Pune: “When the little boy was walking towards the castle, the door banged with a horror sound. What happened next?” was the only curious question of the children of UKG to standard VII.
Well, that was the power of storytellers who enthralled the students, teachers and other staff members of Bishop’s School (Cantonment area) for three hours (one and a half hour each) at the International Story Telling Festival organised by Sakal Times on Wednesday.
The storytelling sessions by eight storytellers from around the world made the fest interesting. The festival has been organised to nurture and develop communication skills among the young generation.
The students were divided into two groups, for students between 2-6 years, Jumaini Ariff and Mabel Lee were the storytellers while, for the students aged between 7-12 Hellen Alimbe Namai, John Mukeni Namai, Seung Ah Kim and Jeeva Raghunath told the
stories.
Jeeva Raghunath, Founder of Kathai Kalata, said, “Storytelling is from the womb to the tomb and connects heart to heart.” Raghunath further said, “The main motive behind starting this initiative is to bring the world together.”
Ariff from Singapore said, “This storytelling festival is an escape from the digital technologies that are distracting the children these days. It is a platform for the tellers from all over the world to share the entertaining stories that are different from the book world. It establishes a communication channel between the speaker and the audience.”
Namai from Kenya said, “We share and connect with the students through non-verbal communication, eye contact and body language so language does not become a barrier between us.”
“Children are wonderful and good listeners and this festival should be organised by all schools and colleges to make children aware of the culture and traditions. Technology is keeping them distracted so these festival needs to be conducted,” added Marianne Christensen of Denmark.
School Principal Joel Edwin said, “I believe that practical knowledge is more important rather than sitting inside the classroom. The main idea is to inculcate the habit of listening and participating in the events as it widens their horizons of creativity. This is the second time the festival took place in our school. Earlier in 2014, we had organised a similar festival.”
Enrol today
Registrations are open for February 3 and 4, 2018 at Sakal Shivajinagar office. Kindly contact 8805009395, 7972154779
