Elephant Enthu

Why do I have Rupa here?
Good question.
Its just that I did a story last Saturday "Little Vinayak" of Karadi Tales at another Library I love to go to, and once again I found that Elephants are such versatile creatures. Are they actually so, or do they transform into this magical creature in the hands of authors who can make them dance to any tune?
They are so lovable, so emotional and so blessed with a be-what-I-will, that any author who casts an elephant in his/her lead role can never go wrong. 

The first story that I ever told to an audience was the tale of an elephant, the sweet Rupa, (by Mickey patel;CBT), she is quite famous and most storytellers have her tale in their story bag I think. I know I did/do, and I know that my sister-in-law, who also tells wonderful tales to little minds, had completely pocketed my daughter with this story, way back when she was a tiny thing with big starry eyes and ears full of stories from her favorite aunt. 
That Rupa was done with a cute story box I had made, complete with animal cut outs that would stand around and in the display for kids to see, a miniature stage for the story to be performed by cardboard artists! (I still have the same cutouts that I use for this story!)...and a great song to go with it.

But Little Vinayak was told without much. Just some long dupattas, that I hurriedly knotted together and a monkey puppet (a little too casual here huh?). But the story went Very well. Tiny Vinayak with his loooong trunk was one dupatta, while Tembo the big elephant was 2 dupattas long!! We did the step-step; side-side dance...and the kids were swinging!

So that's me eulogizing elephants; of course you also know they are extremely intelligent, have their own unique communication, and display behaviours as complex as humans...hmmm...maybe I was an elephant in my last birth....!!!


Comments

  1. wow! good use of dupatta! i think you are right abt elephants being versatile.. here, the latest fav is Gajapathi Kulapathi from Tulika :) i enjoy reading all 'yaanai' stories to my little one :-)

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