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Spinning a yarn

Photos: (cover & above) D. Krishnan

Flair for fantasy Jeeva Raghunath

A stuffed dog, a brown bear and a green monkey. That’s all Jeeva Raghunath needs to start off on one of her hilarious stories, and take you to Wonderland. “One morning in a big farm, the dog went bow bow, the cat went meow, the ducks went quack, quack….and then…” You can’t wait to hear more!

That’s the Jeeva magic at work. Ask her doting audience that is all too happy to surrender to the charm of the spoken word. Stories sprinkled magic on her growing-up years. She was blessed with an expressive grandmother who fed the children in the joint family to the accompaniment of fantasy-rich stories, a graceful dancer-mother who continued the tradition…it seems the family was born to tell stories. “Well, my brother, my sisters, we all picked it up. But, I have more of my grandmother’s animated style.”

The storyteller in Jeeva was alive and kicking through her 20 years as a teacher — at the WCC pre-school, her own school and more. It helped that she adored kids and related to them. Passion turned into a profession courtesy classmate and friend Radhika Menon of Tulika. She joined as a marketing hand, moved to translation (17 books till date), before donning the avatar of a storyteller sometime in 1998. Fame was instant. “For 20 years, no one knew me. Suddenly, I got famous,” she laughs. She has also written a couple of books.

In between, Tulika agent Kiran Shah invited her to be part of the Asian Storytelling Festival in Singapore. She stayed on there for three-and-a-half years before moving back to Chennai. “Friends have protected and promoted me,” she says, smiling. “In this field, there is no competition. Because, no two stories are told the same way.”

She narrates stories in English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi, and dips into her repertoire of more than a thousand tales to entertain audiences in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, the U.S, the U.K, and Sweden. Where does she get her stories from? “By listening. Only about 40 per cent of my stories have been consciously collected.”

“Even a really silly story can make people laugh. And, I love to make others laugh.” Little wonder, she revels in funny stories. Has she ever tried a serious twist? “I did, but it was not my cup of tea. The audience was so quiet. I like some reaction.” That is why she narrates kids’ stories even to grown-ups.

That connection with children explains the success of Krishna Iyer’s popular Sing Along programme of which Jeeva (Jeeva Bear to regulars) is a vital part.

After spinning so many tales, what keeps her going? “Well, you can get even 1,400 kids to listen in rapt attention. It is an intimate setting irrespective of the number of people. Storytelling helps you stay young, and keep your energy level up. Of course, it did not help me lose weight,” she laughs.

Her bonding with children is legendary. She starts interacting with them way before a show and includes those interactions in the story. The children return beaming.

Why is storytelling important in this day and time? “Simple. When people speak, the stories start flowing in.

There is so much joy in sharing tales. If only people spoke, there will be no missing links,” she says.

The Unforgettables

At a session with 40 children, she noticed that one child was passive. “All along I wondered why I could not get across to the kid. At the end of the show, she held my little finger, and whispered: ‘I love you aunty, I love your stories aunty.’ No one understood why I burst out crying.”

Singapore President S. R. Nathan, whose wife is a huge support system for Jeeva, once requested her to pose for a photograph. His explanation: “You can become a President. I can never become a storyteller.”

Look forward to

Jeeva is the India contact for the 15-country Story Olympiad to be held in 2012. She will conduct competitions across the country and choose the best talent. They will be later judged by a panel from the U.K.

Plans are afoot to start an arts house for kids at Virugambakkam. This will have a theatre, cafeteria, a centre to train adults for children, and a farm land to let children taste rural life.

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