Storytelling Workshop in St. Joseph’s

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Storytelling Workshop in St. Joseph’s

In the morning of 7th
Sep, a group of 30 enthusiastic students from the history department of St.
Joseph’s congregated to participate in the first ever “Story telling session.”
The enthusiasm and excitement were visible on their faces albeit it being a
cloudy Saturday morning! With
the approval of History department HoD Ms. Jane Dsouza and in collaboration of
Destination Heritage, I got an opportunity to conduct a workshop on
“Storytelling – Where Ideas Nourish” in the campus.

Ideas need Stories, Stories need
Storytellers

Dr. Githa, founding member of Destination Heritage and I
reached early and over a few cups of filter coffee, pondered and discussed
about the importance of storytelling in the office of Ms. Dsouza. It was
deliberated that storytelling can give wings to our imaginations. Stories and not
just bookish hypothesis help our ideas to flourish. We also discussed our
discourse over the next few hours. Ms. Dsouza accompanied us to the classroom
packed with excited and ignited minds. She introduced us to the students and
the session commenced with a silent two-minute prayer. Later Dr. Githa gave a
brief speech on the importance of storytelling and its existence in our rich
heritage culture. It was an intriguing talk where she highlighted storytelling
as part of Indian culture and how the older generations have transferred their
rich heritage to the newer in the form of stories and folktales. The eagerness
in the students started kindling when Dr. Githa shared how her walk-n-talk
sessions on Indian heritage have helped many students from different domains in
learning and exploring our rich culture.

The dais was transferred to me to start the
workshop. I could notice the sparkling eyes and curious minds sitting in the
class eager to bask in the lights of stories. It was indeed a nostalgia for me
to enter the classroom after so many years. To make the workshop more
interactive, I decided to form four teams within the class headed by team
captains. Four super energetic young ladies volunteered to be the team captains
and they formed their teams in no time! With few adjustments, we were all good
to kick start. The four-hour workshop was divided into 4 group activities and
there was a surprise waiting for the winning team which further intrigued the
young adults.

I started the workshop with a brief about
storytelling and stories itself, followed by the importance of 3Ws – What, When
and Where in storytelling. “Even a well-known story when shared in right
context can leave greater impact.” The brief theory on how cave-paintings became
the source of knowledge for the researchers was also shared much to the
disbelief of the impact it has on present day society.

Exercise #1: Pick A Line

The first activity of the day was “Pick a
Line”. The idea was to form a story starting from any random sentence. All the
participants were expected to form a new sentence, keeping in mind the point
shared in the sentence of last group. It was a fun event when the students
poured in their imaginations to form a story with round of thoughts and
opinions expressed by each group. The groups were gearing up and giving wings
to their thoughts. The line which started with a person stuck in traffic
ended in police station and how his father took charge against him when he
reached back home next morning.

Exercise #2: Paint A Story

Under this task, the groups were given a
challenge to paint their imaginations and pass on the paintings to next group.
The next group was expected to understand the painting and share what they
understood out of the vivid colors thrown on the canvas by the previous group.
It helped the students to express and transform their thoughts with not only
words but with colors. The groups painted their imaginations and expressed
their opinions on Cauvery water conflicts, Mother Nature bleeding, Save the
trees campaign on the pretext of papers made from cut trees and new
visualization on Oscar winning movie Titanic. The paintings portrayed the
dichotomy in the human thoughts where we cut the trees and protest against the
cutting of those trees using the papers made from these trees. The conflicts
over Cauvery river where the farmers and the common men protest but the
industries suck the last drop from the river only to fill it back with polluted
water.

Post activity 2 we went on a quick lunch break
and returned within 20min. This shows the enthusiasm was at peak. Nobody wanted
to miss the following exiting activities.

Exercise #3: Role Play

The classroom was now buzzing with the profound
imaginations of the young minds and the curious minds were geared up for the next
activity. The theme of this part was “Hatred”. A story around the moment
which we hate most in life and how we overcame that moment to live on with our
identity. The theme was very different from a regular discussion, and hence
forced everyone to be genuinely themselves. They shared their thoughts within
the group as part of brainstorming and came up with couple of stories from each
group. The stories ranging from social stigma, college faculty and events to
the personal family matters. The students were really talking. The moments
of their first days in college, first interaction with a shrewd stranger and
the personal family matters where a child with different ability had to face
the harshness of her own family members. The honesty and the heart touching
tales from such younglings created a huge impact on our minds as story tellers
too! I was personally touched by the personal touch everyone had to their
stories. It was definitely emotional and eye-opening.

Post two hours of this comprehensive exercise,
they were transforming as storytellers.

We were thrilled listening to the various
moments from the personal lives of these kids which ranged from the religious
dogmas and societal parlances. But the best part of the role-play was the
students with different abilities came up stronger and shared their stories.
The story of a girl whose conservative uncle doesn’t want her to pursue studies
further. She beautifully portrayed her struggles and the sparkle in her eyes
showed how confidently she will grow up to be a mature adult beating all odds.
Another story of a boy and his funny struggles to get pocket money from his
father certainly tickled my funny bones. It was inspiring to hear their stories
about how they beat all the odds to gain a competitive position in the college
and society.

Exercise #4: What if

The last hour of the workshop finally arrived
and got the last activity of the day rolling.

What-if segment was designed to pick famous
historical events and reframe the story if those events wouldn’t have happened.
All the groups were given 2 “What-if” statements and they had to frame a story
around in 15min. The last 30min when they were given chance to share their
stories, it was never-before-in-life experience for me. I heard different young
perspectives in form of stories which nobody would have thought before. This
proved the power of storytelling.

This brought end to the four-hour event with
the room filled with applause and so many newly discovered storytellers from
the lot. The winning team was presented with a gift hamper – a pack of book
“Chakravyuh” and the four best performers were identified. The best part was
these newly discovered storytellers were known to be introverts in the campus.
Ms. Jane Dsouza concluded the event with an additional surprise of
credit-points to all the students who participated in the workshop. The bells
were really ringing but the hearts ached for more.

The bandwagon of four hours ended on a high and
happy note followed by photo sessions – the memories to cherish for lifetime.

Hope to see all of them again!

I would like to thank, Ms. Jane, Dr. Githa and the
students of St. Josephs for this wonderful collaborative event and looking
forward to some more rewarding time.