Story Time

The age-old culture of storytelling receives a boost as workshops combined with drawing,dance and puppetry catch on.

Be it grandmas tales or mythological and historical references,stories have always been regarded as the best medium of imparting knowledge and moral values. They pass on traditions and culture from one generation to another. Somewhere along the way,the concept of storytelling received a setback,because of the increasing hustle-bustle of everyday life. But surprisingly,in the last one month or so,the city has witnessed a surge in the number of storytelling workshops and sessions,in Hindi,Marathi and English. The audience at these sessions isn’t limited to the younger generation; the interesting tales have drawn even curious elders into their fold.

These storytelling sessions have a deep impact on the audience. It provides an analytical insight into the characters, says Swanand Barve,president of Sabdamegh,a city-based theatre group that recently organised a storytelling session on Totochan,a Japanese story of two girls who are a part of an experimental system of education. Barve believes in getting the audiences involved in the story and making the sessions vivid and vibrant so that they experience the story instead of just listening to it.

The recent Katha Yatra fest saw little ones enjoying storytelling sessions combined with puppet shows. With wide eyes and smiling lips,they sat in rapt attention. This fest was organised by storytelling enthusiasts of Bhasha,an organisation dedicated to spreading awareness about regional languages,at Balgandharva Rang Mandir. Mrunal Kulkarni and Sandeep Kulkarni selected excerpts from their favourite Marathi folktales and read them out to the children on the first day (November 25) of the festival. I read a story titled Bade Bhaisahaab by Munshi Premchand. It is a beautiful story about the hostel life of two brothers, says Sandeep Kulkarni. “Such initiatives should be undertaken more regularly so as to divert the attention of the younger generation to literature. Reading or listening to a story fuels one’s imagination – the thought processes of the writers,readers and listeners merge together,” he adds. The three-day fest also had workshops by Geeta Ramanujan,executive director of Kathalaya.

With families becoming smaller by the day,the children of today are missing out on grandmothers’ tales, points out Swati Raje,president of Bhasha. Children prefer to spend time on social networking sites or digital games. The habit of reading stories should be revived. We as adults should come up with ways of making stories interesting enough to hold the attention of children, she adds. While some tales have stood the test of time and are narrated as they are,others are modified and modernised to suit the present generation audiences at these workshops. At the recent storytelling sessions,the children even drew images of characters,while others enacted the stories.

For some people,these sessions are a way of revisiting old memories. Divya Sewani,a second year sociology student at St Miras,attended the Katha Yatra storytelling workshop. We know of mythological and historical events because of the stories told to us by our elders. My mother used to narrate stories from the life of Krishna,which instilled moral values in us, she says with a smile.

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