Storytelling: The Gander-Eater

 

(Cell Phone)

Lila never meant to raise a monster, but sometimes if you’re not careful enough, you reap weeds you never meant to sow. She had been careless, but Lila never dreamed that trying to give her son everything she could afford would end the way it had.

Our story, as so many stories before it, begins with an unforeseeable tragedy. Shortly after their son Lyle was born, Lila’s husband was killed in a mugging on his way home from work. The couple didn’t even have much money to speak of in the first place. After his death, Lila and her newborn son were left destitute, the former beyond desperate.

Finding a full time job and some kind of childcare for her infant was no easy task. Lila was forced to move to the city and take any position she could find, often working upwards of 70 hours a week. Between all her jobs and an intense sense of frugality, Lila managed to ferret away enough money to get a small one-bedroom apartment and send her son to a high-end private school in the area.

All that work exhausted her, but Lila would have done anything for her son. He was her pride and joy, and anything Lyle asked for he received, one way or another. Eventually, without meaning to, Lila spoiled her son, and he became a selfish, implacable nuisance. No matter how much he received, nothing was ever enough to satisfy him.

One day, some of Lyle’s school friends got to talking about the different gifts their parents had given them as a result of the performance in the last semester. Lyle listened for almost an hour to his friends discussing brand new cell phones, expensive computers, and imported gifts Lyle couldn’t even pronounce.

When he came home that night, Lyle walked straight up to his mother who was collapsed, exhausted on the couch. He began wailing at the top of his lungs, startling his mother awake.  Lyle bawled and squalled without end, demanding to know why she hated him so much that she wouldn’t give him a brand new phone like his friends had. Seeing her only son so distraught upset Lila, and she began to cry quietly, trying to assure her son that she would save up and get him a good cell phone as soon she could afford it.

Dissatisfied, Lyle only screamed louder. Lila offered him her cell phone, saying she would get herself a cheap one from the supermarket. Without warning, the screams ceased. Lyle glared at his mother and in a dark, soft tone warned her that he would have the phone he wanted or nothing.

Unfortunately, Lila knew she could do nothing and had to watch as her spoiled son locked himself in the only bedroom and refused to let her in or speak with her. Resolving to do what she could after work the next day, Lila laid down on the couch and fell asleep almost immediately.

When Lila woke up the next morning, she saw Lyle sitting at the foot of the couch playing with an expensive looking phone, the box and wrappings sitting beside him. Lila knew her son couldn’t have gotten the phone legally, but he wasn’t screaming anymore, and she was so tired. She simply didn’t have the energy to fight the boy she had created so she let him keep it. She said nothing.

Imgaine then, Lila’s guilt when the police showed up and took her son into custody based on fairly damning video security video. Lila spent the next week crying in the temple down the road from their apartment. Her son had been arrested and she was alone. Lost for options, she began to beg god for an answer to her son’s imprisonment.

Author’s Note: I chose to make this into a two-week story because I wanted to explore some of the later impacts of such a selfish and poorly behaved boy being given immense power, but I didn’t want to write an unreasonably long story. The source material is about a widowed woman who sends her son to school using what money she can beg and finds that he is dissatisfied when he discovers that his classmates can all afford to eat meat while he can have only vegetables. The boy steals a goose from the king’s aviary and eats it. When he’s caught and sent to prison his mother prays for his release. I’ll explore the end to this tale next week.

Bibliography: Neogi's Sacred Tales of India

Reading Notes: Neogi's Sacred Tales of India Part D

(Calf)

The Fatal Oath

The fatal oath is an interesting story that explores the junction of grief, piety, and desperation. Bijaya learns through her sufferings that there is great reward for those who face suffering with patience and continuous worship to a merciful god. I think it's fitting that this story centers around the mistake this woman made and the lengths she went to to remedy her mistake to the best of her ability. I like this mode of storytelling where the character is allowed to make a mistake then go out and find some way to begin reparations.

