KOCHI: A room full of people. They are sitting on a warm carpet. The ambience is that of a full-blown moon on a clear night sky. Addressing the lone mic, a 20-something girl donning a smart athleisure look appears out of nowhere. She takes a deep breath and narrates her story. A heart-rending tribute to her little sister. The story ends with something about capes and superheroes. This was a story-telling session of ‘The Storytellers’ organised by Kommune, a Mumbai-based community, some time ago. For all the ignorant ones, The Storytellers is a platform where one can share his or her stories. “These stories are real-life stories that are personal to the speaker,” Hari Sankar of Kommune tells Express. “The future is moving towards analogue. Digital has become too heavy. People want to have real conversations like we all used to have before digital came in.”
Kochi will host The Storytellers at ChaiCofi on May 6 from 5 to 7 pm. The first such session was organised two years ago. “Because I am from Kochi, it is important and personal for me to bring the session here,” says Hari, who will also take the mic on Sunday. Personalities such as Malayalam director Indhu Nampoothiri, stand-up comedian Vinay Menon and others will share their stories. Unlike the last time, The Storytellers will only take in people on a paid ticket. “The idea is to keep the event as intimate and vulnerable as possible,” Hari says.
Giving a platform to local story-tellers, people send their entries to the Kommune’s Youtube channel or Facebook page. From this, the potentially best entries are shortlisted. Their story-telling skills are, subsequently, fine-tuned before they narrate their stories.
“However, we have only received five to six entries from Kochi. This is because, as a concept, story-telling is unheard of in the city. I think this will be a stepping ground,” he says.Along with the story-telling concept, Kommune also conducts workshops on how to do story-telling better. “People have a lot of good stories. But many of them are incapable of sharing them effectively,” says Hari. So far, Kommune has organised various story-telling workshops in the country.