Many if not all must be familiar with the anecdote, “Barking Deer and the Couple”. Anecdotes are nothing but a short amusing story, blend of wit and satire with comic strokes that comes to mirror certain social realities. Many of the anecdotes told and re-told around the hearth since time immemorial still seems to be very much relevant even in today’s context. It continues to get popular because of the indelible value that one can inculcate in them.
The story of the Barking Deer and the couple goes like this; one day a couple went to the paddy field for a regular agricultural activity. As they walked into the deep forest, they heard a deer barking. On hearing, the husband said, hmmmm I will kill the deer and distribute the meat to my neighbors but the wife refuted the idea and said; no, I would sell the meat and buy dress for myself. The couple continued to fight over their own interest and as they continued to fight the deer suddenly stops barking! As the deer stops barking, the fight of the couple also comes to an end ultimately.
We can relate the above anecdote to different life situations or prevailing social milieu of different times. The ongoing Indo- Naga peace talks can be taken as one classic example. For, speculations wrapped through different media on the possible outcome of ‘honorable solution’ anytime soon. On the count of which many individuals/groups engaged themselves into wishful thinking and started fighting among themselves, trying to push their own interest like that of the couple who fought, on hearing the sound of the barking deer. In-fact the couple should have first work on how to catch the deer rather than fighting over their own interest. Likewise, even the Nagas should first work collectively on how to achieve the long cherished dream to live as free people instead of fighting over their own interest. I am afraid, if the fight within continues; the so called ‘honorable solution’ might vanish into thin air like the sound of that barking deer vanished. In today’s context certain information circulating in the social media, especially the unwarranted ones can be dangerous like the sound of that barking deer which can bring a lot of commotion to the families and society at large.
Other perspective that one can relate is the image of women projected in the story. In conscious study of such stories which project women in a negative role has enormous impact in our society even today. It is such story that helps in stereotyping society’s thinking about women and further legitimates certain stigma that exist society. Relegating women into such role can be viewed as another way of projecting women as evil and typecast her as naturally bad. A myth is created through such narratives, that women are naturally bad whereas men are projected as kind and generous. I think it is important to be sensitive towards such construct while trying to extract the good things from such anecdotes.
What we can draw or conclude from the above inferences is that through such narratives, social etiquettes of the past are reflected wherein both animal and human characters were employed to exposed human wit and follies. Such culturally grounded story also gives a glimpse of the rich cultural past, particularly the shades of agrarian society and interestingly such anecdote still has a great potential to serve as an agent of negotiating social realities even in the present context.
