BENGALURU : There’s a lot of comfort one can find in a story, particular in a time like this, where the world waits for its happily ever after from the pandemic. The Bengaluru Storytelling Festival, the annual event of Bangalore Storytelling Society, will be held in a virtual avatar this year.
“There are many online events at the moment that we knew we wanted to do something special. We decided to keep our festival succinct, with sessions spread out over one day,” says professional storyteller Aparna Athreya, who along with Aparna Jaishankar, Lavanya Prasad, Shylaja Sampath, Sowmya Srinivasan and Vikram Sridhar, forms the core team.
Taking place on Dec. 19, the theme for the festival is Locales and Lores. The first session (`200) kicks off with children’s author and BangaloreWalks co-founder Roopa Pai. “This is about the British history of the city – how Bengaluru came to be Bangalore. We hope it opens people’s eyes to the rich history,” says Sridhar.
Laughter is the best medicine so the team was keen to include a generous dose of it. The second session (`200) is called Comedy in Corona and is for those aged 16 and above. “We have standup comedians, writers and storytellers looking at the lighter side of life in a pandemic. We wanted the audience to be treated to humorous stories that provide relief from the things we are going through with Covid-19,” says Sampath.
During last year’s festival, the team also organised a treasure hunt for children in Cubbon Park. Since a physical recreation wasn’t possible this year, the members managed to pull off something similar online instead. This session (`350) is open to children aged between 5 and 12, and one parent who can accompany them. “We have come up with a game-based storytelling concept where children will have to crack puzzles, enact something or do similar fun activities to receive links to virtual locations. We’re using Zoom for this,” explains Srinivasan.
The closing session (`200) is called In and Around: Tales from the Neighbourhood, and sums up one of the side-effects of the pandemic – the blurring of borders. “We have storytellers from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh to treat the audience to tales from their land,” says Prasad.
The event is on Dec. 19. Tickets: Instamojo