On your career journey?
I was born and brought up in Delhi. I did my school and collage from Delhi. I did my post-graduation in Mass Communication in Delhi University. I did my first media internship at Transasia’s Swagat. I then joined Hindustan Times, Dainik Jagaran, Rastra Sahara and Amar Ujala. These are Hindi publications and Hindi newspapers. I then worked with the Electronic Media production centre of IGNOU. I joined AIR as a newsreader. Then, I got married and moved to Singapore where I worked at DAV Hindi School. I did a few shows in Singapore on Indian Diaspora. Then, I was running a website called Inside Sport. We moved to the US. I joined a Hindi Business news platform entracker. Business is not my field. For most of my career, I worked in Art and Culture and Education and Career. In 2018, I started my journey into storytelling. I loved the mic and being on stage. When we moved back from the US, I used to teach social skills to my daughter through storytelling. In the global context, stories are used to teach children in the US, UK and Europe. The social stories cover topics like hygiene and puberty. The social stories for special needs kids are very useful. When we moved to India, I wanted to take these stories to the classroom. I knew that storytelling was specially needed for special education needs. The question was ‘can you tell the story?’ I had online experience through radio. I believe in telling stories of real life characters. When I had to teach my daughter, I used to make up stories with real life characters. When I narrated the stories to the girls – the response was very good. I like learning. I started by joining online events during Covid. I realised that storytelling was a full time profession that I could do. I did a lot of Level 1 storytelling courses and got associated with a lot of storytelling associations in India. I could do it online. I was a judge for several Lit Fests. Shimla Lit Fest and Jharkand Lit Fest. I have done storytelling for publications like NBT. I have done Storytelling for the Rashtrapati Bhavan. I am also a transcriber for Hindi. I don’t do word to word translations. I have done a book on mental health. I have done a few other books. I have done a few other books for different publishers in India. I love theatre and am a part of a lot of theatre groups. I love learning. Even when I was in Singapore and my husband was in ESPN, I did my A-Levels in Hindi when I was working in DAV Hindi school from Cambridge. They had a centre there. Due to this I am a qualified teacher in Hindi.
Do you think being in the media is different from being in storytelling?
When I joined the media, I was always into reading and music. I used to cover events in musical nights and I was into feature writing or storytelling. Because of this I could not see much difference between being in the media and storytelling. When I was a child, I used to tell a lot of stories. I still remember I used to send many stories to newspapers. There was a storyteller in me from the very beginning. On Sundays, I would read the newspaper to my father. I used to read comics – Archies and Chacha Chowdhary in Hindi.
Could you talk about the need for regional storytelling?
I co-judged a festival in Chhattisgarh. There were a lot of storytelling who had gathered there. The thing I noticed was many were narrating a story in English. The children did narrate in Assamese, Bangla, Odiya. Kids in northern India narrated in English. They were doing it in other languages and I was so touched that they were not concerned with the judging and they had encouraged the children to narrate in regional languages and in their own mother tongue. Often in other places, very few tellers are comfortable in telling stories in their mother tongue. Adult storytelling is often in English. So are many festivals.
Hindi is my expressive language. The language I am more comfortable with.
क्या आप हिंदी स्टोरीटेलिंग के बारे मैं बात कर सकती है?
मैं प्रेमचन्द, शिवानी और अमृता प्रीतम की किताबे पड़ती थी। जब मैं स्टोरीटेलिंग मैं आयी तब मैंने देखा की जब मैं हिंदी साहित्य की कहानिया बचो को पदाथि हूँ तो वह बच्चो को बहुत अच्छा लगता हे। सुधा मूर्ति की भारतीय दर्शन कहानिया भी बचो को बहुत अच्छी लगती है। हालाँकि ये इंग्लिश मैं है फिर भी बहुत अच्छी है।
क्या आप बता सकती है की स्टोरीटेलिंग की दुनिया मैं क्या चल रहा है?
भारती संस्कृति से जुड़े हुई किताबे से हिंदी का ज्ञान बढ़ता है। डैमोंड कॉमिक्स, नाने सम्राट, जंगलो के जानवर की कहानी – सबसे मुझे प्रेणा मिलती ह। अब हिंदी पुब्लिकेशन्स भी आ गयी है – प्रथम बुक्स, एकतारा । बचो के लिए हिंदी पब्लिकेशन और किंडल नहीं नहीं दुनिया खोल दे थी ह। ये सभिहि बचो को कल्पना सीखा थी है। बचो के पुब्लिकेशन्स बहुत इम्पोर्टेन्ट हो गयी ह।
मैं एक कम्पटीशन की जज थी। करीबन १५-१७ बचो ने चाट जीपीटी का इस्तेमाल कर के कहानिया पेश की। ऑर्गेनिसेर्स ने मुझे बोले, “आस्था जो तुमने चाट जीपीटी जनरेटेड बोली वे बाकि जजस ने भी बोलै की चाट जीपीटी जनरेटेड थी” । मैं ने बोलै, “जो कहानिया चाट जीपीटी के है, उनमे इमोशंस नहीं होता है”।
मैं ने एक और कम्पटीशन जज किया। इस में ५१ कहांनियों में से ६-७ हिंदी में थी। हिंदी हारी और इंग्लिश जीती। बचे तो आज कल होम वर्क भी चाट जीपीटी से करते है। दुःख तो होता है।
I think any form of performing art – storytelling, theatre is needed for children. Anything that connects them to nature and culture.
क्या आप कोइ कलेक्शंस को सोर्स की तरह देखती है?
मेरे लिए इमेजिनेशन कहानिया ही ठीक है। मैं घर से त्यार करने से अच्छा – ऑडियंस को देख के इम्प्रॉटो ऑडियंस को कहानी सुनना प्रेफर करती हू।
क्या आप अनपे थिएटर एक्सपीरियंस के बारे मैं बता सकती है?
मैं आर्ट एंड कल्चर को देखती थी। जब मैं मीडिया मैं थी।
मुझे लगा कोविद के बाद की मुझे अपने लिए भी कुछ करना है। मैं ने थिएटर ग्रुप ज्वाइन किया। मैंने अपने आप को पहचाना थ्रू थिएटर। मेरा पहला प्ले गांधारी था। २०२४ में मैंने थिएटर ज्वाइन किया । बहुत अच्छा एक्सपीरियंस थ। । गांधारी एक मैथोलॉजिकल चैरेक्टर का आधुनिक टेक था। मैंने मॉडर्न कृष्णा प्ले किया।
Story Practices 