Janaki Sabesh conducts a gripping storytelling session in Visakhapatnam

The Chennai-based storyteller treated the students of the GVMC Primary School to a session of stories, songs and mimicry, ahead of the Vizag Junior Literary Fest

November 08, 2019 02:21 pm | Updated 02:21 pm IST

The kids of GVMC Primary School, Shivaji Palem, were on a journey to Pamulapalem, the imaginary land inhabited by animals. Their travelling companion was story teller Janaki Sabesh who had come all the way from Chennai to be with them.

Janaki had come there on the invitation of the Vizag Junior Literary Fest to take part in its outreach programme.

For over an hour, Janaki sant, mimicked, gesticulated and moved about urging the children to join her as she imitated a pot of sambar bubbling on the fire! “The attention span of children is notoriously low, so keeping them engrossed for 45 minutes is no mean feat. But songs always work like a charm. They help the storyteller get the child back to the story,” she said.

Janaki had done her homework well before she worked with the students.

“Before I got here, I had the songs translated to Telugu as that would help the children to connect to the story. I renamed characters based on the popular names from this region. I also focussed more on folk tales rather than fairy tales as they help in increasing a child’s knowledge,” she added.

The outreach programme by Vizag Junior Literary Fest is an initiative where children from the government-run schools are introduced to professional storytellers and authors, either in person or through their works. Under this initiative, Hyderabad-based storyteller Deepa Kiran also conducted sessions in various schools in the city.

English teacher Ramana Sree was appreciative of the session.

“Such activities make school fun. Rather than following the conventional blackboard and books method, the interactive way helps children in understanding concepts better. It also boosts their creative thinking.”

At the end of the session the organisers of the fest gifted the schools a set of books to encourage reading among the children.

(The second edition of Vizag Junior Literary Fest will be held at Hawa Mahal on November 16 and 17)

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