‘Great power in storytelling’

Sudha Murty interacting with kids at the launch. Pic/Sameer Markande

Stories culled from author and Padma Bhushan recipient Sudha Murty's formidable oeuvre have now found space on YouTube. They have leapfrogged from paper onto the digital, animated space.

Murty Media content production house announced its show, ‘Story Time with Sudha Amma' on its dedicated YouTube channel at a press conference on Tuesday evening at a Juhu hotel. Murty's selected stories for children will now be available to be consumed on YouTube. There are 52 handpicked stories, and the episodes are of 11 minutes each, the host informed at the launch.

Power, poise

The star of the event was unassuming ‘amma' herself; Sudha Murty captivated with her trademark simplicity and grace. Murty made an entrance to applause and smiles. "Namaste" she politely greeted her audience as she walked up to the dais and doffed the proverbial hat to Mumbai stating: "Namaskar sagdyana" (namaskar all) in Marathi.

The subject was a compelling one. It was about words and the power of a story. Murty, in her address, talked about her genesis as a storyteller. She started, "The power of storytelling is amazing. I remember I was 14, and my teacher in school in a village said that she was going on maternity leave. I was the class monitor. There were no substitute teachers in those days. My teacher told me ‘you will have to manage the class for one subject for four months'." The young Sudha Murty knew to manage meant to hold the attention of the class. It was an onerous task for a 14-year-old as she said. "I asked myself, ‘why would the students listen to me'? I was the same age as them. I knew I had to come up with something to hold their attention. Then, I decided to start telling them stories. I became a storyteller. I would, in fact, tell nearly the entire story in one class, and yet, hold back the end. I would tell them, ‘I will let you know about the end tomorrow'. That is how I held the attention of the class for four months," she said to some laughter.

Cut to anecdote No. 2, years later, when Murty became a teacher. She said, "I was teaching Computer Science students. It is harder to hold their attention. It was studies and storytelling. Many of my students went on to become very successful. Old students are like old wine... rare and precious. Today, when they come down to meet me, I ask them, ‘do you remember what I had taught you?' Most of them tell me ‘we do not remember anything, we only remember all the stories you told us'. That is the power of the story, to bind and also it teaches us so much."

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The jump

Anecdotes over, Murty came to her books and she said, "I wanted to write for my grandchildren. I thought, how could I communicate with them? I started writing stories and out they came as books: Grandma's Bag of Stories, Grandparents' Bag of Stories..." Of the current initiative, Murty said it was her daughter-in-law Aparna Krishnan (president, Murty Media) who told her first… "It is time your stories were moved to the digital format. We live in a different world now, and your stories have to be animated."

Murty said at the time she told Aparna, "I write with my heart. You go and do your research. As a writer, it is pen and paper for me. All this is not my cup of tea." Yet, her daughter-in-law persevered, telling her the stories would go to "remote places" and the animation initiative took shape. Murty, while mentioning the entire team and thanking them, also said, "This, ‘Story Time with Sudha Amma' is Aparna's first baby, the next will be her real one… she is due in a few days."

Warm, fuzzy

Musical maestros Prasoon Joshi and Shantanu Moitra who composed the song for the show, talked about the opportunity and the warmth and simplicity that Murty exuded. Joshi said, "There is a difference between ignorance and simplicity. Ignorance is when you do not know. Simplicity is when you know everything, you are wise, you are well-travelled and yet you are like this."

The afternoon launch ended with Murty interacting with several children and attendees experiencing that, warm ‘n' fuzzy vibe, the "hot cup of chai on a rainy, overcast day feeling", the one that Megha Tata, CEO, Cosmos Maya, the animation engine behind the show, said the Sudha Murty story-teller gives people.
The link for the show is https://youtu.be/PcLeAEvQuU8?feature=shared

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Number of stories currently available