Art of story telling : Geeta Ramanujam at TEDxNMIMSBangalore

good evening from nothing from silence oh no sounds and the sound started coming out of nothing and these sounds traveled and the sounds were received because people could perceive these sounds became row now go out grab act right it became a lot of things and then it became words and from words we attended system yet we started talking and then we had languages and styles of speaking right so the unity came between this nothing and the word the tomato crossed the road and went patek we understand doesn't have any meaning right forever he fell down Tamil ouch all over the world people understand it so with every evolution from nothing to thought word indeed we have come to banking on smaller portions of life like words substituting words getting hurt by words feeling with words virtual realities and going further and further and further away from what is and is is our being what we are once upon a time there was the mountain and he was very very very lonely and then this mountain was longing for a friend and when it was longing for a friend there came a bird and sat in the shoulder of this mountain said I'll be a friend why not so this is how I would tell a story now but if I were to tell the story some time ago I would probably experience it I would look at all of you because the energy comes from the audience listen so when you listen the audience are equally energetic as the teller we are on the same platform and what are you listening to not just words but you are listening to my being my feelings once upon a time they said there was a huge big mountain and this mountain was made of all the elements here a little bit of fire he had a little bit of water he had some space and he stood eyes closed like a yogi and he could sense the clouds moving he could feel the colors of the Sun inside himself from a deep orange to a yellow and a deep yellow and then again blue sky and darkness was very happy with himself with his own solitude between the earth and heaven absolutely empty when there came something which created a change now what is constant is change nothing is you know been the same way so now there is a change that I had to happen that would happen so somewhere inside this mountain he started feeling a look a little thing going up a little restlessness through a craving a feeling of loneliness waiting for a friend perhaps we don't know because the mountain outside looked perfect in psycho and there came boy bird and this bird came huh good because he had hurt it left wing so this bird was a she bird saw this huge blog and came and sat on the shoulder as a mountain being sensitive are you grumbled and rumbled and the bird said I'm a little bird cool I've come from the Himalayas you know you know I've been coming with my mother father uncle brother cousin to the cousin sister and I hurt my left wing can I stay for a while piece about mountain said I don't understand anything oh you can't move no you're fixed yes how's that the mountain said I've perfectly fine but you said something about the Himalayas yeah right and so this bird started telling a lot of stories from the Himalayan region and as this bird started telling the stories the mountain listen aha oho you knowing the night days when they go made cups and it's like a Snow Leopard oh and then what does your mother do oh she told me how to protect my if okay so ah the stories continue and there is a relationship and a bonding that happens between the bird and the mountain and mountain being a girl a young girl she keeps on and on hearing about leg away with anybody wouldn't and the mountain listens and listens until the birds beak wing becomes alright and she says now it's time for me to go by mountain says oh you just came yes my I have to go because my mother father yeah I understand okay my but as she begins to fly she realizes that there's something that's not very that she can't explain that she doesn't want to leave this mountain because the mountain says you know you have Lord of friends but I you're the first friend and this bird says you know what I come back next year at the same time and the mountain says oh I'll wait for you and the bird returns just as the beautiful Sun is going down and the reflection on the bird's wings and for the first time the mountain is watching that bird fly away now this is just a story but if I have if I want you to believe that this mountain has feelings it all depends on how the storyteller is going to shape that story isn't it so the elements of storytelling are very important for a person who communicates and I used to use the story a lot when I used to tell or teach history for the children in school because history is full of dates it's always about the past so when I build up a story inside the story which is what our Puranic stories were all about it was if you look at the Panchatantra if you look at the data curtails it's a story into a story into a story into a story so that's what storytelling was about - what happened next so we have Lord of what you call associated tales so in those days learning happen when someone listened with active interest so it was an innate energetic field between the teller and the listener for instance there's a lot of folk tales about India's independence - once upon a time in a folk town there were a lot of people