One sunny afternoon...

Bengalureans were treated to a storytelling session that included tales from mythology and folklore

Who does not love a good story? They are filled with rich experiences that have the ability to evoke powerful emotions and transport the listener to a world of imagination. That is exactly what Bangalore Storytelling Society (BSS) did last weekend.

It organised an event called Jan 2017 Storytelling Meetup: Jaane Be Do Yaaron, which was “all about humour and fun.” The event was held at Atta Galatta on a sunny Sunday afternoon, where people gathered to discover and propagate jocular tales.

Sowmya Srinivasan from BSS, said that the aim of the event was to create a space for budding storytellers as she believes, “the art of storytelling has changed over time. The oral art is now dying and, we, at BSS come together to create awareness where professionals get together and create a platform to foster this art and keep it going.”

The event began with an interactive ice-breaking session where questions posed called upon the audience to literally step out of their chairs and give up their inhibitions and be a part of the event.

The first story was shared by Tapan Mozumdar. His story revolved around 13-year-old Tarpan Mukherjee. His unhappiness with ‘Mr. Ferns’, his Mathematics teacher, who was against his reading comics.

Tapan adapted the story from Satyajit Ray’s

Collected Short Stories -- and the

tale did strike a chord with the audience.

As a BSS story-teller, Lavanya Prasad pointed out: “People forget their usual routines, when they listen to stories. The platform created is one where people not only interact with others, but also introspect and lose themselves to a narrated tale.”

The next tale was narrated by Sowmya. It was a satire on the “true story of the three little pigs”, she said. The final storyteller was Shylaja Sampath, who shared a folk tale from South India. Narrated in Kannada it was titled The Brahmarakshasa - which was picked up from A.K Ramanujan’s folktales.

This tale was filled with mirth, as a demon who was a talented musician in his previous birth, was punished to listen to cacophony. The audience actively took part in the discussion as some of them shared their humorous tales.

“At times these stories are so gripping that you are transported to that realm. It is almost like watching a play, where a lot is left to your imagination,” opines Vikram Sridhar, one of the organisers of the BSS meet. Sanandan Radkal, a listener, added, “in a space like this, you are exposed to a variety of authors and their works in addition to the story narrated, as you tend to look them up.”