SUCCESS IS WHEN YOU OVERCOME By MELVYN BROWN
From very young I earned a reputation for telling exciting stories in school to children of all ages. From fairy tales to folk stories and to the creation of my own efforts from the massive fortress of my creative mind , made many happy. I enjoyed narrating stories which seemed to baffle, amaze and amuse my young and not-so-young friends.
I began to write the stories I weaved in my mind’s web of fantasy. I sent my writings to editors of newspapers and magazines . Many stories were rejected and I kept the rejection slips to use as book-markers. From time to time my efforts were rewarded , and the stories began to appear in print. From the Times of India to the Statesman my dedication to get into print was coming true. The Indo-American Society invited me to tell stories to their children and they organized special programmes for my story-telling sessions. They were the first to call me , the Storyteller.
One thing followed another… I was invited to private birthday parties of children, and even to school concerts in the city. One bright day ALL INDIA RADIO gave me a contract after I passed their voice audition. I became Uncle Melvyn in their weekly programme Calling All Children on Sunday afternoons . I became popular . The writing of stories did not stop. My scrapbook was soon filling up with all the story cuttings.
At that time the Statesman newspaper in Calcutta, had a Sunday section called the JS for youngsters. I remember Desmond Doig as its editor. The Junior Statesman decided to sponsor my idea of a STORYTHON , to set a record. It was a challenge for me . The year was 1969. The Storython would be to non-stop tell a story which would be spontaneous , have several characters and have a beginning , a middle and an end. The event was held at St.Thomas’ School on Kidderpore, Calcutta . I made a record : Three hours and forty seconds. My audience were the children of the school and the judges were their Principal and two senior teachers . I became the First Indian to create a World Record of three hours and forty minutes of non-stop Storytelling, which has not been broken in all these years. The International Herald Tribune , from Paris, gave mention in their news column.
With the ability to tell a good story, I was given Creative English classes in two Loreto Schools in Calcutta : to make the fairy tales interesting and indirectly teach the children grammar and pronunciation. The idea was a success. Classes were always well attended on Story-class days. For the Catholic weekly The Herald, I was given the role of Peter Pan in the Junior Herald , and my task was to write a special letter every week for children. Eventually I became sub-editor for the Junior Herald . All the above activity was done while I held the post of Assistant librarian in St. Xavier’s College , Park Street, Calcutta.
Success is when you overcome. I worked at the things I loved to do ; to tell stories. I also struggled to tie things up with work pressure , meeting deadlines in proof-reading, typing stories and articles, keeping appointments and making new contacts. I was blessed with a wife who shouldered the responsibilities on the domestic front : sending the children to school ( and I had two children, a son and a daughter), cooking, preparing meals, cleaning the house and attending to my phone calls , the postmen and people who came to visit me at home. Because of my dear wife Joan , I could overcome many obstacles.
Ultimately, I collected a few of my fairy tales and self-published them in a book, Dragons and Dreams. I survived , as another door opened – Spoken English in an Adult-Education Commercial school in Calcutta, India. But that is another story.....
