Attend this storytelling workshop to learn about Indian oral literature

An outdoor session by Sridhar in pre-pandemic times

The foreword to Alexander Raskin's When Daddy Was a Little Boy says when Sasha was laid down with the grippe or an infected ear, her daddy (the author) read out to her and told her stories from his childhood. The stories took her mind off the excruciating ear pain and filled her up with snatches of early days. Raskin wanted his young readers to know about things that happened to him as a little boy, and when he fell short, he borrowed a couple of tales from other daddies. That stories are our oldest companions in health and sickness needs no contesting. And so, a month-long online storytelling workshop looks to add some joy to these bleak times.

Vikram Sridhar

ArtKhoj has joined hands with story researcher and theatre practitioner, Vikram Sridhar for these engaging sessions. Sridhar feels categorising storytelling based on self-explored connections with the art form helps in finding targeted audiences across interests. "Workshops ensure that the sharing of art flows as a process, and survival is also taken care of. I went ahead with this long but broken-down concept, as participants have often come back to me saying they can't attend a two-week long session. In this case, they can pick the session they like and be available on that day."

As the facilitator, Sridhar will be guiding narrators on topics such as singing a story, ethological stories and their creation, antagonist stories and wordless stories. "Our grandparents would tell a story in a sing-song way. People are enthused to find their tone of folk singing through storytelling," he adds. Commenting on the purview of antagonists he explains the plot of a story doesn't solely stand because of its protagonist. It does because of the antagonist, too. "The segment will teach the basics of character-building. We will learn how to add life to the least important character, and how to peer into an antagonist's psyche," Sridhar elaborates.

Participants need no prior experience to join the workshop.

On: From January 9, 11 am to January 29, 1 pm
Log on to: insider.in
Cost: Rs 570 onwards