Friday, March 20, 2020

Once upon a time....

  • Today on World Storytelling day, I had to share about my journey as a storyteller. Here goes the column published first in financial express.



 Oral Storytelling is one of the oldest and most loved cultural tradition. A tradition that has been passed on from one generation to another. This oral art continues to be relevant, even today in our media-saturated society.

I believe we are all storytellers and are made up of stories. We have grown listening to them. The stories can be folklore, mythology, fiction or stories of family and friends. These stories besides enriching us are the threads that weave our life and we inherit and leave these as a treasured legacy. We may not remember all the stories but we sure remember how we heard the stories from our family and friends.

My earliest memory that I recall of listening to a story is from my  Grandmom’s elder sister who would lie beside me and tell stories of mythology, tales of common man, folk tales, etc. She would gesticulate with her wrinkly hands and modulate her voice as the story changed the settings from a forest to a Kingdom to a faraway land. The story I was told to was a ‘Kozhakattai’ (modak) story in my mother tongue, Tamil. At that age, though storytelling was a bait to retire to bed, today when I look back, I am able to appreciate that art of storytelling in its purest form, oral tradition.

My grandparents, parents, and extended family were all my family storytellers. My parents would make up stories during my bedtime, which when narrated made me feel secure and comfortable. Stories involving the members of our family, our ancestors or some living memory, some amusing incident or something about how the ancestors owned an entire village, their contributions were retold in simple unpolished ways. Many family stories like the ‘Dhanushkodi story’, a town on the east coast of India, which marooned when a killer cyclone with a high tidal wave blew away all structures and almost wiped the whole town. A few survived to tell the tale and one of the surviving family was my mom’s uncle. Another favourite - The ‘Burma story’ was about how my maternal grandfather walked from Burma to India through the forests with 3 bottles of Kim (a malted beverage) in his backpack during the war. The other story from my paternal side was how the famous Saint Ramana Maharishi was saved from the thieves by my great grandfather, then Deputy Superintendent of Police. This story although told to me by my grandfather, it gave me greater joy to hear this from the then ashram president, Sri Ramanananda (grand nephew of the saint). These family stories are like the blueprint for our family identities. I have inherited so many such powerful family stories as a valuable legacy.

In early school days, we had an exclusive oral storytelling period. In English, we listened to fairy tales like Thumbelina, folk and mythological tales and; during Kannada class we heard stories of powerful women like  Onakke Obavva, Rani Abbakka of Ullal, the poignant Punyakoti’s story. At the homefront, besides family stories, I was dragged to the traditional storytelling sessions in temples like pravachans, Harikathas and kathakalakshepam (stories and lectures on mythology) by Paati. Our Sanskrit pandit would narrate stories from Malavikagnimitra, Abhignana Shakunthala, Kumarasambhavam, etc. So many oral story listening and hearing opportunities when mass and satellite communication was not popular.

My storytellers must have had a profound influence on me that even today wherever I see the word “Storytelling” in print or in e-media my eyes stop there and throw me back in time. The morals or values did not sink into my little brain then, it was more entertainment, but I guess, I was besotted with the art of storytelling like gesticulations, the emotions, body language, expressions, the bonding, etc.

I was educated for a career in electronics but these storytellers somewhere must have left such a deep influence in me that many years later my passion for stories lured me to take up a profession of a storyteller. When an opportunity came my way, I grabbed it. I practiced voice diction, modulation, body language and with experience, I built my repertoire and slowly found what stories made an impact on young, evolving minds. Gradually I developed into a life-skill facilitator (visiting faculty) which involved teaching life skills through interactive stories, conducting theatre workshops for children. My students taught me more than what I learned in my student life.

I found the choice of the stories was important, while I chose simple interactive stories with repetitive lines for lower classes. Little children loved hearing the same story and would even mindlessly repeat the catchy words as they skipped and hopped out of the class.  Middle school children were more interested in fun stories and stories of wisdom but honestly as a storyteller, I let the magic of the story unfold, I never put forth the moral or made it sound preachy, the moral was always brought out by the children and not all stories had to teach or have a moral. They were inquisitive and were open to thinking out of the box. Teenagers in higher classes were interested in historical stories and real-life stories. They were able to empathize and understand the stories better.

