"Who am i?" is, was, and will remain one of the most pondered on thought for mankind. Leaving aside the bigger philosophical angles to this question, and there are many such as-are there two me's? is my soul and body separate; what happens to me after death?; what about afterbirth?; at a very material level i believe we are what our stories are.
Let me try and provide an explanation why do i say this. Try and remember the last time someone asked you to describe another individual. Now there can be millions of ways in which folks answer this, but some common ones are Oh! Roshan! He just loves talking; Varun, umm..he is witty!; Amitav...umm now he's a fake isnt he? or some such. Essentially almost every time referring to how the other individual speaks or otherwise expresses himself. So the person who gets introduced becomes his story. Of course, physical attributes, location, status, also get referred to during human descriptions but usually they tend to take a backseat in more mature discussions. For example, someone might be really rich, poor, lame, tall, fat, etc etc but no adult would really want to focus at any length on these attributes. These are just not a rich enough descriptions. Nor can they communicate much of any deeper substance about any person. Calling Bill Gates wealthy doesnot say much about him. But describing him as an individual who is good at leading teams and inspiring others gives a much better perspective.
This phenomenon is not limited to individuals either. Let's talk about groups. Ethnic, national, or religious. All seem to be described by what preoccupies them and what is it that they talk about. The French talk about love, hence they are described as being romantics. The Scots love talk about their drink and its history, hence any scotsman becomes a guy who loves his drink. Closer home, Marwaris talk about money. Hence all marwaris become money minded. Sardars love talking about their makki-ke-roti and sarson-ke-saag. They get described as foodies.
So what remains? I talked about individuals and groups being what their stories are. What about our history? Now this is where the power of a good story really comes on its own. Let us assume history to be a series of random events which have occured in the past. Regardless of what the factual issue was, it is that particular series of happenings which appeals to our sensibilities most that ends up becoming history.
Nothing can perhaps exemplify this more than the partition. Based on their own sensibilities, two countries have chosen to adopt two completely contradictory viewpoints as being the truth. And regardless of what actually happened, in their respective countries that became the fact. Because it was a better story.
In this same vein, after individuals, groups, and history comes god and religion. The dominance of stories in this field is undeniable. Just take a look at the number of gods and then the innumerable number of stories around these same gods. And then come their respective rituals, rites, myths- all having more colorful stories built around them. In fact the author Yann Martel while ending his book, The Life of Pie talks about this. The protagonist of the book is a child who has just survived being marooned from a shipwreck in a dinghy along with a full blown Royal Bengal Tiger. After spending 6 months in this fashion on the high seas he is rescued and while recuperating in his hospital bed is confronted by the authorities saying there couldn't have been a tiger in his boat since:
a) There is no physical trace of the tiger.
b) He might have been hallucinating- a state which is common amongst those shipwrecked.
The little child reflects and then draws a parallel between his story and god's existence in this world. He says, as without the tiger in my story, the journey of life without god becomes a dreary story of random events in this humongous universe spread across a short lifespan. With him it becomes a fantastic story of established cause-and-effect, blessings and recriminations, miracles and rituals played out in technicolor.
Since no one can say with certainty which is the truth, essentially our life boils down to which story would we prefer.
Let me try and provide an explanation why do i say this. Try and remember the last time someone asked you to describe another individual. Now there can be millions of ways in which folks answer this, but some common ones are Oh! Roshan! He just loves talking; Varun, umm..he is witty!; Amitav...umm now he's a fake isnt he? or some such. Essentially almost every time referring to how the other individual speaks or otherwise expresses himself. So the person who gets introduced becomes his story. Of course, physical attributes, location, status, also get referred to during human descriptions but usually they tend to take a backseat in more mature discussions. For example, someone might be really rich, poor, lame, tall, fat, etc etc but no adult would really want to focus at any length on these attributes. These are just not a rich enough descriptions. Nor can they communicate much of any deeper substance about any person. Calling Bill Gates wealthy doesnot say much about him. But describing him as an individual who is good at leading teams and inspiring others gives a much better perspective.
This phenomenon is not limited to individuals either. Let's talk about groups. Ethnic, national, or religious. All seem to be described by what preoccupies them and what is it that they talk about. The French talk about love, hence they are described as being romantics. The Scots love talk about their drink and its history, hence any scotsman becomes a guy who loves his drink. Closer home, Marwaris talk about money. Hence all marwaris become money minded. Sardars love talking about their makki-ke-roti and sarson-ke-saag. They get described as foodies.
So what remains? I talked about individuals and groups being what their stories are. What about our history? Now this is where the power of a good story really comes on its own. Let us assume history to be a series of random events which have occured in the past. Regardless of what the factual issue was, it is that particular series of happenings which appeals to our sensibilities most that ends up becoming history.
Nothing can perhaps exemplify this more than the partition. Based on their own sensibilities, two countries have chosen to adopt two completely contradictory viewpoints as being the truth. And regardless of what actually happened, in their respective countries that became the fact. Because it was a better story.
In this same vein, after individuals, groups, and history comes god and religion. The dominance of stories in this field is undeniable. Just take a look at the number of gods and then the innumerable number of stories around these same gods. And then come their respective rituals, rites, myths- all having more colorful stories built around them. In fact the author Yann Martel while ending his book, The Life of Pie talks about this. The protagonist of the book is a child who has just survived being marooned from a shipwreck in a dinghy along with a full blown Royal Bengal Tiger. After spending 6 months in this fashion on the high seas he is rescued and while recuperating in his hospital bed is confronted by the authorities saying there couldn't have been a tiger in his boat since:
a) There is no physical trace of the tiger.
b) He might have been hallucinating- a state which is common amongst those shipwrecked.
The little child reflects and then draws a parallel between his story and god's existence in this world. He says, as without the tiger in my story, the journey of life without god becomes a dreary story of random events in this humongous universe spread across a short lifespan. With him it becomes a fantastic story of established cause-and-effect, blessings and recriminations, miracles and rituals played out in technicolor.
Since no one can say with certainty which is the truth, essentially our life boils down to which story would we prefer.
