By Julia Dutta
Thirteen Gothic stories from 11 countries in Asia and Africa – quite a feat achieved over continents showing a single thread of interconnection, that being all the stories which fall in the folktales and legends category are dark and some with humour built into them – a unique collection of young-adult fiction stories.
Tutu Datta’s book, Nights of the Dark Moon, looks at a common thread in all the stories, which have been collected over a decade by the author. In each story one encounters something from the paranormal, world-of-spirit, which appears to be invincible, because of the very nature of these ‘beings’ when confronted by the homo sapiens. The stories draw from this ‘sameness’ the characteristic that runs in folktales across all these nations. The ‘Nights of the dark moon’ means the nights when the earth covers the moon and in doing so, darkens the earth even more.
It is out of this scary darkness that many a folktale has taken birth. Datta’s book holds some of the best of them.
You may ask, what is the greatness in dark humour and dark tales? As simple as this: dark tales excite the mind with their chilling and haunted stories, laced with ancient curses, supernatural creatures and damsel-in-distress encounters which the human mind can explore, but not solve. Yet each story in the collection talks of valour, courage and revenge taken to silence the disturbed soul, which in most cases were done injustice to. Thus the young adult, of any age, is able to duly impersonate in his or her mind the central hero/heroine in the story and play out the brave, strong, unafraid warrior that brings justice to the harmed or killed.
The stories in the beginning of the book are far more chilling and have a lot to do with killing the evil spirits, taking revenge, deceit and damage, followed by others which slowly temper down, but are not totally free of their dark humour and content. The author has arranged all the 13, starting from the far east, where the sun rises first, Japan, to where the sun is the hottest, Africa. Further, the stories get romantic and talk of longing, affection and sorrow.
Although, I loved all the stories, my favourites were in the end, the ones from West Africa and Nigeria, because, they spoke of trees and how cutting trees can cause harm to the woodcutter because the good spirits who dwell in the trees are angered and the evil spirit also dwelling alongside, creates havoc, which a valiant hero with his sword cannot silence, and must then use his wit and intelligence to appease the spirit.
Now isn’t that so much like stories we hear about the great warrior in India called Vikramaditya? Yes, now read that story in Datta’s book, King Vikram and Betaal the Vampire. What a smart, brave and wise king he was!
The fine illustrations at the beginning of each story are also drawn by Tutu Dutta. They really are exquisite!
My fingers may be trembling as I write the names of the stories and the countries they have originated from, for who can forget the unexplained horror stories told so easily – The Haunted Bridge of Agi (Japan), The Curse of Miryang (Korea), The Tiger of Flower Hill (China), The Shapeshifter of Co Lao (Vietnam), The Temple of Rara Jonggrang (Indonesia), Hang Nadam (Singapore), The Seven Princesses of Ulek Mayang (Malaysia), The Strange Tale of Chief Naam (Malaysia), Princess of the Bamboo (Malaysia and Sumatra), King Vikram and Betaal the Vampire (India), The Weeping Lady ( India), The Witchman (Nigeria), The Curse of the Iroko Tree (West Africa).
What fascinated me is the commonality in cultures and rituals across all the folktales from all the countries. And hence, while Datta’s book, Nights of the Dark Moon, may be a collection of dark folktales of valour, courage and perseverance, at a deeper level, young scholars can take up the study of these tales and draw up a table of similarity between these cultures in all these lands, which run a near identical thread of mores.
In the preface of the book, the author states, “dark tales get young readers interested – exhilarated – about reading. These stories allow young people to experience danger in a safe place, i.e, in the pages of a book.”
She goes on to quote Neil Gaiman, “Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell you that dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
What a wonderful lesson for youth growing up in a world torn by strife, disparities, inequalities and terror.
Book: Nights of The Dark Moon; Author:
Tutu Datta; Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
International (Asia); Pages: 192; Price: Rs 739