SOULspace

  LIVING STORY WORLD! COME ON A JOURNEY WITH ME TO TRAVEL THROUGH STORYLANDS! LIVING STORY WORLD workshop was inspired by landscape as metaphor.  Here the landscape is mapped to emotions which is taken from Ainthinai Poetics (5 Landscape poetics of the Tamil Sangam Literature).  Here the listener walks along with the Storyteller experiencing and interacting with story elements (inspired by AI & Gaming Storytelling!) How did I get this idea ?: My journey started with Ecotherapy! In 2022, I was offered a scholarship seat to do a certificate course in Ecotherapy by UK based, Buddhist charitable organisation Tariki Trust. Later I was invited to do a Diploma in Ecotherapy by founder of Tariki Trust, Caroline Brazier.  As a stoyteller I am constatntly looking at cultural connections of my stories. In that process, one of the courses that stayed with me, was connecting to the land where I live (Archeotherapy by Harriet Sams), and knowing ways in which land, landscape,so...

  April 22nd 2026 Eco - Feminine Tales  are turning out to be quite challenging !! As it is difficult to find tales that are not macabre and filled with violence against the feminine!) This April found a fairytale from Roumania (an audio recording in Internet Archive is the only documentation of this tale) "How Waterfall came to Thirsting Mountain" The story started off very simple and innocently, but true to a fairytale it took us, here and there and everywhere!! From Old man in the Mountain asking Fairy of the Meadow to bring waterfall to the parched mountain, to Maiden with Streaming Hair who goes in search, to rescue her missing Father,  to discovering Sword Knight who is released from his prison by the Maiden with Streaming Hair, to Bee Fairy ( previously Fairy of the Meadows) who turns tears into a Tear Child and finally defeats the Evil Wizard whose only way to redemption is to look deeply (trapped)  into the eyes of Tear Child until his tears of sorrow turn t...

 Update:  You can watch a telling of this story on the Federation of Asian Storytellers Story Spotlight 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_THJaxcxaY&t=1s ~~~  This is a story of Serendipity- of finding something valuable by chance! Recently at CSF 2025 (Chennai Storytelling Festival), I shared a folktale from Assam, an eco - feminist retelling of Joymala - The Elephant Queen - As I delved into the story many images stayed with me, the woman - nature bonding and even her passivity until she is pushed to the brink...literally! There was a word that became the fulcrum of the story - Jhari - and I went on an adventure trying to find out what it means. Some authors had interpreted it as silk threads (Tamil origin perhaps), while others called it a vessel used for worship.  I caught this thread and saw images online of bronze/ silver vessel used in Newari culture and worship.... In the folktale, A Golden Jhari is carried by Joymala into the kingdom of elephants, a...