SOULspace

Yes it was the second meeting of BSN! @ Thalam in Domlur on 30th July 2013 Bangalore Storytelling Network is creating a space for adult story tellers. This time it was a smaller group, but we shared great stories. I heard an Arabian folktale  and a Jewish folktale, a very engrossing and looong story from South India, a myth actually, then a children's tale and finally a wonderful episode from the Mahabharata. (I told a very contemporary myth from Tibet, written by a Shambala Sangha member.) The episode from Mahabharatha was taken from the book, The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and speaks about the beginning of the story of stories...and that it was all for a glass of milk...kept us engrossed for quite some time as any story from Indian mythology does, as it is so rich in metaphor (Thanks Neeta). It is difficult not to sit and ponder over the fact that when we actually trace the source of a gigantic manifested problem, it would have in fact started as...

My mother passed away this January. But I am not writing to say I am sad…she suffered towards the end and was in great pain. I want to write about the dignity I saw in her pain. Some people suffer a lot throughout their life and then when the end comes it is in all probability sudden and peaceful. But Amma lived a peaceful life, troubled by small things I am sure, managing a joint family, 3 children and an ambitious husband. She sacrificed her aspirations in the initial years to pave way for a life filled with achievements in the later stage of her life, as an accomplished writer and social worker. When her end came, she was but 61 years old, is that too young, or is that old enough? I know a friend who lost his mother when she was but 51 years and another who lost her father when he was but 48 years. However old, the loss is amplified by the amount and extent to which they suffer or the extent to which we see their suffering. Sudden, incomprehensible loss leads to grea...

Asha Nehemiah's story "Funny Sweaters" is really a gem...I am not sure many have taken a theme such as this to write a cute children's story. It is about an old woman who ...knits!  The old woman moves to the mountains with her daughter and faces a problem every day. As evening sets in, the clouds move into her house and barely allow her to see, and in that darkness she continues to knit. But alas, in the morning she discovers an extra hand or an extra hole in her sweater...but don't you fret, for she is a resourceful lady who then gifts these wonderfully crazy sweaters to those who really deserve it...to the Mother and Baby monkey a sweater with 2 neck holes, to keep them both warm...to the three legged Dog, a sweater with 3 arms!! I wonder how children would enjoy this story? I know my children have chuckled over the story line and picked it up couple of times to look at the whacky ideas created by Asha...but it would be interesting to throw open this bo...

Venue: Thalam Purpose: Meeting of the Bangalore Storytelling Network Theme: Any story for 5 minutes Well if I was to send you an invite it would contain these details! An interesting forum has been created  for Storytellers in Bangalore and the venue was Thalam, a brand new space for creative endeavors, in Domlur(check out the link)!! Thalam is centrally located and provides space for events, workshops and get-to's. We were happy to get this space for our first ever meeting of the Storytelling Network in Bangalore, created by Deeptha a pretty young storyteller! So a bit of intro, some stories and some thinking went into an evening spent sharing, understanding and creating...creating a focus for this group of people who appear to love stories...an evening well spent. Here is the story I said: AK Ramanujam's Folktales from India, is a collection one must read....like a scripture to put it more strongly. Read it and then again, till stories sink into your bone. I ...

It is almost surreal to think that we were there just last week (June 11th to 16th). My much awaited vacation, a proper one, with rooms booked, flights booked, not an ad-hoc drive down-and take-the-first-motel-that-we-can-find. The Himalayas, seductive beauty that she is, beckoned us and we gladly surrendered to her enchantment. We had  a dream stay at Manali Sterling Resorts called White Mist. Picture perfect, and at that time I thought, in perfect weather. The locals were complaining of the heat and on the day we landed it started drizzling, "perfect weather too" I exclaimed. Sweaters out, umbrellas out, what a quintessential Hill station! "I just died in its arms!!"      We did not realise the fury that was to be unleashed in the wake of our return. We escaped at every step, just managing to leave Kullu from Buntar airport on the only flight that flew that week and then again from Delhi, before the floods marooned the s...

Forgive me that I dont appreciate you enough Forgive me that I dont love you enough Forgive me that I hold on to thoughts that don't matter Forgive me for I cannot help myself Forgive me for what I do that may not make sense Forgive me I am sorry if I hurt you too much I am sorry I cannot be there for you I am sorry I pulled you into this I am sorry if this makes no sense I am sorry if I caused any pain I am sorry Thank you for all the abundance and excellence in my life Thank you for all that I learn Thank you for every wish and desire of mine is fulfilled Thank you for all the wonder and happiness that flows into my life Thank you for this beautiful world of family and friends Thank you Do you have any prayer of your own? This is mine that I tell and chant to myself every day...

My friend and co-host at most storytelling sessions is a little puppet who I named; Sukhi. To me he brings happiness,and that I believe he likes to spread to all ....through him with giggles and pats, he touches a face, a hand or a shoulder or sometimes even goes as far as to kiss a cute little cheek in the crowd. But something happened when I brought him out this time, I wanted to know whether the children of the village where I was doing a summer storytelling camp (at Kodanganallur) identified with this name or they wanted to take ownership and name him otherwise.  Oh Yes! they did! Voices yelled out, we want to change, we want to change... Lets call him Santosh,they said; short for "santhosham", the near translation of Sukhi the Happy. OoooLala... Santhosham Ponguthe ( happiness erupts...literally, but we can also say that means Happiness Abounds!) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...