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 For
today's children who live on a diet of Cartoon Network, listening to grandma's
tales is a rarity. Storytelling itself is a dying art. But it might just
make a comeback if Geeta Ramanujam, 46, has her way. Ramanujam, who describes
herself as an academician and storyteller, has made it her mission to
popularise the ancient Indian tradition of storytelling. In this pursuit,
she founded Kathalaya-literally a house of stories-in Bangalore four years
ago.
Ramanujam grew up in Mumbai listening to Tamil folktales narrated by
her mother and meeting characters like Oliver Twist introduced to her
by her father. Now, armed with a Master's degree in economics, history
and political science from Madras University, and having specialised in
education, English, social studies and library and information sciences,
she is passionate about linking school syllabi with folk stories. "Apart
from its entertainment value," she says, "storytelling in schools
can be linked with the curriculum." Her book The Wise Monkey and
Other Stories (Puffin), a compilation of Indian tales, seeks to further
this end. She has already introduced storytelling in the syllabi of over
10 schools in Bangalore and Madurai and is writing a storytelling "handbook"
for teachers.
Learning has to be a fun-filled activity, says Ramanujam. "Stories
have a way of making children sit up and listen." As a librarian
and a teacher at the Valley School, Bangalore, for over 10 years now,
she has seen children who earlier shunned books now rushing to pick up
their favourite stories and sit at her feet to listen to them. "This
is how I plan to get children into a reading habit which is fast disappearing,"
she says.
Storytelling pays. Four years ago Ramanujam became the first Indian
to win the Ashoka Fellowship for story-telling. She now plans to conduct
workshops in which she will include stories from Africa, Japan and other
places.
-Stephen David
 
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CURRENT
ISSUE JUNE 24, 2002
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