The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Recapturing grandmas telling grand stories

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Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Recapturing grandmas telling grand stories

S.Aishwarya

Summer camps have workshops on story-telling sessions to engage kids during vacations

— Photo: M.Karunakaran

Amusing: Storytelling improves reading and listening skills of the kids. A story telling session in progress.

CHENNAI: For Anisha, this vacation has gifted her something that she would cherish all her life. Every year, when her grandmother moves out to Bangalore to spend the summer, Anisha would have to wait for her to tell her bedtime stories. But this time around, she would herself have loads of stories to narrate.

Attending a week-long summer camp in the neighbourhood has loaded her with a good amount of stories. “The best part was I was told a lot of funny stories. And I am hearing them all for the first time,” said the Standard VI student from K.K. Nagar.

Shuffled along with dance, music and craft classes are the story-telling sessions in many summer camps this year. Some of them even have workshops on story-telling sessions for the parents to engage the kids during vacations.

“Story-telling initiates the kids into reading and develops their listening skills and vocabulary,” says Vinita Sashi, director of the Spring into Reading, an activity centre for children.

Chennai is becoming a big centre for story-telling and internationally, the city has gained popularity for the amount of training given here, says World Storytelling Institute director Eric Miller. The institute has planned to take story-tellers on a trip to different parts of the State to encourage them to narrate stories on the history of Tamil Nadu.

“As an anthropologist, I would say the traditional ways of story-telling like ‘villu pattu’ are the effective ways to reach the listeners. Lessons could be taught by stringing the details like a story. It makes learning fun for the kids.” Parents, he insists, need coaching on narrating stories to their children and encouraging them to weave stories from random instances. Kids learning to narrate stories gain confidence and become effective communicators.

A good story-teller will act as the character, Mr. Miller says.

“One should not describe the story. Narrator should get into the story and act with that. Listeners will soon become the characters and story comes to life.”

Jeeva Raghunath, a popular storyteller, urges parents and story-tellers to be “cheerful and well read.” In times when even grandparents are busy, the art of storytelling is no more as common as it was a decade ago. “I had very few people in the audience when I began this as a profession a decade back. But now, there are plenty of sessions that are happening, which is a good sign,” she says.

Mythological stories like Ramayana inculcate healthy values in children, says V.R. Devika, managing trustee of Aseema Trust, which conducts story-telling sessions for kids. “Telling stories is something we all do. Formal ways of storytelling like ‘harikatha’ and streetplays have always been part of our culture.”

Creativity apart, story-telling improves the thinking ability of children, says neurologist Prithika Chary, who also trains narrators. “During awareness medical camps, I tell stories of my patients. It triggers curiosity and makes them understand the healthcare concepts better.”

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