Storytelling is the soul for life on Earth

flower

is the reproductive structure found in

flowering plants and is a collection of

petals sepal stamen and pistol

now look at this in a different way

once upon a time on a bright sunny day a

pretty flower

shades of yellow and orange blossomed in

a garden with

subtle fragrance

and it made me so happy

moon is the earth’s only proper

satellite orbiting around in a regular

cyclical face or is it the full moon

whose silver light makes way for the two

lovers to meet secretly and remands even

in the darkness of resistance

rain is liquid water in the form of

droplets that have condensed from water

vapor and then become heavy enough to

fall under gravity

or are they tiny droplets falling on the

soft palms of a child

who is trench from top to bottom playing

in the rain puddle

flower moon rain would all just remain a

scientific pragmatic

logical phenomena impersonal and devoid

of feelings

if there were no stories around

what would our life be not to feel the

softness of

petals not to romanticize the moon not

to relish the reigns patrika

not yearn for the priest to dance along

or not sing along with the cuckoo’s cry

what would we be without feelings

imageries sensations emotions

impressions notions opinions

what would we be without stories

stories make up our life

it makes up my life for as far as i can

remember

i have been storytelling like making up

stories to escape from punishment in

school

or cooking up kitty tales and pretty

tales with friends over coffee

the romantic late night conversations

laced with passion with my life partner

night after night telling stories to my

little girls on what life

is what it should be what it is not

and even the narrations at workplace to

put across

business ideas and sometimes make an

excuse to boston

i have not moved a step ahead without

stories

when i was a little kid i started

journaling

i had the secret little diary in which i

would pen down my thoughts

sometimes happy but mostly anger

channeled into organized rant

i’d write poems sonnets short stories

teenage troubles a lot of it and my

dreamer make believer breakthrough ideas

which would or would not culminate i

really did not know

i filled up pages after pages year after

year

diaries after diaries absolutely

comfortable with the idea

that no one will ever come to know about

it and that the diaries

will go with me to my grave that was

my first idea of storytelling

but to myself alone and then i grew up

i took this massive plunge

after beating and hearing my heart

several times

as i crew up i took this massive

plunge by daring to share my writings

in public honestly it was so difficult

to lay the feelings open through and

through

who would listen to these stories why at

all would readers and listeners want to

connect

maybe i’ll get judged

maybe i’ll go unheard and in the words

of aaron hansen

something within me would ask what if i

fall and then i’d receive an answer

oh my darling what if you fly

and i decided to try it with all my

honesty it was this time around that i

started storytelling with small groups

of children

just a couple of us for the sake of

realizing the power of storytelling

so sometimes we’d be in the group of 5

or 6 or

15 i took stories to book clubs

to underprivileged children who needed

it as much as

anyone else in the entire world i

took stories to small communities

sometimes it had the elderly sometime it

had

just the members of a small society and

i published my write-ups in

huffington post times of india some

magazines

newspapers and also one times of india

right india campaign for short

stories the voice of a teller

refused to rest within me it was

agonizing

to share or hold back

the untold stories

and then one day i received a call from

india’s

leading storytelling platform well

probably a friend had recommended

my name to them and i recorded my first

ever storytelling video

for youtube tapertail i’ve been a

theater artist

so i had the sense of stage and

spotlight and live audience

with camera youtubing the world wide web

are you kidding me no

i knew nothing the team however managed

to pull me out of my closet and

put me in the public domain with my

first person singular narrative stories

no laces no filters no garnishing

no fiction just a plain simple ordinary

random tale from my ordinary life

in my first story i bared my heart open

on my idea of finding true love

and while i thought why would anyone be

ever willing or have the time to listen

to the story of an ordinary person to my

surprise it was lapped up with

a lot of love and appreciation and

kindness

the story picked up fast it was called

ordinary sapiar

ordinary love few months later i shared

another tale

kya tum khusho are you happy enough on

how i battled

life-threatening serious medical

condition by undergoing various

surgeries getting punctured with needles

and tubes only to find out

how beautiful and precious our life is

i shared how my medical condition taught

me

that this life this one moment

which we tend to take for granted is

what someone somewhere

in the world might be just praying for

the story crossed three million views

and people from

all across the globe began passing their

strength

to me to move on and then i did

one story after another pen tales

recited in public started my youtube

channel

contributed to podcasts and to all india

radio

reached out to students schools and

colleges including the iims

and took business stories to corporate

houses you know why

not because it gave me a certain kind of

visibility

because that is just a very small

by-product of the process you see

but because it passed me a magic wand to

connect

with millions of other lives walk in

their stories be a part of their plans

pains and pleasures live their emotions

as though we were all made up

of the same fabric crossed knotted

broken stitched patched up

together we are a reflection of each

other in a way

these days almost on daily basis i

received tens of personal stories

sometimes over email messages

chats handwritten letters and notes do

and these messages sometimes make me

cry in their pain find courage in their

grit

weep in their joy and feel so much of

kindness and gratitude

my heart is so full of love now

absolute strangers we are we haven’t met

we haven’t spoken but then they still

trust me

they confide in me and they have let me

walk into their lives

if that is not magical what is

there are stories which are safe with me

and there are my stories which are safe

with them

well uh let me read to you snippets from

my magic book

unedited but identity undisclosed

the story one that i received

i’m a mother of two sons the younger is

diagnosed with town’s syndrome but he

also plays the drum

and every special child has a distinct

story

we got the opportunity to collaborate

and take the story forward

two we belong to small village where

modeling and instagram is a shameless

thing to do

every day a thought comes to my mind to

run away from here and get a new life

i don’t have friends to trust own and

nobody to share this

you really come across as a ray of hope

what can i say three

i’m married i have a four-year-old son

my husband and i have major

compatibility issues

i want to leave and start from scratch

alone

could you help

for i’m a practicing radiation

oncologist in

ames and i must say that people need to

be inspired by the idea of

living life to fullest as described by

you

in your story and then

i also face a problem like you i see you

bed stitches i hear you

i hear you

three words three words which connects

the world

and how stories are indeed magical

anthropologists tell us that

stories are recognizable patterns and in

those patterns we find our own meaning

scientists tell us that stories release

certain chemicals like

oxytocin dopamine and cortisol

that stirs up the emotions but the old

grandmothers tell us

that once upon a time is

all what it takes to create the magic

from gathering around the campfire to

binge-watching

latest netflix series from traveling the

world to reading books

chronicles have lit up our lives tales

of chivalry deception inspiration

courage heroism storytelling is central

to our

existence chord

is a harmonic set of pictures

frequencies consisting of multiple notes

that are unheard as of sounding

simultaneously

really or is a chord what ties you with

me

my heart with yours your feelings with

mine and my emotions with you because

in the end we are all nothing but

stories

in motion and therefore

we are mine tell me yours let’s connect

the world with a subtle card of stories

happy storytelling