SOULspace

Watch : - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBlufHQ_L2o Oh I how I wish I could translate this word for word! Shri Subbu Arumugam is proponent of the storytelling art form Tamilnadu called VILLU-PAATU which means Bow-Song ( Song from the Bow) Here he shares the Creation Story of the Art form: A Raja went into the forest and killed animals for fun...by evening he regretted his act, so he asked his Minister how he could was his sin away. His minister suggested that the Raja should sing!! So the Bow that was the symbol of violence was turned into a musical instrument by the creative Raja, and then turned the pot upside and place the Bow on it and started singing. The first note he uttered went like this : THANDANA THOM - which means I give myself to my art. So sing, play music, tell stories for the sake of the art itself...and not for the appreciation you could or want to get! Give Your Self to your Art , Give Yourself, Give : Thandanan Thom , Thandanana Thom! ...

Mullah Nasiruddin had never seen a falcon before and spotting it on the window sill, he caught the bird and cut its talons, clipped its beak and trimmed its feathers. "You poor thing, how did you get into such a bad shape" he sympathised, "Now you look better." ( from a collection of Hodja Tales by Idries Shah) All of us have to clip our feathers, trim our beaks and cut our talons...to fit into a framework that exists in another person's view or in the view of society. Lucky are those who are able to remain a falcon and fly the sky and be recognised as one. I have spent the last 10 years reattaching my feathers, beak and talons. To be the person I always thought I was and thought I wanted to be. Still I find a few feathers are missing and the beak may be more crooked than it used to be, but that moment of recognition when you realise you can regrow your talons, feathers and beak is priceless... I know I clipped my sense of fun and boxed myself into ...

Finding Humour in life situations is a skill for the 21st century!! If we can learn this one skill then I feel we have learnt the most effective coping mechanism that will help us handle all the arrows aimed at us by Maya the seducer -  illusionist! Humour helps us see others and ourselves through a lens of tolerance and acceptance. It includes and helps us gain perspective....as long as we don't get carried away by our own sense of humour! Here goes: Once there was a mullah, a wise teacher, named Nasreddin Hodja. Everyone, from beggars to kings, sought the mullah's teachings, for people said he was the wisest man among wise men. One summer day Nasreddin was wandering through the great covered bazaar of Isfahan. This was one of Nasreddin's favorite activities, for everywhere he saw people he knew. Some had just returned from long journeys, others were selling wares. It was a friendly and inviting place. As he walked along he happened upon a group of men arguin...

A healing fable Turtle was in love with Rabbit. Her family was shocked. This is unheard of; we cannot allow such foolishness to prevail, they said. How can a turtle love a rabbit so? Yet, she left the water to be with him. She bid farewell to her mother and father, sister and brother and crawled onto the land. Somewhere in her soft heart underneath that hard shell she wore, she felt great love for rabbit, the Prince of Shore. She had seen him run and adored his pace. The way he combed his hair, took her breathe away. She had seen him feast on carrots and cabbage and felt she shared the same passion.  Made for each other she felt, so they married. Rabbit insisted on moving fast. He was always in a hurry. He darted in and out of holes and chewed his food rapidly, while looking at turtle with eyes impatiently. “Move faster” he would shout back angrily. “Wait for me” she would yell. He ran ahead and she plodded behind on feet that now had cuts and scratche...

The best mistake I made was to conceive a second time. 'Too soon' is what I said as I sat shedding tears of self pity in front of the gynae. ‘Hmm, better now than never’ said my Gynae quite unsympathetically. So he was born in August 2003. Apparently on the delivery table, in a daze of pain I shouted out I wanted to name him after Krishna the divine soul...how clichéd is all I have to say now, yet a perfect fit for my dear sonny boy Keshav. His father saw him after 5 months (he did manage to come for the delivery but couldn’t stay too long). By which time the puny boy of 3.3 kgs had bloated into a 5kg boxer. Adventures abound in Jorhat, having swallowed a cockroach egg while crawling about and drank powdered milk that tore his insides; we made a super stay over at the Airforce Hospital with dysentery! The doctors then proclaimed he had an enlarged head and I worried and fretted over that too, till my husband put a stop to that nonsense and reassured me every male in his fam...

My first storytelling session was in a Multi Ability classroom of a Special School ( Vidya Sagar) in Chennai. Year 1996.  I took the children to the garden, we sat around and we had a bucket of water in the middle. E ach child had a puppet in their hand – made with simple newspaper; a lion, a rabbit and a few more animals.  As we peered into it, we saw our reflection.  So by now you may know what story I went on to tell. The Panchatantra tale of the Lion and the Rabbit and how the rabbit outwits the lion. This experience triggered a series of reactions. The children (a few of them) started noticing and looking at themselves on reflecting surfaces - as that is what they took back from that story experience. It is mind blowing...to think of this cause and effect in retrospect...   It was an experience for the children. That story allowed children to experience an idea, a concept, abstract or literal notions within the space of a narrative arc. As a storytelle...

The Rose Bush & the Snail - by Hans Christian Anderson A hedge of hazel-nut bushes encircled the garden;  but in the centre of the garden stood a rose-tree, and under it sat a snail--she had much within her, she had herself. "Wait, until my time comes," said she, "I shall accomplish something more than putting forth roses, bearing nuts, or giving milk, like the cows and sheep!" "I expect something fearfully grand," said the rose-tree, "may I ask when it will take place?" "I shall take my time," said the snail, "you are in too great a hurry, and when that is the case, how can one's expectations be fulfilled?" The next year the snail lay in about the same spot under the rose-tree, which put forth buds and developed roses, ever fresh, ever new. The snail half crept forth, stretched out its feelers and drew itself in again. "Everything looks as it did a year ago! No progress has been made; the r...