Founding the storytelling movement in India

Interview – Geeta Ramanujam

Your experiences as the Founder of the Storytelling Movement in India and in many parts internationally too?

This is my feeling and thought that there is nothing new in what I am doing. It is like reinventing the wheel. Storytelling is as ancient as human time itself. We have always said at Kathalaya that the world is made up of stories not just atoms. Right from the time the first atom appeared, stories appeared. Human beings are social animals from the very beginning, sitting around the fire, where they shared food and along with the food stories. We must thank fire. All around the world, people have been moving in 18^th and 19^th centuries with the beginning of industrialization from small towns and villages to big cities. Historically in India, approximately from 1945 to 1990 there was nothing happening with storytelling – all due to nuclear families, the search of jobs, the moving away from traditional roots, Macaulayan education, there was no time to listen to stories! There were no grandmothers being heard as they narrated stories, no time for community gatherings. The only way children listened to a story was by reading them. Originally in India, we had listening, retelling of stories along with a discussion on them – that was the guruvul. All this got converted to reading and writing. When I was growing up, it was a mixture of tales that is a mixture of heard and read stories – my parents were from the old times from villages in Tanjore and Nagercoil – I both listened to stories and read them. There was both the oriental input and the western input. Curiosity is very important for learning, for growing up, if you didn’t wonder, if you are not curious you can’t learn. Stories became a diet and this diet was very nourishing for my soul. I became a teacher and a librarian – wherein I found that 45 minutes was all that was allotted to each class, it was all very divided. I figured out that the best way to teach concepts was through a story. I didn’t know I was starting a movement, it was like climbing a ladder quickly – teachers called, NGOs called – storytelling was tool that could be used everywhere. Teachers called to get help with concepts, NGOs on how to use stories for special education and for teaching the deaf mute. This waterbody of stories had many tributaries. And at that time, there was no competition as people did not know ‘what was storytelling?’. People didn’t challenge us much because they thought storytelling was not a ‘real business’. I wanted to give storytelling a genuine pedestal by professionalising it. I wanted it to have goodwill. It was the right time and the right thing happened – to be able to do all this without obstacles and to be able to build the whole universe of storytelling. I was one of the facilitators to make storytelling happen.

You used the symbol of the fire, could you elaborate on this key Indian metaphor?

What we call learning is rooted in our civilisation and its fondness for storytelling. Gypsies had it. So, it bards. This culture of learning through stories. If you look at the ancient Egyptian, Chinese and Indian civilisation, they were very ahead of modern western education and societies. Much of the learning was integrated with healing and therapy based. Of the therapy based traditions, India has strong storytelling roots. One of the earliest art based civilisations was the Indus valley or Harappan Civilisation. So many things we were doing ahead of its time. Our rishis were true seers and had the power of foresight. The Chinese, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, civilisations were all gifted with seers. The seers in the Indian civilisation were the rishis.  These Rishis foresaw the universal values, that is the basis of all storytelling. They also heard sounds from the cosmos, its vibratory patterns, these were converted to chants.

The elements – eternal and universal, have a way of syncing up with and helping human beings. In times of old, people wandered around and sat around trees waiting for ideas. One day, while sitting under a tree, early man heard a voice – this voice informed him that by bringing out the fire from the stone he will prosper. In those days early man used to eat raw meat. Once early man became a settler, he heard the sound from the stone and fire came out. Now he could cook his food.

There are these stories of Nachiketus in the Upanishads, who as a littleboy, who questioned whatever his father offered as sacrifice. His father, when a cow became old, would offer that as the danam. As a consequence of an altercation with his father, Nachiketus goes looking for Yama. The god of Death, Yama, is fascinated by the questions the boy has for him. Yama tells the boy the secrets of death and gives fire the name the Nachiketa Yagna. This is also known as the agni vidya. It is through the vidyas that people learn and the vidyas had stories behind them. Fire helped man settle down. Fire and flames were powerful in that they let man know that everything can’t be conquered.  Water and fire became very important. Pranayama is done for wind. That’s why in human life the elements are so important. The rishis could perceive the elements – they could see the tree in the seed.

How would you describe the potency of storytelling as a form?

The power of storytelling lies in that you sit near a person, when you listen to a story. The west has been very good with documentation. In storytelling, everything had to be told from the heart. It has to be felt and told. It comes from the heart. There had not been too much reasoning. Storytelling as a form looked like it was a very rote process and retentions helped. Because of retentions it helped in rethinking the story. Today, the same thing is converted to a digital form. When you see an animation the effect is not the same as person telling the story. In a telling, the energy of the person reaches the student.

In India the tradition we have come into is that the purpose of living was to live in service of others for the rishis. In the world this can be seen as well – In Egypt’s desert areas there were learned fakirs and Sufi ascetics, in China there was Confucious and then there was influence of the Buddha. They were role models and seers for who life had to be lived.  

On storytelling in Adivasi communities?

In the Adivasi communication they have a lot more oral traditions, lots of music and a lot of folklore. They will sing the story so beautifully. Santali tribals don’t have a written script. They still tell stories to impart knowledge to children, stories to impart knowledge to children – the stories of the first Diwali, the story of how a woman married a peacock, the story of why the lizard’s tail keep growing back. There is humour in the stories, music and songs. In Mangalore, there is a story for why two types of fish are not cooked together.

Could you talk about your experiences in setting up storytelling internationally?

I was asked to build a culture of storytelling. In Sweden, they had their culture and their teachers. They wanted to bring storytelling as a concept of learning. Before this storytelling was for performance and entertainment. They did not know that storytelling could be integrated with the classroom to set up a cultural curriculum. I helped them integrate storytelling with lifeskills and values. I trained them in the art of communication through storytelling. In Scotland, Sweden, Brazil – storytelling was all about building the bridge.