She has been listening to stories from babyhood and telling stories practically from the time she could speak. But, says Jeeva Raghunath, "Only recently did I discover story-telling as a profession". Every sentence she utters is so animated. Therein lies her power to relate. You can hardly recognize her voice as she starts on her story. A swirl of words sweeps the children off their feet and carries them to another world. Her voice comes alive, her body following suit, with the characters of the story, be they majestic elephants or cunning wolves, the clever Birbal or the royal Akbar. Other storytellers use props. Jeeva says she is her own prop. "I must thank my genes," she says. "My mother and grandmother were great storytellers and I developed a passion for it. I don't speak like normal people. I just can't simply state a thing. I begin at the beginning and describe things in great detail with actions and voices. I love to narrate things.
An alumna of Vidyodaya, Jeeva later graduated from the WCC, all along actively participating in cultural and art activities, in drawing, painting or singing, anything, though dramatics was her forte. For 25 years, Jeeva was a teacher, first for the toddlers in WCC's pre-school and later for the teenagers teaching French. Then she ran her own school, 'Saplings' for some time. Meeting Radhika Menon, a friend from Vidyodaya days now the Managing Editor of Tulika Publications and director of 'Good Books - Children's Book Store and Resource Center', became a turning point in her life and career. Radhika offered her the Marketing Manager's position at Tulika. Since it dealt with marketing children's books, she agreed readily and was soon a big success. Jeeva began storytelling sessions in some of the city schools in what was called the 'Reading Corner'. Her first public performance was at Manasthala, where she read out her own Tamil translation of "Priya's Days". Its huge success prompted them to begin such sessions in 'Good Books' itself and now her weekend story telling programmes have a long waiting list of children eager to enroll.
To be a good storyteller calls for involvement; love for telling stories and, above all, hard work.
"Story telling is not an easy job. Believe me I have lost weight since I took this as a profession! Stories have to be carefully selected to suit different age groups and then have to be worked over again and again. All the five senses of a storyteller have to be alert. Also, you have to constantly learn. I think I learn from the children and not the other way round." To avoid monotony, she intersperses the narrations with songs in various languages, sometimes in sing-along fashion. "Now that I have taken it up as a profession, I think about it seriously," she says.
Last summer, Jeeva attended a six-week workshop in Delhi conducted by Cathy Spagnioly of "Telling Tales from Asia", who described Jeeva as a 'natural story teller'. She is now preparing for a trip to Singapore to conduct workshops in creative writing and storytelling in Tamil. In future trips, Jeeva hopes to add items of culture and heritage like 'kolam' decoration, festoons and decoration with lamps.
