Think of a banyan tree. Now, think of a banyan tree in a village. Imagine the number of people who would have sat under its benevolent shade. Wonder what conversations it would have been privy to — tales of longing, love, warmth, affection, discord, strife, valour, grief…
Since time immemorial, trees, rather the areas under their shade, have been repositories of stories. They provided the perfect setting — rustling leaves, a gentle breeze and a story to make you ponder or smile.
Now, Kathai Kalatta, started by school friends Kanchana Manavalan, storyteller Jeeva Raghunath and Kausalya Padmanabhan, hopes to replicate something similar with Under The Aalamaram. The three of them still share stories and love listening to them too.
And, the event, into its third year now, brings together storytellers from different traditions across the globe to introduce children to the magic of stories. This year, the fest travels to Coimbatore too, on October 20 and 21.
Under The Aalamaram also features workshops for adults on the art form. “Our focus is definitely children. It’s almost like a festival,” says Jeeva. This time around, Velammal Group of Schools, Mogappair, has adopted two days of the fest; so, the fest will travel to nearly eight campuses. “We usually have four concurrent sessions and almost 7,000 kids come to the festival,” says Jeeva. The morning sessions are for school children, the afternoon workshop for adults — educators, parents and professionals who are keen to understand the value of storytelling and the tools it provides for a variety of professional and social situations. Each session lasts 45 minutes, and on the evening of October 17, there will be a ticketed show featuring all seven storytellers — Roger Jenkins and Rani Kanna from Singapore, Craig Jenkins (not a relative!) from the U.K., Md. Ariyo Faridh from Indonesia, Dr. Jongkit and a team of dancer-storytellers from Thailand, Kiran Shah from Australia and Jeeva.
“All the storytellers are contemporary, except the Thai group that will seamlessly use dance, music and storytelling. Roger loves using puppets and masks, Rani is a bilingual storyteller, Craig loves giving old stories a new spin, Kiran and I are interactive…,” explains Jeeva. And yes, there’s a literal banyan connect to the event too. The inauguration will be held under the lush aalamaram at MGR Janaki College, R.A. Puram.
