Storytelling-Journey from Unknown to Known
Glimpses of listening to various stories told by my paternal grandmother were perhaps one of the most beautiful days of my childhood. Most of the stories told by her would be connected to Sri Vaishava philosophy, mythology, and also some humorous stories based on her personal experiences encountered which she would very skillfully create into a story and tell. My journey of listening to the stories began then. I somehow liked to listen to a person's life experience-be good, bitter, challenging, adventurous, or an amusement kind, I enjoyed listening to them thoroughly. My favorite storytellers are vegetable sellers, a cobbler, flower sellers, maidservants-domestic workers, milkmen or milkmaids, masons, tailors, old women, and so on. Each one had something interesting to share. This helped me again, to understand the cultural aspects of various religions, caste, class, creed, and so on. My grandmother perhaps belonged to the earliest form of storytelling-