What brought us together to be sat in a peaceful garden one Saturday afternoon in north Kathmandu? I full of questions and carrying a treasure chest full of children’s creative ideas, pinned together by nothing but imagination and wonder at the mysteries of the Yeti. You surrounded by the plants you have tended, your family raised by stories spanning a life that is bound by nearly a century. Our talk is overflowing with adventure, discovery and loss, of ancient Kings and their castles and Fairy Tale hunting.
A greeting again, from the Fairy Tale Hunter and it is my pleasure to introduce to you Mr. Keasar Lall. Born in the 1920’s he has spent his entire life collecting folk tales from the length and breadth of Nepal and most importantly for us he has specialised in discovery tales of the Yeti. We can try to conjure in our minds the images of his adventures that took place before Nepal even had roads. We are very fortunate to meet him on our journey and I hope that you can spend some time reading his inspiring books. Below is a short article for you, of how we spent the afternoon discussing why we hunt for fairy tales and what we have found.
I asked Mr. Lall what he did when he met people and how he recorded their stories. You have to remember that when he started his collecting adventures it was a long time ago. Some of the people he met were not used to strangers from far away visiting their hidden villages in the mountains. Sometimes they spoke very differently or were frightened or amazed at technology such as tape recorders. So Mr. Lall had to be very patient and inventive when meeting new communities. One of the most useful things in his “Bag of Tricks” was the stories his was carrying to tell others. If he could tell a story then other people would remember their stories. It reminded me that it was similar with us, using the stories that the children in UK had put in my “Bag of Tricks” to tell the children around the world. Mr. Lall was interested to know of the art of Fairy Tale writing in the UK and he remembered that the Fairy Tales hunted by The Brothers Grimme from Germany, had amazed and inspired him when he was a child. One of his favourite stories as a child was Hansel and Gretel.
When Mr. Lall became older he started his work as a writer by having the confidence to send stories over the mountains and across the jungles all the way to India. His first works were printed in newspapers far away from his home in Delhi. He noticed that sometimes people were not telling children stories anymore and he quickly became passionate to stop the old folk stories from being lost forever. These were the stories that had been past to children from parents, grandparents and great grand-parents over generations for hundreds and thousands of years. This quest became his life’s work and has resulted in many books and travels across the world.
Even though Mr. Lall has passed on his collection of sketch books and reports from his travels to the Society of Nepal Folklore he still had a special bookshelf at home with his books. We spent a long time looking at his amazing collected works. As I was passed each copy I wondered at all the hard work that had gone into each one, the mountains and valleys crossed and the places he had to find to stay the night. Several time he worked with illustrators who would draw pictures to accompany the tales he had discovered. Mr. Lall said that pictures were a wonderful way of telling stories, though he was very surprised about the results when people from other countries had tried to imagine what Nepal and its people looked like with-out even visiting. Several of his books had been printed in different languages so the whole world could have access to the tales.
I was very privileged to be shown Mr. Lall’s latest work. He showed me a new manuscript for his latest book on folk stories and his creative Poems. He was even able to help me with an unfinished “Dho-cholecha” I had found. Dho-cholecha is a type and a collection of local Newari children story telling. You can find this story in a featured article where it was the theme in a creative workshop at Life Vision Academy, which enabled the story to be passed onto another generation.
Too soon the sun had passed from the garden and I left for the busy streets of Kathmandu. If I am lucky I may return on another afternoon to Mr. Lalls amazing world of Fairy Tale adventures.
Mr. Lall has kindly contributed some of his work to support us in our project and you can find his writing and creative ideas in featured articles on the web-site. There is brief collection of related poems, “The Dho-cholecha” story and something very special to do with our quest at yetifairytales.com. Take a look at the site’s book shelf to find some of his books, use the links we have supplied for more direction via book publishers, or look the titles up on the internet for your-self.
This article was completed in last week of January 2012 by the Fairy Tale Hunter who was very grateful for the support of Mr. Lall’s family, the staff of Ratna Pustak Bhandar and the Horizon book shop.