and they did not want the British - getting so they were talking amongst themselves from coming in and the villagers said let's do something let's get together and try what we can do but nobody came up with the answer the barber said the next morning I think ah he will come straight because he's a British gentleman so he will come straight to me to have a shave right so okay so he'll come to have a shave so he will come in only to me first now this barber he was ready and the British gentleman comes and sits in the chair and says yes and now the barber is ready sir I'll give you perfect shave sir so now he puts on this cloth and and then he puts on the cloud for them for the British gentleman and then he is waiting and just as he is about to start shaving he looks to the side and he says oh what's that needle and thread doing the barbershop know sometimes no when I share that little bit cuts here so sometimes you know the flesh is there so I want to stitch it oh I see and the British gentleman has already started getting a little afraid now he looks and then he sees all right and just as he's about to again put the knife he says what's that doing over there that the bow and the arrow that I told you know when I cut lump times this flesh hanging out so the crow coming and Peggy so to drive that crow I use bow and arrow so now he's almost rising from his chair and he says yeah but go ahead and he looks to the other side and there's a huge dagger and he says the dagger doing here he says sir sometimes I also get caught with my wife memories and I thinking of her and that time when I'm shaving no fool cut that so when he'd be hanging there not very good so take the dagger and what I don't want to get into this town at all he says and he runs away from there so you see it is the wisdom of the local village people who together have managed to drive away the British gentleman from coming into the town so there is something that we don't have today in our education system is wisdom or the thieving power because you're so caught again in what we are doing than in our being isn't it would you agree yes so there are various elements when I have to tell a story when I have to be a communicator when I have to be a teacher because I am in the class 40 minutes 40 minutes 40 minutes 40 minutes 40 minutes so how do I make an audience interesting what is it that I need to equip myself when I have to be a teller so the elements may be a little bit of voice yes voice plays a very important role how I transmit it since it's all about transaction so I could have a voice which is right so I could use a little bit you know you you know the teachers teach baa baa black sheep have you any wool yes sir yes sir three bags full once upon a time there was a crow he was very thirsty went looking for water everywhere and then he found a jug of water and then finished right so it's very monotonous so I could probably tell the story as once upon a time there was a crew was very thirsty he went looking for water and then he found the Jack of water there's very little water and then he looked around and he dropped the peppers the water came bloop bloop bloop bloop drank the water and flew away can't happen right now I don't have to tell the story like this I could still tell the story as once upon a time there was a grow who was very thirsty and Kaka haha he went looking for water instead of saying the cat goes meow meow dog goes bow-wow isn't it so we have a very monotonous mechanical way of teaching and learning so voice plays a very important role as a communicator in a class so there was a solute on it comes from here yeah quack the duck comes from sure tiny Thumbelina you could fill into my hands we could get the voice you could have a little music when you're telling a story to keep the audience attentive so these are probably some of the elements and my body language I could use gestures you know Indians naturally we use a lot of gestures so we always say even in our dance forces right do you like it yes so we use a lot of gestures but what prevents all this from being expressed is myself it's my I would say two things very important poles that prevents one is fear and one is that I'm not confident at all which is related to fear and what prevents me is my ego yeah because I've become today so self-centered so rather than centering in the self we've become very self-centered what will people think I'll be sued if I tell the wrong word isn't it so with more and more evolution and more print and more things I agree that it's very important for us to connect but also that it has increased the fears in our society so you cannot be godly was the change that he wanted the world to see so he was the change but what is preventing us from being that change is all these hurdles right so I just want to sum up by saying that a lot of things happen through stories one can communicate reach out and go back into what you are so stories come from Silence stories are sustained in silence stories are carried forward by silence and stories return to silence and silence is all thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 83,834

Keywords: TEDxNMIMSBangalore, ted talk, tedx, Geeta Ramanujam, NMIMS Bangalore, ted x, ted, ted talks, tedx talks, tedx talk

Id: P2ccK66KKe8

Length: 17min 55sec (1075 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2013