Storytelling is not just for children like some might imagine. I spend a good part of time working with 'Adults and Storytelling' from entirely different brackets - Government officials, corporate employees, Associate Professors of universities, Research Scholars, school teachers and others. Some updates from my recent sessions. The last month found me travelling across the country spreading the magic of storytelling and learning along the way :)
Teacher training in Tirupathi, performing in Delhi meeting puppeteers. Being a judge for 'Sciensation's - Socratic Diaologue Competition during HLF Hyderabad Literary Festival. Performing the Musical Storytelling for Adults & Children - Bhakti Poets of India. Launching the book of dear friend Ramendra Kumar. Conducting a workshop for Associate Professors on 'Role of Storytelling in Teaching Soft Skills to under-graduates & post-graduates'. Speaking as the Chief Guest at St Francis College, Annual Art Celebration- 'La Fiesta' . Conducting a workshop at IIT Chennai for Post-Graduate students - 'Role of Oral Narratives and traditions'. 'Weaving Tales' collaborative Musical Storytelling for Adults & Children, with dear friend and an amazing teller Scottish storyteller Marion Kenny at the British Council, Chennai orchestrated by Eric Miller who brings storytellers together. Spoke at two presentations at National conferences with government officials at NIRD - for on 'Storytelling and its Possibilities' : for Drug Abuse Awareness and for advocacy : Sustainable development & Special Justice. Enjoyed fun story-sharing of nonsense tales with children at Kanpur. Musical Ramayana at Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts, Noida .
All these were possible thanks to many people Dr Viajy, Dr Rajesh, Prof Krishna Kumar, Shefali, Disha, Tarun, Venkat, Gayatri and Sammy !
And a very special episode has been recording an Audio Musical Story - It was in 1997 that my neighbour and dear friend Cecilia Abraham introduced me to All India Radio. "Why don't you apply for Yuvavani English Compere.The application is out. Auditions are next month" she said. She was doing a great job there and I was excited by the idea. I did apply. I remember the first time I entered the AIR studio for the audition, and many many times later for the training with our official boss the Program Executive, Mr Sumanaspati Reddy who was in every way a mentor to each one of us. I remember the adrenaline rush of going live. Still have my first cheque of Rs 600/- It was a beautiful journey over the next 5 years. Though with my Master's course I couldn't be as regular as I wished, yet the study of English literature at the Central University of Hyderabad, only fed into work at AIR and vice-versa. We had a great team, full of madness and zest for life. Stopping for small tea - breaks in between long editing and recording hours. Documentaries, drama, interviews, talk shows, music shows, tri-lingual Sunday shows. We did them all. And loved it all. Even the critical comments from Sumanspati Sir... especially the critical comments. If we heard nothing from him....it was a day to celebrate !! It meant 'You have done a good job'. A rare approval . But that's what grew us. We knew and yet didn't know how much, how deep the learning is. Whenever I am invited to the radio station for an interview talk show now, I get excited all over again.
Thankfully voice-over projects keep happening and I get to be in front of the microphone. And so working on the Afo Storytime Radio project for Malaysia was fantastic ! Thank you Sahnthini inviting me to share stories, to Panduranga for the amazing recording and Mohit Garg for valuable inputs. As good friends egged me on, I decided to upload the audio story on my SoundCloud (for those who are not familiar: think of it as an audio version of YouTube) It would truly warm my heart when you take a little time to listen to this 12 minute Musical story:
Teacher training in Tirupathi, performing in Delhi meeting puppeteers. Being a judge for 'Sciensation's - Socratic Diaologue Competition during HLF Hyderabad Literary Festival. Performing the Musical Storytelling for Adults & Children - Bhakti Poets of India. Launching the book of dear friend Ramendra Kumar. Conducting a workshop for Associate Professors on 'Role of Storytelling in Teaching Soft Skills to under-graduates & post-graduates'. Speaking as the Chief Guest at St Francis College, Annual Art Celebration- 'La Fiesta' . Conducting a workshop at IIT Chennai for Post-Graduate students - 'Role of Oral Narratives and traditions'. 'Weaving Tales' collaborative Musical Storytelling for Adults & Children, with dear friend and an amazing teller Scottish storyteller Marion Kenny at the British Council, Chennai orchestrated by Eric Miller who brings storytellers together. Spoke at two presentations at National conferences with government officials at NIRD - for on 'Storytelling and its Possibilities' : for Drug Abuse Awareness and for advocacy : Sustainable development & Special Justice. Enjoyed fun story-sharing of nonsense tales with children at Kanpur. Musical Ramayana at Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts, Noida .
All these were possible thanks to many people Dr Viajy, Dr Rajesh, Prof Krishna Kumar, Shefali, Disha, Tarun, Venkat, Gayatri and Sammy !
And a very special episode has been recording an Audio Musical Story - It was in 1997 that my neighbour and dear friend Cecilia Abraham introduced me to All India Radio. "Why don't you apply for Yuvavani English Compere.The application is out. Auditions are next month" she said. She was doing a great job there and I was excited by the idea. I did apply. I remember the first time I entered the AIR studio for the audition, and many many times later for the training with our official boss the Program Executive, Mr Sumanaspati Reddy who was in every way a mentor to each one of us. I remember the adrenaline rush of going live. Still have my first cheque of Rs 600/- It was a beautiful journey over the next 5 years. Though with my Master's course I couldn't be as regular as I wished, yet the study of English literature at the Central University of Hyderabad, only fed into work at AIR and vice-versa. We had a great team, full of madness and zest for life. Stopping for small tea - breaks in between long editing and recording hours. Documentaries, drama, interviews, talk shows, music shows, tri-lingual Sunday shows. We did them all. And loved it all. Even the critical comments from Sumanspati Sir... especially the critical comments. If we heard nothing from him....it was a day to celebrate !! It meant 'You have done a good job'. A rare approval . But that's what grew us. We knew and yet didn't know how much, how deep the learning is. Whenever I am invited to the radio station for an interview talk show now, I get excited all over again.
Thankfully voice-over projects keep happening and I get to be in front of the microphone. And so working on the Afo Storytime Radio project for Malaysia was fantastic ! Thank you Sahnthini inviting me to share stories, to Panduranga for the amazing recording and Mohit Garg for valuable inputs. As good friends egged me on, I decided to upload the audio story on my SoundCloud (for those who are not familiar: think of it as an audio version of YouTube) It would truly warm my heart when you take a little time to listen to this 12 minute Musical story:
Warm regards,
Deepa Kiran