Once upon a story-time

You are a grown up and much too old to enjoy story-time, but the job demands you sit cross-legged on the floor, fighting a cramp and watch a Spanish lady prance around you and narrate the story of a whimsical prince. You are not too old anymore and wish you could have someone at your bedside every night and rock you to sleep as they begin, “Once upon a time…”

Brought in from Spain by Kathalaya Trust, an organisation that specialises and teaches the art of story telling, story tellers Beatriz and Enrique were performing an exclusive at Easylib (www.easylib.com), as a part of the library's literary initiative. The two are members of the International Storytelling Network and on their first visit to India.

The two have authored several books and while Beatriz is a flamenco dancer, Enrique also works as a professor of creative writing. “The foundation of story-telling is the same as creative writing, you need to believe in your story when you write it, similar belief is needed when you tell a story,” says Enrique who then paraphrases Oscar Wilde, “To write a good story you first need to have a good story. You need to know not just how to write but how to write a story and lastly you need to have a desire to write it. You must want to write it.”

Full report here Hindu

Oral odyssey

Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty strikes up a conversation with H. Masud Taj, an oral poet, a rare breed in a scenario where anything literary means the printed word

Ottawa-based H. Masud Taj is certainly an experience if you can catch him reciting his poems, one couplet tailing the other, like dominoes falling to high winds. The words spoken have the power to drape you in implicit joy and you are easily immersed in his mood, wide-eyed. You hate to impede him, knit in a query only to ensure that he continues. As he recites the lines, his soft, silken voice rides a knoll at times, reacting to the string of words mouthed. And the effect is simply marvellous.

At a New Delhi hotel, striking up a conversation with this oral poet, you throw the obvious question at him at the first opportunity — so who is an oral poet? What makes him different from a regular poet? “An oral poet is one who recites his verses and may not publish them. They believe that a poem primarily belongs to the sound and sense,” he replies. Living in an age when anything literary means the printed word, you have long forgotten that the first works of literature were oral. “Beowulf”, “Odyssey”…all were first recited before alphabets took over.

Reviving the lost art of Storytelling with “Dastangoi”

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) presents Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain’s “Dastangoi” at Chowdiah Memorial hall on Saturday, 25th September at 7:30pm.

Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain’s Dastangoi—a sixteenth century performed art of storytelling is supported by India Foundation for the Arts under the Extending Arts Practice programme.

"Dastangoi" is the compounding of two Persian or Farsi words words,  Dastan and goi which means to tell a Dasta. This refers to the art of storytelling. Dastans were epics, and like in most old cultures, these epics were always passed on and communicated orally. In the old days, when there was a limited entertainment, who communities used to come together and listen to stories told by skilled story tellers. These were either recited or then read aloud and in essence spoke of medieval romances, war and heroes.

Full report here MyBangalore

Children’s stories on Reliance voice portal

Enter the world of imagination with Reliance Communications’ latest offering of Children’s stories on its voice portal. Making another fantastic addition to its bouquet of VAS service, India’s largest and only nationwide operator offering both GSM and CDMA mobile services, today announced the launch of its story portal on voice. The portal offers tales that retell some of the most popular stories, on Reliance Communications.

Through the Voice Portal, customers can listen to folk stories of the brilliant and witty court-poet of the Vijayanagara Empire – Tenali Raman, the famous Indian animal fables in Panchatantra Ki Kahaniyan, Vikram aur Betal – the spellbinding stories narrated by the wise King Vikramaditya, the epic story of Ramayan, Shri Krishna Bal Leela – narrating the childhood adventures of the charismatic Lord Krishna, Mahabharat and Tale Toon. Subscribers can also choose to set these tales as their caller tunes.

Full report here

Tales of storytellers

Sound of energetic Wah Wahs resonated in the main theatre of Film and Television Institute of India. The stage was set, perfectly suiting the era of the Dastangoi- the ancient art of storytelling. The 50 year golden jubilee celebration at FTII was the apt occasion to celebrate this ideal blend of poetry and drama.

Marked by dramatic, loud hand gestures and set on varied pitches, this performance by Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain was a visual delight as well. Farooqui has been involved in the revival of this art since 2004. Talking about his first encounter with this art form he says, “In August 2002, I first encountered the Dastan-e Amir Hamza and I was asked to help out somebody who was making a film. Though the film never got made, I got interested in Dastangoi.”

Full report here Indian Express

Tellers of tales weave a success story

On a breezy March evening, a crowd squeezes through a traffic jam to enter an open-air auditorium in a narrow street in Chennai, gradually occupying all the 500 seats.

“This episode of the Ramayana tells us how to deal with knots in our lives,” the artiste on stage, Vishakha Hari, says in a sing-song tone in Tamil, throwing a philosophical spin to ancient poet Valmiki’s second book of verses that starts with epic hero Ram’s planned coronation, but ends with his banishment to the forest.

“It talks about rules and regulations,” she says in English to the nodding crowd. Most people remain glued to their seats through the two-and-a-half-hour performance that ends close to dinner time.

Telling tales may be labelled as a dinosaur in today’s high-tech and sensationally visual world of movies, television shows and Internet videos. But a new crop of performers is flavouring this lost art form with relevance and stamping it with commercial viability through strong DVD sales and spiking demand from schools and corporates as a catalyst for creativity.

Full report here Mint

Reading out loud

ASK Craig Jenkins, what his USP as a storyteller is and he says, “I am not a tatha (grandpa) storyteller.I am an anna (elder brother) storyteller.” The UK-based storyteller has been in India since January. He is working on storytelling projects in Kancheepuram, Chennai, Bengaluru and has also visited Pudhucherry. 

His storytelling session at the Full Circle Bookshop is for the Live Book Tour, a multicultural collaboration between Tulika and Vayu Naidu Company that has introduced Tulika’s books in schools and libraries across UK. He read out stories from The Rooster and the Sun, Brahma’s Butterfly, Tiddalik the Frog and The Dragon’s Pearl. There is a unique style about Craig’s storytelling.

“I love to engage the audience by inviting them to interact.I include a lot of contemporary examples in my stories with references from films, music etc. There is a lot of cheeky comedy.And it’s mostly folk that I love to narrate,” he says.Craig Jenkins graduated from the University of Kent in 2007 with a BA Honours in Drama and Film Studies. He joined the Vayu Naidu Company as a Resident Storyteller in July the same year.

Full report here The Express Buzz

Dastangoi performer looks for new tales

Dastangoi - the ancient Islamic tradition of oral storytelling - is looking for new tales to recount to keep itself afloat as an art, says India's leading performer Mahmood Farooqui.

"I am constantly trying to tell new stories from the Tilism-e-Hoshruba (the 18th century Indian version of the adventures of ancient Middle Eastern warlord Hamza that runs into eight volumes comprising 8,000 pages)," Farooqui said in an informal chat in the capital.

"We have been able to perform 150 pages in the last five years. I want to narrate more stories from the volume to add to the repertoire."

A scholar, actor, writer and historian, Farooqui breathed new life into dastangoi in the early part of the decade with performances in the capital and Mumbai, placing it in the mainstream theatrical and literary genre.

Full report here Times of India