CHENNAI: “Shhh...the deer, the elephants, the wolves, one after another started going into hiding. Soon, the hooting of the chimpanzee beating its chest filled the air.” My father’s loud and expressive voice echoes in my head, memories from bedtime storytelling sessions we had when I was a kid. The stories were pretty much the same, only they came with different characters and a whole range of sound effects every time. I grew up listening to his renditions of stories from Amar Chitra Katha, Akbar and Birbal tales, Tenali Raman jokes and traditional folklore.
Now, storytelling is no longer confined to a parent or bedtime. It’s impressive how what once used to be an intimate one-to-one affair within closed doors has shaped into a collective experience shared among professional storytellers and their niche audience — all for the cause of keeping the tradition alive.
The pandemic may have cast a shadow over the summer but the storytellers seem to have embraced the silver lining and risen to the occasion. Book reading sessions, live storytelling performances, workshops, lecture demonstrations and online literary festivals — they have pushed past boundaries and limitations to reinvent themselves on digital platforms. The storytellers have been everywhere, spinning tales of grit, hope, and endurance to uplift the spirit of their faithful folk.
Power of storytelling
For someone like Lavanya Srinivas, this time has offered the much-needed opportunity to explore multiple facets of storytelling. Lavanya started the Story Quilt Project to reach out to storytellers across the globe for cultural exchange. On the academic front, she has been taking an elective on storytelling and narrative for students of NIFT through online classes. She has also taken up a project on retelling Panchatantra tales to upgrade her skills and kindle emotional and intellectual interaction with the audience. One of her most memorable projects is for ISKCON temple, where she recorded stories for children’s annual summer camp activities.
“Stories make you feel that you are not alone in this battle against the pandemic and everyone is facing a similar situation. This is also the right time to re-skill and upskill ourselves with various aspects of storytelling. On the other end, this lockdown has helped people look at storytellers in a different light. This art form was always considered child’s play; not many would want to pay for the shows. But with what’s happening on social media, I’m confident that the trend would change for good,” she offers.
Positive narratives
The soft-skill trainer and coach has made her storytelling course available as an e-learning course for people who want to learn the art. Earlier she used to take personal classes to mentor people now she’s happy to reach a larger audience through online platforms. Her one-day storytelling workshop for an NGO called Asha for Education culminated in a two-month-long training programme for 75 teachers from government schools.
The storyteller believes in equal opportunities for all forms of storytelling and storytellers. She tells us why summer is the most important time for traditional performers from rural areas. “I run an organisation called Kathakshetra that offers stand-alone workshops and storytelling clubs to encourage performances. Storytellers should be recognised as artists, given a platform to showcase their talent, and storytelling must be seen as a profession for a sustainable livelihood. I’ve been helping leather puppet artists of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to support their families. This is when they make money through summer camps and workshops. We are privileged to use the Internet to our advantage but they are not,” explains Lavanya, who has been delivering regional storytelling performances in Tamil and Telugu.
A sense of solace
Seasoned performers have been doling out fresh content every day and taking storytelling to a newer pedestal. Authors of children’s books, especially, have gone the extra mile to keep the little ones engaged. Author and storyteller Sudha Umashanker launched a series called Read Aloud as part of her storytelling brand Storycorner at Bookmine’s fifth-anniversary celebration. She reads out popular and well-loved stories that are made available in video format — with minimal elements on the screen — on the YouTube page under her name.
“The idea is to revive the forgotten stories that carry messages about honouring a promise, teamwork, or how to appreciate life on the other side. You can either read it to yourself, have it read to you, or watch a storytelling performance. People are already suffering from Internet fatigue. This simple offering that’s not too demanding of the viewer will be a good thing to do. As of now, we have 10 stories; we will add more. We will be uploading one or two a week,” says Sudha, who wants to use simple storytelling as a tool for first-generation English learners.
With plenty of content from their favourite storytellers available online, the kids have been habituated to hit their bed early after listening to stories. Parents too are heaving a sigh of relief as these virtual narrators come to their rescue for bedtime duties. Storyteller and trained clown John Pradeep ensures that he uploads a story at 9 pm every day; otherwise, he would have parents ringing him up with demands. From Asian to African folktales, he has uploaded 86 stories on his Youtube page during the lockdown.
“The tiny tots are equally stressed about not being able to meet their friends or going out to play. It’s these stories that pacify them. My stories have a conversational tone so the kids feel more connected to me. I rehearse the content while narrating it to my daughter the previous night. It takes hours for me to edit and upload the videos but the output is satisfying. Though the content is recorded, it’s real for the kids. I have children from UAE, Thailand, Luxemburg, Malaysia and other regions actively listening to my stories,” he shares.
Innovate and interact
Having performed for a close-knit audience on stage for all these years, the shift to virtual medium wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Certainly not for Arjun Narayanan of Simply Stories, a city-based storytelling group. “There are glitches and lags, we cannot discern the body language of listeners, connect with them or enjoy their feedback. But you get used to it when you see comments pouring in through chat boxes. The air is filled with negativity and we wanted to cheer people up. We’ve done a 21-day home series narrating meaningful tales from mythology, history, and classics. We also participated in storytelling events for select banks and a few organisations that wanted us to tell positive and motivating stories for their staff. I’m glad that people are realising the importance of storytelling and accepting it as a serious business. Stories can subconsciously work wonders,” he says confidently.
