Swetha Prakash has an MA in Writing from the University of Warwick and is the recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Award by the British Council.She has won the The Times and Scottish Book Trust's New Writer Award and her book  'Padma Goes To Space' has been published  by Tulika Books. She has  edited India's first book on storytelling for schools published by Kathalaya, and recently wrote a  nonfiction book called “Indian storytelling traditions.” She writes about how she is using StoryWeaver to raise funds for an NGO. 

Everbefore the story goes...With humanity came myths and with myths came civilization. Myths are our collective dream. Myths are profoundly important for our individual and collective consciousness. 

I am running a charity fundraising campaign for the Bangalore based poverty alleviation initiative, The/Nudge Foundation by creating original myths everyday. The campaign is called The Living Myths project. As a part of this campaign, I am posting one myth everyday on Storyweaver for 21 days. I am also urging friends and family to raise funds for The/Nudge Foundation by donating to my campaign on Ketto, which can be found here.

The/Nudge Foundation is a non-profit working on tackling poverty, which is the greatest human development challenge of our times. Their goal is to nudge 1 million people out of poverty.
How are they solving for it? Their flagship program, Gurukul, is a 100-day residential program for underprivileged youth where they are educated on livelihood skills, digital literacy, financial management, family management and personal development. The program works towards the holistic development of the students and makes sure that they work towards growing in their respective careers and always aspire for better opportunities. The Gurukul program assures job for every student and boasts off 123% placement rate. 

Stories, myths and collective consciousness

What is storytelling really? It is an expression, which arises within the body from the same space that makes people paint, sing and dance. It is a message from your soul that you want to transmit to the world at large. Storytelling defines how we react to both external solid realities and to ephemeral ideas. The tellers are adepts at conjuring up the confusions and misapprehensions of life universe and everything. Stories attempt to pierce through the evanescent illusion of all life and creation. They bring to us the fullness of all life, its fulfilment, its elixir of immortality shrouded in the casket of death. Stories help us access the embodied existence of others, providing us with the fullness of our own being. They change and mould our collective consciences and teach us to extend our sympathies to other beings that share this existence with us. Stories are in their core lessons in sympathy, helping us extend our compassion and empathy to others.

Myths are narratives that answer the most profound and primordial questions of existence through fascinating stories populated by fantastic creatures. Myths typically attempt to explain how the universe is created and the primary powers that are behind all creation, manifestation and destruction. Myths about powerful beings responsible for creation can be found as far back as the Vedas. 

Devdutt Pattanaik says in Indian mythology: tales, symbols, and rituals from the heart of the subcontinent, ‘Myth can be defined in two ways. First, it is a sacred idea that is inherited over generations. Second, it is absurd, irrational, and fantastic concepts about the world that appeal to unsophisticated minds. The two meanings are two sides of the same coin. Depending on one's point of view, a story, an image, or a custom can be sacred or stupid’ 

Most Indian myths can be found in the Puranas. Varied versions of the same myth exist. The same myth again may be open to varied interpretations depending on the audience and the purpose of narration. A myth may serve as simple delightful entertainment for the whole community or it may be understood as an entire philosophy encapsulates in symbolic code that opens up an entirely new field of meaning to a spiritual initiate who is able to read the sandhya bhasha or mystery mystical language. 

You can read Swetha's modern myths here.

Are you using www.StoryWeaver.org.in in an interesting way? Write in and tell us at [email protected]

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Spotathon 2016 has come to an end and we have been overwhelmed and touched by the amazing response the campaign received from the illustrator community.

The idea for Spotathon came from what we saw as a need for affordable spotting book for children. Spotting books are a wonderful way to engage children (small ones, big ones, and yes… very big ones!), can help develop pre-reading skills in the smallest bookworms and most importantly they’re just SO MUCH FUN!

So we asked illustrators to share one spotting illustration and answer key and upload it to StoryWeaver and create a mini spotting book with their entry. We also hoped that the campaign would familiarise illustrators with how they can share their work on StoryWeaver through the very easy Image Uploader. 

From deep underground to outer space!

Illustrators looked far and wide for inspiration for their Spotathon illustrations. From outer space shenanigans to life underground, we saw an amazing variety of themes emerge that are sure to delight children and keep them busy spotting.

