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The Story Hour -Issue 4

-My story, Your story, Our story

From the editor's desk...

Reflections

I have always cherished my privacy and solitude even as a child. I remember how I would just quietly slip away from a crowd and watch buses, people, the rain or insects flying around.

And today I wonder....How I have become a storyteller? Perhaps it was my ancestors wish or a great grandfather’s dream to tell stories and they are realising their dreams through me?

I have always cherished my privacy and solitude even as a child. I remember how I would just quietly slip away from a crowd and watch buses, people, the rain or insects flying around.

And today I wonder....How I have become a storyteller? Perhaps it was my ancestors wish or a great grandfather’s dream to tell stories and they are realising their dreams through me?

I have begun to believe a lot in fate, destiny and the blessings of the elders in the family which is like this invisible light protecting , cautioning and letting you be at the right time in a particular space. That’s how my storytelling journey has been. One could call it coincidence, luck or hard work. The fact remains ....

It is important to know what Storytelling is all about. Today the headlines in the newspapers scream – I am a storyteller first ..then a movie maker or I love storytelling .... An author a cook an architect all who call themselves storytellers.

Words and words that make masks for our professions. .

Once upon a place ....Kathalaya was established as a place for Stories and Storytellers to meet , exchange , brainstorm and above all to feel stories ....To talk and feel confident to narrate. What began as something simple soon grew into a beautiful Storytree and then I began to look for a place to plant Story trees establish Storyland or just build an archive –A story Mueum anything related to Storytelling. .....

If there were dreams to sell what would you buy? I knew the answers.

2010 was a year of Introspection and taking stock –both for Kathalaya and my life.. .

To set things in order and to review things done. For the first time we created Story space, and there were many other firsts – The First Indian storyteller to be invited and felicitated at Lanarkshire in Edinburg and the first Indian storyteller to perform at the Brazil festival and the first Indian coordinator of the International storytellers Network.

Questions and doubts kept throbbing me from within.

Where did the storries come from or why do some of the best remembered stories shared in informal spaces over lunch or dinner? Why did I share so many philosophical stories only in Sweden,Edinburgh or Brazil?

Perhaps Indians are losing the art of listening or the warmth of yonder years?

Why do they ask meaningful questions andwhy dont we respect each other professionally and personally anymore? At Douglas in Scotland about 24 people gifted me with stories on my birthday . They had come from far away places to be with me and it was one omy most memorable birthdays of the recent years.

Fondly

Geeta Ramanujam

 

StoryWood

The first storytelling festival was organised in Gothenberg and it was based on stories from Panchatantra. Vow! And to perform in spaces like the Isle of Bute, Harbour arts centre adn the Scottish Storytelling Centre was fantastic.

Nuremberg gave me an opportunity to peep into the real life stories of Hitler, and to witness first hand the documentaries related to the Nuremberg trials.

While passing by the woods on a snowy evening I reflected on Rainer Maria Rilke in his letter to a young poet and have been with it for a while now...

Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart

And try to love the questions themselves.

Do not now seek the answers ,which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything.

Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually,without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers.

The Storytellers Trail

On the other side of life . .

Visit the Kathalaya photo gallery for more images.

The story of Prahlada chartiram- Narasimha avatar I was requested to perform this ancient myth from India at the Scotiish Storytelling Centre. The audience steamed in.The Amphi theatre was silent and full. I had thought of an introduction to the Dashavatars drawing a parallel to Charles Darwins theory of Evolution to help an English speaking Scottish audience audience understand the concepts of our myths better.

So, it got along well and finally the performance. The audience cheered and applauded for a while. They left and I still wondered ...were they polite or was it true that they actually liked the story?

The next day was an interesting event –Meet the Storyteller- and professionals, artists teachers tellers from varied walks of life and far away places made it a point to attend this event. It is meeting the storyteller in an informal space . Just before this a Shaman Storyteller, photographer and painter Ken Shapely requested to see me for fifteen minutes. He carried a huge printed pbook of his photographs and put it on the table. He then opened out to a page and a photograph which he had name The waterfall. “Yesterday, when you narrated the story my hair stood on end..because I had photographed something similar about a couple of years ago when I had climebed a hill in Scotland and found this etched against a rock. Do you think your Narasimha looks like this? "

I was taken aback to find exactily the description of Narasimha in the photograph. I found no words and requested him to scan and send me the photograph. Well,,,that also reaffirmed my faith in the mystical world of yonder and that everything is already written.

Geeta Ramanujam

Story of the Month

Story Talk

From the Yoga Vashishta : Sage Vashishta To Lord Rama
Illusion of the Mind….

A young boy asked his nanny to tell him a story and the nanny told him the following story to which the boy listened with great attention.

Once upon a time in a city which does not exist, there were three princes who were brave and happy. Of them two were unborn and the third had not been conceived. Unfortunately all their relatives died. The princes left there native city to go else where. Very soon, unable to bear the heat of the sun, they fell in to a swoon. Their feet were burnt by hot sand. The tips of the grass pierce them. They reached the shades of three trees of which two did not exist and the third had not been planted. After resting for some time and eating the fruits of those trees, they proceeded further.