It’s not just the younger ones, but the elders too who look forward to storytelling sessions by their favourite authors on various social media platforms. Veterans like Janaki Sabesh have discovered a whole new audience for their performance. The storyteller started with sessions for children, in collaboration with Lil Trails, around the third week of March, when she got to know that schools had closed. She performed in Anil Srinivasan’s Janata Curfew Online Festival on March 22 and entertained the audience with her stories. Simultaneously, she started doing classes for adults.
“I premiered a show on May 9 called The Other Sita — lesser-known tales of Sita and my perception of it. It was for an intimate crowd of 20-25; the narration was followed by a discussion. Another project called Melody and Memory was an interactive session with adults. Your performance determines the age-group of your audience. You have to tweak the storytelling in a way that captures their attention,” she suggests. On Sundays, Janaki also runs a programme called Chai, Coffee and Conversations on her Instagram page, where she features celebrities from different fields.
She has done storytelling sessions for kids on Katha with Karadi, taken part in Bookaroo: Festival of Children’s Literature, Arth Festival for Zee News, been a panellist for Chennai Literary Lockdown Festival and hosted an inspirational session for Wheelchair Basketball Association of India. “How do you transfer this energy online? There will be audio problems and Internet glitches but we can’t take ourselves so seriously. After all, everything that picks up speed will also see a dip. I’ve observed an increase in bonding within families as we are all hard-pressed for time otherwise. It’s a nice balance that one gets. It’s been a huge learning process. The idea is to be innovative. Your approach to the medium changes when you know this is the only way,” says Janaki.
Sharing is caring
As much as entertainment, there’s an equal amount of learning that’s taking place. Experienced storytellers are helping the freshers hone their skills with workshops and one-on-one personalised sessions on the nuances and techniques of storytelling. Jeeva Raghunath, who has had 20 years in the industry, started her pet project called the Story Clinic, where she offers a beginner’s course and advanced course. “There are plenty of storytellers and each one has a style. However, a few are missing out on the little ingredients and need a pulse.
I do individual sessions that are tailor-made to their needs. I’m extremely happy to do this for the community. I’m enjoying the fruit of my labour and it’s time to pass the baton to the next generation,” shares Jeeva, who has done three-minute shows for children on COVID-19 awareness for Kalaingar TV. An author for Tulika publishers, she has been doing voice-overs and book-reading sessions for kids.
She has plans of collaborating with Kattaikkuttu Sangam to combine street theatre and storytelling for performance. That apart, she has her hands full with virtual conferences and literature festivals. “I miss travelling for shows and meeting people from different cultures. I also run my own company Kathai Galata where I bring international storytellers; I don’t have the funds for it now. There are many plans but only time will tell,” says the director of Federation of Asian Storytellers.
Sharing a similar approach, Bengaluru-based storyteller Vikram Sridhar has been taking master classes for adults on Panchatantra and folktales. He’s successfully training his fourth batch in just two months. On weekends, he performs for adults, families and children. Some of his topics for his storytelling performances include the life of Gandhi, Vikram Betal series, folktales of India and jokers of India.
“For children, I collaborated with storyteller Aparna Jaishankar and narrated Indian mythology for a whole month. We told four stories a day and 120 stories across the month. I have also been going live with different organisations and entities and talking about the power of storytelling during these times. Right now I’m preparing a workshop with Aparna on understanding navarasa in storytelling. These are contents that I’ve been researching for many years. You cannot become a storyteller in a day,” he shares.
Blessing in disguise
If you think there has been an overdose of online classes and lectures on Zoom, there’s been an equal number of storytelling sessions to offer some respite from mundane schedules. Publishing houses across the globe such as Tulika, Karadi Tales, Penguin, and Harper Collins — to name a few — have collaborated with their authors to put out book reading and interactive sessions almost every day on their official pages on Instagram and Facebook. However, for Karadi Tales, a 25-year-old publishing house that started out with audiobooks, the move to the online space has not been all that drastic.
Shobha Viswanath, founder of Karadi Tales, tells us that this pandemic paved the way for a new modality of communication. “Over the years, we have made our books available in online and digital book formats even before the lockdown. In the early days, our books would come with an audio cassette. The kids would flip their pages as they listened to the story. In a way, we’ve been forerunners to the concept. We have also converted our books into animated content that are airing on channels,” she says.
From Naseeruddin Shah to Nandita Das, big names from the movie industry have come on board to enlighten the audience.
“We started Katha with Karadi project on March 26 and it earned around 2,000 views. Everybody woke up to this new possibility. This space is for everyone who wants to tell stories. It’s an opportunity for us to up our game. Facing a camera with an imaginary audience makes you think a lot. It helps you bring out the vibrancy in an empty room. We also called our authors to interact. Our submissions for publishing have also gone up like crazy. Online sales have shot up drastically,” she tells us.
The pandemic-induced lockdown has allowed the company to tap its potential in numerous ways and find new ways of bridging the gap between authors and readers. They will be launching the third volume of Karadi Rhymes with Usha Uthup on July 4. Storytelling has come like a breath of fresh air amidst the pandemic. Storytellers have been rendering much-needed tales of reassurance, despite working through times that do not offer much reassurance for them. All may not be well but, at least, we have the stories.
Wielding the latest of technology and digital services at their disposal, these authors and artistes find themselves relying on the forgotten art of storytelling to offer people care, comfort, entertainment, education, a bedtime routine and a few laughs. While the going may not be easy, the learnings are aplenty.