In conversation with Amita Khare
Amita Khare is a performance storyteller by profession living in Gurgaon. She is a certified storyteller from Kathalaya Academy of Story Telling and is the face behind Suno Kahaani, a platform where storytelling and books are used as tools to encourage children and adults to develop emotions, feelings, instil virtues and help them understand cultural roots and heritage.
Amita believes that all of us are storytellers in one way or the other. Her storytelling journey started when her elder son was born. As a new mother, she narrated stories to her son which led to him becoming a voracious reader. When her son reached Grade 1, she introduced her son and his friends to good stories, rather than introducing him to conventional literature books. It was more of a hobby when she was in Mumbai but eventually it became her profession when she shifted to Gurgaon.
The turning point for her was when she got an email from her son’s school that they were looking for a storyteller. She started with no professional background in the field of storytelling in her son’s school and within a year she started visiting a lot of schools.
She believes stories are all about experiences. Being a voracious reader helps her decide what is relevant for the kids. Apart from reading, being observant about the background of children, their social struggles and the nature of a region helps determine how the storytelling must be weaved. Exposing children to old folktales and regional stories is pretty unheard of but today the art of storytelling for children in this particular style has been picking up. Amita strongly believes that you can teach a child to learn anything through the medium of stories.
For her, storytelling is a very innate thing and one should be very passionate about narrating a story, talking and connecting with people. One can take up storytelling courses, where they teach you the technical formats like voice modulation, expressions, etc. But inherently every storyteller has their own unique style of telling a story.
Online platforms are the best way to find new opportunities and platforms like YouTube are a big hit, where people have been putting up their stories. Apart from online platforms, one can have kids over at home and take regular classes. But to reach masses, online platforms are the best medium.
She believes One Page Spotlight is an incredible platform for anyone who is interested in storytelling. Through this platform, she can now reach out to a wider audience where this medium can receive its due recognition that it deserves.
One Page Spotlight now has a budding community of aspiring and experienced storytellers called Once Upon A Time. Join us and relive your childhood with these storytellers.
