It is interesting to note contemporary storytellers such as Vikram Sridhar have stepped out of the traditional boundaries of storytelling to embrace drama. While storytelling might bring to mind grandma’s tales complete with myths and morals, Sridhar believes these stories can be tweaked for a contemporary retelling. Sridhar, who has been a theatre practitioner for 15 years felt stories could be used to draw attention to social issues.
“I had to think how I could be different from informal storytellers and mould my stories to interest adults and children. I had a strong theatre background, had worked in a corporate set-up and was deeply interested in heritage and conservation. I decided to bring my interests and strengths together into performance storytelling,” says Sridhar.
Tipu’s Armoury
Based in Bengaluru, Vikram followed his passion for storytelling after doing his engineering and MBA.
“I used to travel a lot. In many places in Europe and Singapore, I witnessed ‘Open Night’ where a story, poetry or music was performed at public spaces or coffee shops in 10-minute slots. This made me think that we need larger versions of open night and stories are a strong medium to get a message across.” Sridhar is having a story session at Tipu’s armoury thanks to Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), who had done restoration work at the armoury more than 15 years ago.
“The armoury is totally in neglect,” says Meera Iyer, Convenor, INTACH-Bangalore Chapter.
“Storytelling is also a way to bring attention to the monument, and how it can be given a focus and use. A building that is used often, automatically has the greater chance of preservation.”
“I will not be using mike or gadgets,” Sridhar says. “The audience will get stories of the armoury and more. The history of Karnataka’s Mysore pak will be traced as well as the tale of the iron lady, Onake Obavva who fought the forces of Hyder Ali in the 18th century single-handedly with a pestle ( Onake ) in the kingdom of Chitradurga.”
(Intach’s storytelling session is on February 17 at 4.30pm at Tipu’s Armoury, Kalasipalayam - intach.blr@gmail.com )