”Sir, came the reply I am not pregnant and I am in no hurry to deliver but the nurse and midwife who has to rush to help fish to deliver the babies.”

They reached the banks of three rivers; of which two were dry and in the third there was no water. The princes had bath and quenched their thirst in them. Then they reached a huge city which was about to be built. Entering it, they found three places of exceeding beauty. Of them two had not been built at all and the third had no walls. They entered the palaces and found three golden plates; two of them had been broken and the third had been pulverized. They took hold of the one which had been pulverized . They took ninety nine minus one hundred grams of rice and cooked. Then they invited three holy men to be there guests; of them two had no body and the third had no mouth. After these three holy men had eaten there food, the three princes partook of the rest of the food cooked. They were greatly pleased. Thus they lived in that city for a long, long time in peace and joy.

My child this is an extremely beautiful legend:.remember this always, and will grow up into a learned man.

O Rama, when the little boy heard this he was thrilled.

What is known as the creation of the world is no more real than this story of the young boy. This world is nothing but pure hallucination. It is nothing more than an idea. In the infinite consciousness the idea of creation arose; and that is what is.

1. The summer camps this time have been meaningful. Kathalaya was requested to do the summer camps for all their Neev Child Development Centres at Whitefiled, Sadashivnagar and Kioramangala. It was a three week camp and Kathalaya's professionally trained resource people Struck an excellent chord with the children. Bhuvana, Swetha Gupta, Spatica. R, Anshul Pathak,Malini. M, and Neha Toshniwal were the resource team. It was packed with stories, activities, Music puppetry games and Role play. ( Document being sent by Manjula)
2. The summer art program at NGMA-National Gallery of Modern Art combined Storytelling with the Art and paintings and Stories were told relating the Art to the story and vice versa. Geeta Ramanujam and Arathi Parigi were the team .It was a week long camp
3. For the first time Kathalaya did a workshop on Storytelling at Rangashankara- a week long camp . The children were excited and happy to listen to stories, do activities recall the tales and to do some role play and games. Anshul Pathak, Geeta Ramanujam, Swetha Gupta and Chanakya Vyas were part of the Resource team.
4. A Story Reading workshop was tried out again for the first time at EAsy Library Koramangala. Authors were talked about and excerpts from the books were read out to the children. Some of the authors chosen were RK Narayan,Ruskin Bond, Jaon Aiken, Enid Blyton, E.B White and a few others. The Resource persons were Geeta Ramanujam, Bhuvana, Shumal, Meera Venkatesan, Deepica Arwind .
5. My Lib - Inauguration of the Storytelling session by Geeta Ramanujam for the children.
6. A camp at Mintree consultants for the company"s children is in the offing in May along with a workshop for Shobha Opel apartments children. Intensive training program saw some brilliant and sincere performances by the staff while the workshop for the Treamus school staff was also encouraging.
7. Whoever wishes to donate help contribute or sponsor the festival would be most welcome. It is being held in five cities in four states and attaching the concept note and the sponsorship details.

   Whoever wishes to donate help contribute or sponsor the festival would be most welcome. It is being held in five cities in four states and attaching the concept note and the sponsorship details. kathalaya@gmail.com.

The House of stories

Kathalaya is a very vibrant house. Here we believe in constant interaction and learning sessions. If you have anything interesting that you would like to see scheduled here, please write to us at kathalaya@gmail.com Please visit our web site at www.Kathalaya.org to know more about us.
Phone numbers:
91-80-26689856, 9845207073, 9986244808  

Kathalaya thanks

• International storytelling Network-RIC
• Donald Smith and the Scottiish Storytelling Centre
• Colin Marion and the Lanarkshire storytelling Guild
• Eileen and the Isle of Bute centre and library
• Benita Prieto and the Brazil and Ouro Preto festival coordinators
• Martin Eldort, Richard Martin,-Nuremberg and Judith Helga and Munich
• Goldmund Storytellers guild
• Vastra Gotland region-Ministry of culture and Ylva Gustaffson
• Storywood festival coordinators- Gothenberg and Ljungby-Michael & Ola Henrisscon.
• University of Gothenberg-Silwa Claesson .
• Media all over the world
• Children, management of schools and NGOS from around India and the World.
• UNESCO
• Radhakrishna Pendyala for updating the website anytime
• Lata Satagopan, Mayuri Prameshwaran, Varalaxmi (counselor&trainer),
• Nagalaskhmi, Usha Kolluru, Bhuvana Lakshminarayana, Ranjani, Jaishree,Arthi Paragi, Ambica Chandrashekar, Anushree , Rupa and all Resource people of Kathalaya and the APS, Auden schools who have really supported us.
• All the great wonderful friends abraod who have supported Kathalaya at a very lean period and phase ever in the last twelve years.

Please let us know your feedback at kathalaya@gmail.com