Where South and East met
September30th created a meeting I will not forget.
When you meet someone after 15 odd years and then continue the conversation like there was no interim, then you really understand the meaning behind the words; Life's ebbs and flows.
So smoothly did we hit it off, like we have kept in touch for all this time. We dwelled on the past, our journey, our shared tales and of course new stories that has created who we are now.
I am lucky she did decide to come for this Confluence of storytellers held on the outskirts of Bangalore; with uncertainty over what an educator would do in a gathering for tellers....
But the informality and the openness of the tellers gathered, made it easier.
Thats one story
The other is the East and West meet, briefly I stayed to interact with people from the Eastern mountains of Sikkim, and the blue mountains of Nilgiri mountains. A story wove us through a Treasure Hunt, beautifully created by Salil Mukhia( along with Barkha Henry), the co-founder of Acoustic Traditional. AT is keen on promoting Indigenous cultures to retain their identity and is also working to preserve ancient stories and rituals that may be already lost or is facing imminent demise.
Met with Storytellers, Eric and Usha; and interestingly a gentleman who has set up a library in rural Maharashtra and who is looking for developing reading programmes, for children there.
Hey I think I fit in there....
Yet I need to refocus and ponder on what is my style of telling, and what is the purpose for my stories. As I get clarity on this I know my telling will reach out to more people to my satisfaction...
wow!! what interesting experiences! waiting for acoustic traditional to come to bbay and dsperately hoping i am able to attend :)
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