The stories I told them not just entertained, enchanted and delighted them but the ideas molded the young minds. The children would embellish the sessions with their own experiences, thoughts, and ideas. The storytelling sessions in fact, turned into story listening sessions for me since the communication became two way. I believe stories have that power. Apart from teaching and enriching with tangibles like vocabulary, expression, modulation; they teach values like empathy, perseverance, to inspire, to dream, and to imagine possible worlds. We cannot evaluate them in grades but they add value to their living to raise them as empathetic and compassionate humans.

It is often said that that today’s children rely more on visual mediums and refuse to sit and listen. From my experience, I have seen children and even elders to whom stories are told, sit and learn to listen. An invaluable skill that will see them through school, college, work, and  life. Storytelling is all about communicating, listening, interacting which are important ingredients of a healthy family or community. Besides family and educational institution, today storytelling is also part of organisations, corporates, associations. They improve social inclusion, people management, team building, leadership skills. Oral storytelling is a fascinating art to bring people together.  I believe it enriches family life, fosters communities and fraternity.

Here is the link.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

My love for strung words

The below column was first published in the Financial Express dated March 5, 2020 for World Book Day. Link at the end.

My mother's library book lying above the newspapers pile is due for exchange. In fact, it has been due for the past three weeks.

It is close to three weeks since dear appa passed away peacefully. The ever active selfless, generous, helpful, people's person, charmer (the adjectives awarded to appa by his relatives, friends & neighbours), Appa, would go all around the town to buy groceries, pay bills not only for his family but also for his neighbours. He would zip off on his Scooty Zest to the library 2 kms away to exchange the book, & come back home in the noon with bags of groceries. He would lay the grocery bag on the dining table, while Amma would be ready with a hot cup of tea for him. While it was Amma, a voracious reader who inspired me to read, it was dear Appa who introduced and encouraged me to the world of books.


I still remember the day I picked up my first comic book at the IBH exhibition in glass house at Lalbagh in Bangalore. I was around 6 years at that time. My appa, amma and I walked to Lalbagh which was a few metres from home. Appa got me my first Amar Chitra Katha - ‘Lord Ganesha’ and it costed just Rs. 2 back then.
From then on, whenever I passed by the book store near my house or the Higginbothams store at Railway stations while travelling, I would buy them and add it to my personal collection of ACKs. Even the gift money that I would get from family elders would be spent on buying books. I believe, ACKs are windows to our culture and our Indian kids must be brought up on this pictorial and word diet.

 My fond love for  ACK, was followed by Champak, Gokulam and Tinkle. One of my favourite places to read the book, was under the shade of the gooseberry tree in my house in Bangalore. It was in the corner of the compound and under that was a granite stone. I had formed my own book club in which I was the lone and founding member. I would take a fallen gooseberry and write ‘TINKLE BOOK CLUB’ (TBC), the acidic berry would leave its mark on the textured compound wall. I would then sit under the tree, open my book, stamp them as TBC with ink and continue with my reading. Besides the shade of gooseberry tree, I would  sometimes also sit on the door step, by the bed room window, under the dim lights of the kitchen dining table or under the covers of my blanket with a torch light.


After comics, Enid Blytons and classics followed. My mind wanders to those times when Appa took me on his Enfield bullet or Crusader bike to book stores to buy new books or from road side book sellers.
Oh, the joy of discovering Pickwick papers, Pride & Prejudice, Little Women! I recall reading passages aloud, relishing the sentence construction, new words, experiencing and traveling to new worlds that I had never seen.

Further to encourage my reading habit, Appa enrolled me in the City Central Library in Bangalore. I vividly remember the hard bound, well- worn books neatly stacked on the metal shelfs creating an enchanting space that draws you. I would pick the book and wait excitedly to get to the end of the book to unravel  the journey of the protagonist or mysterious plots.

