On storytelling

Storytelling is an integral part of daily life. It happens everywhere – where a group a people come together, to do something, to share something, to just be together. All families are of stories, and it is a fact universally acknowledged that all grandmothers are natural storytellers. Teacher too tell stories to pre-schools and every corporate is full of its own special stories. Newspapers are full of stories – extraordinary and sometimes horrific. Human beings are natural storytellers. It is a natural urge, like breathing perhaps. When people share stories, they make sense of their experiences while rediscovering their identity through the narratives they tell and hear. 

As Walter Benjamin says, 'The storyteller takes what he tells from experience - his own or that reported by others. And he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to his tale.'

We listen to stories to experience that special ‘moment of becoming’ when we can learn something about ourselves and the world around us. Storytelling more than any other cultural act produces and transforms our ideas of identity and belonging. 

New Year Thoughts

 

There was a big bang ! and that's how I would start my story. The story of a relationship between a Huge Mountain and a tiny bird. Our new year has begun with a big bang. News of women rape and violence. They have always existed but it is good that it came to light after all these years!. How many women suffer in so many ways - verbal abuses,  disrespect, arrogance of gender superiority, class caste rules, religious rituals and many more which the Mother earth bears and we bear as women in innumerable silent ways. Again the biggest promoter of all which makes everything seem OK -films and TV serials playing a huge and massive role in reinforcing them. Slapping beating and raping on screen showed again and again in different languages and styles through songs, item nos. et al. So, where does one begin to address these issues. At the root shoot, bark, flower or fruit levels?

 

Perhaps if we remember the story of Athena we would remember that when Poseidon got the war horse as a gift for building the first city in the world it was Athena who touched the earth or the chasm from where the horse came up and from there grew the tree Olive tree bearing the fruits of peace. She was then allowed by Zeus to build the first city on Earth based on Peace called Athens. Perhaps that is what we need today. To bridge all the chasms and to begin the Peace crusade which means a lot touching things in silence and yet being able to build cities and bridges. Storytelling could be a bridge.

 

If we can touch talk and feel the emotions and feelings of one person we have made a great difference. Its so wonderful listening, telling and sharing stories. A great healer indeed and a great need.

 

Workshop at IIM Bangalore

If seeing is believing, then reading is perhaps accepting!! While I have seen people from all walks of life get trained as storytellers in the past 15 years, it was wonderful to read the first story written by an MBA  student after I conducted a brief workshop on storytelling at IIM, Bangalore. Nothing can be more gratifying for a teacher than watching her students come out with flying colours. Maybe the lush greenery and the peaceful environment too play a role in learning, but nonetheless, the result is there for everyone to see.The story has all the ingredients to make communication a success : twists and turns in the plot, high drama, smooth flow of ideas.

The culmination of this workshop is the story given below which is not only very interesting, but also reflects the importance of communication with a little twist and turn.

Delhi incident

The whole nation is shamed and angry. The gang rape and subsequent death of a 23 year old paramedic student in a chartered bus in Delhi has once again brought out the activists and the common man onto the streets in protest. While a few politicians have tried to defend the state of affairs by blaming it on the women themselves, is it right on the part of any human being to bully another in such a derogatory manner?

What could have been going on in the minds of the five men and a minor who attacked the woman and her friend in such a brutal manner when they were so helpless? Was it just for fun; momentary pleasure, without a thought for the consequences? Was it done just to establish their control over a physically weaker species? Whatever the reasons for the crime, the culprits need to be brought to book quickly, so that there is fear of the law, there is a reason to think twice before another set of goons attack another sister, daughter, mother or friend.

Myth transplantation need not be performed by masterminding mass conversions from our culture to another, or by accepting all living alien traditions uncritically. All traditions are not equally worthy of revival; the Aztec tradition and its hunger for human sacrifice, for example, is one heritage which should most likely remain dead and buried. Let us instead open ourselves to healthy, life enhancing traditions, activities which may help us revive ourselves. - Dr Robert E. Svaboda

In a strange tale that is unique to the Oriya Mahabharata, Krishna decides to play a trick on Arjuna while he is in the forest. He approaches him in the form of a monster, the Nabagunjara, a creature that is a composite of nine animals - serpent, horse, bull, tiger, elephant, horse, peacock, rooster and man. Instead of getting frightened, Arjuna sees the lotus flower in the human  hand of the creature and recognises Krishna. - Dr Devdutt Pattanaik in Jaya, An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata.