of course) and their super best buddies. Every now and then though, the super boys would be overcome or undecided about what to do next, at which point, they would consult with their super mother.... Amazing Amma.

Amazing Amma always seemed to know what to do, where to go and how to approach a problem with calm, logical, practical thinking. That's the nice thing about fictional characters, they always know how to fix a problem and they never get angry or upset or lose sleep over stupid things they've said or done! I liked Amazing Amma. I think she's the Amma I aspire to be in many ways (except she doesn't have quite as much fun with her kids as I do with mine). I particularly like her calm self-assuredness. She always seems to have the right answers. I'm fairly certain that's why I used her as my email address... but, like I said before, nothing's ever straightforward in my world, so who knows?!