The weekends are a busy time for seven-year-old Shanaya Singh. When kids of her age are glued to cartoon channels, Shanaya is busy telling stories to a large gamut of virtual audience from around the world. Often dressed in suitable costumes and armed with her artwork, Shanaya rattles off stories from Tagore, Panchatantra or the animal world. Facing the computer screen with confidence, she helps adults and children alike to escape into a world of fiction.
“I want to be a storyteller when I grow up,” says the enthusiastic student of Mahadevi Birla World Academy. Studying in Class II, Shanaya has already told stories in various national and international forums and earned many accolades.
“An invitation from children’s author Tony Cranston to perform online at Talking Stories hosted by East London Radio was the turning point in Shanaya’s life. Always an avid reader, she started taking the art of storytelling more seriously,” said mother Rajashree, who often coaches Shanaya in her art.
A fan of Sudha Murty’s short stories, Shanaya loves to tell stories on friendship and on issues that kids will identify with. Many of her tales are timeless. “I once read The Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore and decided to tell that my way,” said the girl, who uses voice modulation and her own props to spice up her performance. In case of The Postmaster, Shanaya wore a white and red sari while paying a tribute to the bard. One of her best experiences was to tell stories to children in a school in Kashmir.
“I want more children to read and enjoy the world of fiction. That’s what kept me going during the pandemic when I was missing my school and all the fun of campus life,” said Shanaya, who is at present reading a book on Neil Armstrong. A favourite among her friends, Shanaya is always ready with stories to cheer them up, often tweaking it to suit her style.
And when she is not telling tales she is writing them herself. “I have already written a story about a squirrel family that set up their home in our kitchen garden. I write what I see. I hope to build up a virtual library for children one day,” said the girl. Till that time, Shayana is making a list of books that are a must-read for all. Her school’s vice-principal Nupur Ghosh said storytelling was encouraged among all students and had been seamlessly weaved into the curriculum.
“Storytelling by the students and for the students is widely practised in our school across all levels. Concepts in maths, social studies and science are explained through the art of storytelling. Parents, too, have proved to be master storytellers along with their children and kept students actively engaged. In short, the art of storytelling has helped us brave the pandemic, keep negativity at bay and keep hoping for better times,” said Ghosh.