Kathalaya Impact Interviews
Your career journey?
I would describe my career journey as pre storytelling and post storytelling. In my pre storytelling career, I had 15 years of corporate career with 10 years in Colgate Palmolive as a social media analyst. It was a bright start with Colgate Palmolive and I have no complaints from this beginning.
The during storytelling period – I realised even in my previous job – I love helping people in how they can present themselves better. People are often very technically savvy but they could not articulate themselves. I found myself in a situation when I was always helping someone or the other. In 2023, I had a sudden wish I wanted to do something else. I made a list of everything I could do. I had written 5 children’s books. I was always good with children and would tell them stories. I did not know storytelling as a profession existed. My home and my job had been the two things that had been my path. I realised storytelling was something I was interested in doing.
In July 2025, I started my journey as a storytelling performer. I was at the Goa Literature Festival I met Vanessa who is a puppeteer – she introduced me to Kathalaya. We got to discussing storytelling and I told her I want to do some certification in the area. Vanessa said, “Geeta Ma’am takes this.”
In April 2025, I did the Kathalaya beginner’s course. In July, I went to Tiruvannamalai for the anthardhavani course. Then I did the diploma course. This year, I associated with Kathalaya three times. I have been recently introduced to storytelling. I have been doing children’s storytelling, events, storytelling for NGOs and schools. So far, my audience has been children. I do intend to explore storytelling for adults, storytelling for mental health etc.
Could you talk about Storytelling as a career?
What I realised was that I have always been telling stories – only thing was I did not make a career out of it till recently. I got used to telling stories to my kid. Everyday, I would tell her a new story. I could have made a collection from these stories. I find telling stories to children delightful. Children have this sense of wonder that I am really impressed with – i can’t think in this way. Through storytelling you see things better. I want to make a difference in the world of children.
Could you talk about how being a people’s person helped in the art of storytelling?
I have always loved being surrounded by people. I love to be with people. It gives me joy if I bring a story into someone’s life. I am sure it will help them some day if not immediately. I can remember my lessons better if someone told them to me in a story format.
Could you talk about your storytelling training at Kathalaya?
I have seen people telling me I am a changed person in a few months – I have more clarity, using silence. I couldn’t see anything will happen unless I speak up – only of I speak things will change. Antardhvani introduced me to silence. I did not understand silence as a practice till this happened. I believed in speech only. The course made me look within myself. It taught me to identify what troubles me, what triggers. When think about two people talking to each other. It’s like they are looking at a mirror, and you are looking at a mirror. How you communicate depends on how clean your own mirror is. My mirror was made murky by a lot of opinions, everyone has biases, I was set in a certain way of thinking. Taking storytelling as a career brought a lot of change in me.
Story Practices 
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