 Zainab Tambawalla's 'The Crazy Circus' 

 

  Kabini Amin's 'Forest Friend's Party'

 Kavita Singh Kale's 'Nainital, a Wonderful Hill Station in India' 

 

We were overjoyed to see  illustrators we’ve worked with in the past, like Rajiv Eipe, Soumya Menon, Niloufer Wadia, Greystroke and Samidha Gunjal take part. And equally delighted to see new artists join in the spotting fun too! 

We'd like to share two small stories, that are a testament to the power of open source and joyful reading!

Cyrille L'Argillier, a community member has translated a number of Spotathon entries to French showing how open licences can really give content wings and help stories take flight. We hope to see many more translations of the Spotathon mini activity books in the days to come, so that more children can enjoy them in languages of their choice.

We received a lovely email from Annapoorni Trichur, a teacher with E-VidyaLoka and Udaan in Hyderabad. She shared Megha Vishwanath's "An Evening in the Spice market" with her students. Here's what she had to say: "They were so engrossed looking for things in the picture they didn't even realise they were learning!"

In the next few weeks, we'll be working on putting together an e-book with the best entries from Spotathon. This will be published on StoryWeaver. But do remember that each entry to Spotathon can be enjoyed on its own, as a mini-book.

We hope you enjoy the spotting books that have emerged from this lovely campaign. If you’re an illustrator, remember that you can upload your work to StoryWeaver with great ease. Your doodles, black and white sketches, line drawings… do consider sharing them with the world under the CC-BY4.0 license on StoryWeaver.

We’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, feedback to share on Spotathon then write to us at [email protected]

 

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TinyTales is a performing arts initiative invested in taking stories to children through the medium of theatre.

The TinyTales team consists of three theatre graduates and storytellers: Kalpesh, Pratiksha & Santosh whose journey began when QUEST (Quality Education Support Trust) announced a Goshtrang fellowship to work with children in Ashramshala, Sonale village (District Palghar).

“We applied for the fellowship and through it we were able to perform stories for children in several schools,” shared Kalpesh. “Interactions with the children made us realise how the sessions affected them, and we decided that the experience  shouldn’t be restricted to children in one region. We felt the need to reach out to more children in more schools in more villages.”

The outcome of this strong belief  was TinyTales.

“Today, because of their hectic schedules, children do not have the free time to go and watch plays. So we decided to take the plays to them. We do not need a professional stage with sounds and lights; we improvise to present our stories wherever possible. In classrooms, under trees or even on playgrounds. We only need some space and enthusiastic kids as an audience.”

After 90+ shows, TinyTales realised that while listening to and watching stories, children get emotionally involved with them. “They laugh with us, they cry with us. This joy of learning together is really immense.” said Kalpesh. “Adding a visual element to storytelling not only strengthens the audience’s imagination but also subtly demonstrates the spirit of  teamwork, which is the base of any theatre activity.” Though theatre is at its heart a form of entertainment, TinyTales attempts to present a different world to children through stories which can enrich and broaden their way of thinking.

The team discovered the StoryWeaver platform when looking for the book 'My Best Friend' by Anupa Lal and Suvidha Mistry.  "It's like a Pustakancha Khajana for us" shares Kalpesh "and now we have a perfect list of great book to use. We have used a number of books from workshop and got great results."

 Geetanjali Kulkarni (Goshtrang, Project Head), Nilesh Nimkar (Founder of Quest) and Prasad Wanarse (TinyTales, Director), have chosen stories based on the age of the audience. "We’ve included books from the StoryWeaver platform such as जपून रे सत्तू! and बुजगावण्यांची वरात. All these stories were directed by Prasad Wanarase and we performed these stories in Marathi.”

 

 

The group has also begun to add more components to their sessions like ‘Goshtincha War’ where they gather together with students and read out stories to them. “This way they are introduced to various authors and their books and hear and learn new words too.”

“Our objective is to work with the kids as per their needs and demands. Most important of all are the little viewers who are genuine and constructive in their feedback. That’s why we love to work with them.”

- Kalpesh, Pratiksha & Santosh

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