Could you talk about if we are in midst of a storytelling revolution? How India’s age old history of storytelling is responsible for this?

India has a rich culture of stories. We are definitely in the middle of a storytelling movement. This happened to the US in the 1970s. India is known for Shruti and rich traditional stories – the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Panchatantra, the Jataka Tales, Vikram Betal, Akbar Birbal – all these storytelling traditions are being revived in a new fashion. These storytelling festivals, global connections are resulting in a major revival of the art form.

Even if we say that television and social media has trapped us into our lives, people do want something more, something more entirely and storytelling is just that.

Could you talk about your MBA in Pune, and how it shaped you up as a storyteller?

MBA was different. While I prefer academics and have always enjoyed teaching, and I took a career into teaching, the MBA helped – how to do things better, staying alert and in 1995 things were very different from what we are doing today. It was a different time at that time.

Could you talk about your experience  in writing academic books for primary school going children?

I wrote academic books for primary school going children, this was in collaboration with my younger sister. We wrote a series of books on environmental science and science. I tell stories to children and to adults. When I tell a story to a child it is different. You are teaching them empathy, kindness and how to appreciate culture. When you are telling stories to adults, it changes their perspective.

Could you talk about the responsibilities of being a storyteller?

I write also. I have been told that my written stories have changed the reader’s perspectives. I am doing my bit in giving back to society. As storytellers, we are social entrepreneurs and we are agents of change. There is this quote by Jane Goodall, “If you can tell a story that reaches the heart, even if you do not know it at the time, you may have planted the seed of change,” and through my storytelling, I am doing that.