Bedtime Stories: Nurturing Hearts, Minds and Language
Bashir Ahmad Dar
Whenever I think about the past, I fondly remember fishing alongside my siblings, the long translucent sheets of polythene stretched across streams to divert the flowing waters, the green kitchen garden filled with delicacies, the redness of the setting sun and most of all the endless bedtime stories of my father, my beloved Daddy. The stories that filled our nights with wonder, wisdom and warmth. Those precious memories remain the richest treasures of my childhood.
Every night, my daddy would make me sleep next to him. He would check the pillow under my head, remove it first to see if any bug was waiting to harm me, then place it gently back. Then, he would softly caress my hair and help ease me into a peaceful sleep. But just before I shut my eyes, he would magically bring his mouth close to my tiny ear and begin to narrate a story. What started as a gentle way of lulling me to sleep became one of the greatest passions of my own life.
Each night, he would craft a new tale for me. They always began with “Dapan” (they say) and ended with “Yeth peth kyasa weatch daleel annd” (thus ended the tale). His stories were varied. They were comic, tragic, moralistic and fantastical. Titles like Mannut te Panzuu, Akbar Badshah teh Birbal, Lalchi Insaan, Sunn-e-Keser, and Baybooj Shaharuk Bashah still ring in my ears as if I heard them only yesterday.
As I grew older, I realized that those stories had done far more than entertain me. They had quietly shaped the person I was becoming. I firmly believe that these stories do more than just create memories for me. As I reflect on them, I find too many benefits that still stand by me. I believe that bedtime stories, if narrated to children with passion and consistency, can yield results far more far-reaching than we think.
For example, they strengthen the bond between parents and children. In this modern digital age, when life has become fast-paced, relationships have lost meaning and life has turned into a statement of profit and loss, bedtime stories offer us a chance to cement our relationship with our children. They give us an opportunity to spend quality time together.
They also increase the imaginative power of children. You tell them about a giant jinni flying in the clouds, and believe me, they are already seeing it in their imagination. This helps them create vivid scenes. I have experienced that children who are exposed to bedtime stories are peaceful sleepers and happy dreamers.
To maintain their focus and attention, you can occasionally ask for their views or what they think might happen next. This will make them good analysts and logical thinkers. You can ask for their review after the story ends. This will make them critical thinkers.
You can also leave the endings open and ask them to complete the story according to their own imagination. This will make them creative and confident storytellers. As an instance let me share my own experience.
A few days ago, I was telling a bedtime story to my six year old daughter. The story was titled “Shaal teh Kaaw”. It was about a wicked fox and a foolish crow. I had tried my best to create the scene and make images of characters in her brain. As I was telling her the story, her facial expressions made me feel she is seeing the story happening right in front of her eyes.
Just at the moment when I reached the part where the fox fools the crow and flatters it into opening its mouth just to get the piece of meat from the crow’s beak, my daughter laughed loudly and very innocently said that the crow was fooled by the fox. It should not have fallen into the trap. To my surprise, she deduced that not every word of praise is encouragement—some are just traps.
Bedtime stories hold importance from a linguistic point of view as well. Our Kashmiri language is fast dying in our homes. It is turning alien in its own land. It deserves to revive, relive and breathe afresh. It deserves to be heard once again in our homes, and bedtime stories can become one of its strongest guardians.
These stories can not only soothe our children to sleep but also help pass on the rich legacy of our Kashmiri language to future generations. They can enrich the Kashmiri vocabulary of our children. I am sure that if care is taken and due focus is laid on, in the future, our kids will not say “Baatu khaya”—they will say “Batteh khowtha”.
Today when I see kids sleeping with their phones in their hands, I cannot help but think about my daddy. Though he is not physically with me anymore his stories— and lessons and values they taught—– stay with me and continue to guide me like a glowing torch in dark. They taught me to dream, imagine and think.
Most importantly they taught me to love my language. If parents could just take a few minutes each night to tell their kids stories, we could possibly not only raise kids who are better thinkers but also preserve a priceless tradition that no screen can ever replace.
(The author is a teacher by profession)
