February Tales


February has been a month of Tales.

The most wonderful of them all was "The Kite Flyer of Beijing", created by John McCormick and his sons William and Connor. There is another story here...!

I was to tell a story at the Chennai Storytelling Festival and decided it would be this beautiful story about an old Chinese man and his reluctance to let go of his life, he then takes the form of a kite and finally decides to go...
It came to me at a time when I was looking for solace after my mother's death. Yet there was a clause that asked me to contact the author if I wanted to use the story in any way. I did (after some prodding from a friend) and the rest is his-story!!
John not only gave me permission but also wrote about our email exchanges in his column on Huffington Post. Truly a Grace from above...
You can read it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-mccormick/parenting-with-grace_b_4805934.html

He also blogged about it on his website:
http://dadtellmeastory.com/blog-buzz/why-we-tell-stories/

I have more tales to tell for February is the month of Love and the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia during this month when maidens and men were encouraged to look for partners.
At BSS (Bangalore Storytelling Society), our monthly meet up was all about sharing the mushy and non-mushy tales of love.
We had a story about obsessive love and the stalker's perspective of his love.
Story of a Beautiful Cockroach (Martina the Beautiful Cockroach)
Story of the False Collar by Hans Christian Anderson
some Khalil Gibran (love without Gibran?...never!)
and more folklore from Punjab, famous land of love stories right from Heer-Rhanja to Sohni-Mahiwal.

As one storyteller pointed out Obsession and Detachment are two sides of the spectrum, Love falls in the middle...Wah Wah..subbah nallah!!

Happy Telling Folks
~ssstoryteller~

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