All these books I read, introduced me to fancy words like blitzkrieg, stentorian, fusillade, treacle tart, marmalade, promenade. I would attempt to decipher their meaning in that context and very often I would make up those meanings myself. Many a times, I have also underlined those complex words to hunt for their meaning in the dictionary later on, which helped me expand my word bank. And yes, these additions to my vocabulary made me feel like a slightly smart child in school.

I realise a lot of my growing up years have featured books and it is all because of my parents. I have always been a voracious reader, devouring books.

Studying away from my home state, my mother language was not part of the school curriculum. Appa would buy me the Tamil newspaper 'Dina Thanthi' so that I could learn the language. So grateful for that, today I can speak, read & write Tamil fluently. My knowledge of current affairs and other general affairs were periodically updated, a lot of which I owe to my Appa who got me news papers and general knowledge books regularly.

Of late, my genre has narrowed. What absorbs me these days are the historical or surreal spiritual books. These books are not light racy reads. There are times when I pause, read, re-read to understand. They make me re-think my existence, helps me to stay grounded & contemplate.
Reading isn’t like before now, my reading is shifted to the screens. Yes, Kindle has replaced the physical books. Right now, ‘The Ivory Throne’ by Manu Nair is flickering on my screen, while the book ‘Thus spake the Divine' is beside me.

On this World book day, can't thank enough my appa and amma who encouraged me to fall in love with strung words.

The  link to the paper is here.

My dear appa!

Dear Appa!

I wanted to store my column written  for  world book day on my blog....suddenly I remembered how I write less about my love for loved ones. All the letters & words in English language are not enough to express my love for loved ones illaya pa? I am so protective about you all, that you & Amma often tell me my love chokes you all. So you know I have never made posts for father's day or mother's day or whatever day. But I have shared a few anecdotes & you have also read my blog posts. I scrolled back to read the post I wrote about all you men folk of our family.  I remember I got a Bottle green T- shirt  with ' 'soldier for women' written over it. It was one less size tight T-shirt & yet you proudly wore it telling everyone about the blog post.


Appa, you know words fail me, but I have so many anecdotes to share. I can't write about you in the past tense dear Appa, I am tearing up. 

One  of  my biggest fear of my life is losing you appa. You know what a sensitive person I am & I would be shattered to pieces if ever I lost you. But,you prepared me for the eventuality yet you were stronger & active till the last hour.

Appa, I will not  frame you in a photograph as our relatives & friends suggest.  I will not garland you appa, you will live with me in spirit.
You were a lovely role model who was always flexible , & adapted to changes easily so much so that you were comfortable with people across all ages , one can find you playing cricket with kids on the street as well as talking to old people & comforting them in their homes or with young men & women. You shared such a beautiful rapport with your grand children, teasing, playing , guiding them and you would wish them teacher's day as they taught you to handle mobiles & gadgets. You would Pride in your children's & grandchildren's talent so much so that my kids would tease me. I chuckle whenever I think of 'Edward Iyer'.



While tears welled up, Did you notice appa, I stood a proud girl beside you ,when people paid glowing tributes to you as selfless, generous, people's person, friendly, adaptable,helping tendency 'jaasti' but all people shared one common thing that you would never let go of whoever visits home without giving them to eat or drink, and you would make them yourself many a time .. & much much more with anecdotes.  Many people tell how they  were inspired by  you to take up a career in Sales , Marketing & people management because of you. Many talk of how you got them their career breaks.  generally people say glowing things after people pass away, I was surprised when all friends, neighbors took leave from work, pitched in to help and ensured smooth  functioning of rituals, till yesterday's 13th day.

Appa, I am so glad you helped me & your younger one to conduct the rituals comfortably. I will not miss you,we are from the same gene pool & we miss only those  whom we  lose. you will bewithme in spirit , while you are happy on the other side of rainbow with your parents & elders and I sure will look for you amongst the stars till we meet again.

Your words to me when I argue with you while you dole out things was 'Dharmam thalai kaakum' & ' oorar veetu kozhandail valartha than kuzhandai thaana valarum'. ( Something like you rise while you lift others)

Everyone says I already have inherited your values like punctuality, being organised, munkovam (anger) , will try to be like you appa in helping , feeding others, donating  & in generosity.  you will guide me dear appa


Always your
Kutty