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