The story behind the teller

What exactly got you into storytelling?
For me, storytelling was like a culmination of my experiences in theatre and working with children and animals. Our folktales and most other stories had animals as protagonists to portray various emotions and themes. Also, it’s one of the oldest forms of communication that has been used to transfer knowledge down generations using various platforms. After all, cinema and theatre are forms of storytelling, aren’t they, just on a much larger scale. The art (of storytelling) never fails us.

Do you think storytelling needs to be more popularised?
Storytelling can never die. It will only be adapted to newer forms and methods. And of course it is a wonderful tool of communication and can actually be practised by everyone in all spheres of their work.

Do you have a particular process that you like to follow? 
I follow an interactive process, where the children take part in the process of forming the stories along with me. The responses have been positive till now.

Folk is the genre of the masses, do you generally change your tactics of stories for different age groups or do you have a certain method of storytelling?
Every storyteller has a certain style and it is very unique to them. I do change the format but it depends on the number of people in the audience and their ages. Every time I narrate a folktale, I change the characters based on the audience’s response so that they take back a story special only to them. The theme and story remain intact but the animals will change. For example, the fox and the sour grapes might have a giraffe in one of the sessions.

Be at Atta Galatta, 134, KHB colony, 5th Block, Koramangala, 4pm onwards, on October 5.