There are a million or more brands out there. What makes one more heart-warming than the rest? It tells you a story.

We humans are genetically coded to love stories. Our ancestors sat around the fire, telling stories of gods and devils, good and evil, animals on the hunt, and so on. Many of us have grown up listening to stories. These could be the countless Indian mythological / historical tales, Aesop’s fables, fairy tales, or any other example. Every culture on earth has a trove of stories. The simplest nursery rhymes are stories. Even Jack and Jill went up the hill, filled their pail of water and came back down.

Why do stories work so well? 

• They make dry, uninteresting facts interesting. 
  
• They make boring, moral lessons fun. 
  
• By telling us about something, they reveal a deeper truth about something else. 
  
• By describing someone’s experience, they lead us to introspect and sometimes, a realisation about ourselves occurs. 
  
• Stories can inspire us, gladden our hearts, or challenge our belief systems.
  

Brand stories are a great way to get close to customers/users. When we were asked to write something about bread, we decided that bread should get the love it deserves. Few have given bread a chance to tell its own story.

Stories also spread faster than mundane statements like ‘our bread is amazing’. Customers of The Bakers’ Dozen read our story, and invariably left the store chuckling. They carried the story home with them on the bag, and also in their heads. Once in a while somebody would tell someone else, “Hey. I went to this new bakery. Yummy stuff. And they’re pretty funny too. Wait, you should read it. Let me show you the bag.” And so, the story spreads by the most powerful medium there is, good ol’ word of mouth.

Stories, whether in a novel, a paragraph, a tweet or a comic strip, capture our imagination.

Every word tells a story. Words generally describe things, people, emotions, thoughts, color, size, smell, texture, and much more. For instance, one might say a tiny room, a small room, a big room, a massive room, a gigantic room, an immense room, and so on. Each of these brings to mind a room of a different size and shape. Millions of words exist for the same reason millions of colors exist; art imitates life.

Words and language reflect culture and identity. Have a look at this interesting list of words. These words, from various languages across the world, have no English equivalent. They tell us a short story about the country and people they come from. They give us food for thought. For example, consider age-otori (Japanese) means ‘to look worse after a haircut’. It’s quite fascinating that there is a word devoted to that phenomenon.

Backpfeifengesicht is German for ‘a face badly in need of a fist’. You’ve got to love such a frank-speaking people. Are you a person who feels some sgriob, before you take a sip of whisky? And while we all try to work with meraki, most of us lack nunchi. Like the Japanese, we Indians have plenty kyoikumamas (those mothers who relentlessly push their children towards academic achievement).

It’s wonderful to see words devoted to an exact moment or emotion that we all experience. Some are very practical, such as the Georgian zeg, which means ‘the day after tomorrow’. This phrase is a mouthful in English. 

We tend to think of time in limited ways. Consider pisan zapra – Malay for ‘the time needed to eat a banana’. Sensible sorts of folk must give value to food, for measuring time. Speaking of food, we all know that feeling when a meal is so delicious, that you just can’t stop eating it. The Georgians have a word for that too.

And how often have you forgotten someone's name when you're introducing them? It happens to the Scots all the time (and some of us as well), so they've got a word for it. The next time you're red-faced from tartleing, you can thank them.

We can go on and on about this list, but it’s more fun if you read it yourself. Let’s hope no one in Japan still does tsujigiri (test a new sword casually on a passerby). And before I go, on a more philosophical note, wabi-sabi is Japanese for ‘a way of living that emphasizes finding beauty in imperfection, and accepting the natural cycle of growth and decay’.

Thanks to Sambit Kumar Pradhan for sharing this interesting link

'Tis the season for protesting. The words and images we use everyday, whether in daily conversations or in the media reflect on us, and the kind of society we are. Currently, every newspaper and TV news channel is carrying the story of the gang rape in Delhi, and the public protests following it. Whenever there is a story on rape, why do the papers carry illustrations of women bent over, holding their heads, sad, weakened, cowed down, and afraid? Yes, we all know what a national shame it is. Is there a need to reinforce the shame the woman has gone through with such images?

Can we use a better word than victim? Can there be a word that is more empathetic, and that does not marginalize the person. 

Consider the fact that we still have lathi-charge, a term and practice that is a relic of the Raj. What's in a name, one might ask? Obviously, a considerable amount of meaning and identity gets invested in names, even though they are just words. Otherwise, why have we changed the names of many Indian cities, roads, airports, museums and landmarks? We have tried to divest ourselves of the British identity, but we have still faithfully clung to lathi-charge.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. Since the ancient Mayans got their calendar a little wonky (thankfully), we will see you all in the New Year! Let's hope 2013 sees more peace, joy, compassion, good health, progressive thinking and creativity.