For the 67 children aged below 14 years, participation in ‘Story circle’ – an activity-based storytelling event held in Tirupur recently—made them travel the journey of storytelling beyond the ‘Once upon a time... and A long time ago...’ tag and understand its inherent benefits.
The two-day event was organised by Pragathambal Veluswamy and Archana Dange, who were trained by internationally acclaimed storyteller Geetha Ramanujam, the founder of Kathalaya Trust in Bangalore.
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“The main objective of holding the event was to revitalise children’s interest in learning a wide array of subjects through stories heard from others, as the art of storytelling has the ability to impart knowledge on culture/topics apart from improving linguistic and life skills,” Ms. Pragathambal told
Some of the interesting narratives such as ‘story told by crayons to their users that they were quitting’, and ‘imaginary tale of Venus flytrap, a carnivorous plant that eats insects’, were most enjoyed by the children.
In the crayon story, the storytellers explained why each crayon wanted to quit.
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“Blue crayon feels that the people were using him more to paint skies while pink crayon feels he was not been used much. The orange and yellow crayons fight each other over who should be used to paint the sun.”
When storytellers explained the colours in this manner, the children became more and more involved.
Mrs. Pragathambal feels that storytelling would not destroy the reading habits, rather help the children travel in search of books.
“The feedback from the parents on the session has been enthusiastic and hence we are planning to conduct similar sessions on a regular basis in Tirupur,” she added.