Could you talk about your career journey?
I started as an Early Childhood Educator. When I started, I did not have a background in Early Childhood Education. I had done a BCom with an MBA in Finance. When I moved from Madurai to Thanjavur, my aunt who ran a school in Salem, asked me to start a playschool in Thanjavur. She said there was no quality playschool. This was in 2009. I started the Squirrels playschool and every year 80-100 students study in the playschool. I love reading picture books and board books to the children. This is how my storytelling journey started.
Could you talk about your experience of reading and storytelling to children?
The more picture books i read I started getting different perspectives. Children don’t have any prejudices. They say what they think. It is raw and right out of their mouths.
Do you read Indian picture books or world picture books or a combination of both?
It is a combination of Indian and World Picture books. There are not many Indian board books. I like reading books which form a part of series – Elma, Maisy the mouse, Humphrey the elephant, Peter the rabbit etc. When it is a series, children relate to it much better.
I read Karadi Tales, Tulika Books, Pratham Books for Indian perspectives to be known to children.
Could you talk about your storytelling journey?
My storytelling outside the school started in 2022. I became a part of spectrum the awareness project in Feb 2022. That led me to do storytelling sessions. I did storytelling to create awareness around inclusion. I did storytelling in schools around Thanjavur. I did the facebook page of Spectrum – the awareness project. I am more of a writer than a storyteller. I like historical stories and stories revolving around Indic knowledge systems.