Sacrificed to Varuna

I love the way that so many of the tales I have read thus far tend to operate in a cyclical pattern where the beginning is closely related to the end and often the story's problem and resolution mirror or in some way bear resemblance to each other. In this story, the problem was created as a result of a necessary sacrifice to a god. The solution was the result of willing devotion to a goddess.

Joyabati - The Gift of Joya

Testing the gods seems to be a very dangerous but sometimes rewarding practice in these stories. When Joyadev tests Chandi, he is eventually rewarded with a message directly from Joya who teaches him great faith in Chandi. In other cases, though, testing the gods and goddesses can result in their divine wrath and punishment.

Saved from the Cat

I find many of the demands and requests made by the gods, especially those intended to be penances for past crimes, to be particularly strange. I don't understand how the penance the poorly behaved boy had to perform had anything to do with his mother's sins.

The Wife who Used to Eat the First Morsel

This story was barely 2 pages long. It was mainly about greed and  sacrilege. I don't plan on writing about this piece, but I will say that it reflects the theme of sin and atonement I've been noticing.

The Wife who Cooked Beef

This story harks back to the idea that one person's sin can damn another just as one person's atonement can save another. It was the servant girl who actually killed the calf, but it was the woman of the house who felt the need to atone for the sin committed. I like the woman's character, though. I understand her devotion and her resulting fear. It may not have been her fault, but she certainly feared punishment in case it was viewed as her doing since she didn't check carefully what kind of meat was brought to her.

The Banished Girls

One thing I really like about the stories that I've read in this storybook is the theme of punishment paired with that of forgiveness. Although many of the characters sin and are punished for their sin, it isn't hard for them to regain the favor of their patron god or goddess given they show sincere regret and shame in regards to their transgressions.

Bibliography: Archived Neogi's Sacred Tales of India

Reading Notes: Neogi's Sacred Tales of India Part C

(Gander)

The Gift of the Ascetic

I think it's interesting the way that the cycle of karma is focused in this story. If I was going to rewrite this story, I would probably write. the ascetic as some sort of con man. Alternatively, I could write the story from his perspective and explore a line of storytelling wherein he is actually praying for or in some way causing the infertility of the king.

The Sun's Twin Sons

I don't like that the mother seems to simply fall out of this story as if she were not the main cause of the boys' situation. It isn't fair to her sons. She seems to simply abandon them at the first possible time. I also want to know why the sun did not insist on Jokai keeping her promise. I don't want to rewrite this piece because I feel there are too many loose ends for me to tie up in a rewrite.

The Consequences of Generosity

This story seems to differ from some of the other stories I've read in that rather than someone suffering as a result of their selfishness or cruelty, the main characters in this story suffer as a result of the kindness they showed their good friend. I believe it was meant to teach a lesson about the fact that anyone can suffer the issues associated with poverty and destitution. It encourages compassion and understanding. All the people in the lives of this couple seemed to abandon them when the issue of their poverty arose.

A Brahman's Ban

The most interesting part of this story in my opinion is that it explores the idea that gods often require the aid of other gods and must perform supplications of their own in order to gain the favors they require. It shows how not only humans require divine intervention.

The Pir's Power

The capricious will and favor of gods seems to be a recurring theme throughout many of the stories I have read thus far. This one in particular reminds me of another from this same set of stories. In fact, I believe they were both about the god Satya Pir.

The Gander-Eater

I think the lessons to be gained from this particular story are that, firstly, sin can be ignored if due worship is made to a good-natured god or goddess. Secondly, the sins of one person can be atoned for by the worship and piety of another. One other noteworthy aspect of this story is the idea that this worship and love of the boy's mother created first a selfish, greedy boy then gifted him a kingdom to satiate his endless, insatiable desire. This would likely lead to a poorly led kingdom, but the woman loved her son so her actions make sense. Regardless, there is some moral ambiguity to her choices.

Bibliography: Archived Neogi's Sacred Tales of India