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It is said that the shortest distance between two people is a story. And India is a treasure
Ashwin Sanghi, Author
house of such stories. Alas, our children know more about Harry Potter than the
Pañcatantra; more about Superman than Hanumān. Kutty Kahani is a valiant effort to plug
this gap by bringing our ancient wisdom to children through children.”
Kutty Kahani was inspired by Hon. Prime Minister’s Mann ki Baat on 27th September, 2020 and his vision of the importance of storytelling, to build values.
The CoViD-19 pandemic saw a resurgence of novel teaching methods, as teachers and students across the globe were forced to find new ways of connecting, learning, and growing. Within Bhāratavarṣa, as well as within the Hindu diaspora across the globe, this also meant new ways of imparting our unique value systems, specifically adopting virtual supplements to continue cultural transmission from the Hindu lens. During lockdown, there were a whole crop of virtual summer camps, online courses, and projects led-by and starring youth, for the youth - coordinated by their parents, grandparents, and elders.
Enter “Kutty Kahani”, one such gem.
A first-of-its kind, this video-embedded ebook has been lauded by no less than the Prime Minister himself, as well as by Śrī. Bibek Debroy, Śrī. Anand Ranganathan, Śrī. Amish, Śrī. Ashwin Sanghi and Śrīm. Sai Swaroopa Iyer.
Kutty Kahani is produced by one of India’s most eminent and renowned classical dancers and dance scholars, Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant, who was conferred with the Padma Śrī in 2007. She is the founder of Nāṭyārambha, a first of its kind Bharatanāṭyam practice app, launched in January 2017, and now followed across the globe. Padma Śrī Dr. Jayant also served the Ministry of Railways as a senior officer.
Her ebook, ‘Kutty Kahani’, is torch-bearing in multiple ways:
- It’s a digital book of fun-filled short videos, with children telling 55 Indic stories in musical fashion. These video sing-alongs capture stories in 11 languages, through the lens of performing arts.
- The video pages are enhanced by digital design and interspersed with timeless themes from Indian history and culture. It also includes wonderful graphic illustrations by Gunjan Ashtaputre.
- It’s by the children and for the children: Young storytellers explore stories from our Itihāsas, Purāṇas, Bhakti paramparās, Āyurveda śāstras and more, imparting the timeless wisdom of Bhāratavarṣa.
- The young storytellers in the book are from across the globe - all over India, UK, USA, Singapore and Malaysia - and gear their performances towards children between the ages of six and thirteen.
- Viewers of all ages can read, listen, see, learn and know about myriads of aspects of India’s vast history and deep knowledge systems.
Kutty Kahani aims to nurture young minds through values and knowledge learnt from India’s rich wisdom. It is an absolutely new way of sharing India’s timeless stories and eternal truth. It is a classic application of storytelling tradition being practiced by the children, wherein elders tell ancient and relevant tales to the young and enable them to tell their own tales in the bargain.
It is a refreshing new concept, an inventive option for parents to turn to while raising their children in rapidly changing times. After all, there is no evading, the Disney, Marvel content with the rise of OTT and personal gadgets at younger age groups. But, when there is a choice to introduce this kind of timeless, authentic and culturally relevant content that also presents an opportunity to keep our kids rooted, why not?
Reading it is an immersive experience with brief ‘Did You Know’ text and cheerful image capsules, as adjuncts to the visual media stories. Like this one, which highlights the rich regional history of Bhāratavarṣa -
Where can I get this for my loved ones?
Kutty Kahani is a Kindle ebook available on Amazon, globally - not only on Amazon India or Amazon.com, but across other the global Amazon portals as well.
What makes it so relevant today?
In the inter-generational space, one aspect is becoming very clear. Baby-boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y/ Millennials, all are slowly awakening to the civilizational battles being waged. There is an overall loss of integrated lifestyle leading to a lack of individual and collective wholesomeness, and well-being. Not only this, young parents today are seeing the negative effects of the multitude of screens and excessive screen time in every-day life. Be it cell phones, laptops, TVs, and/or the permutations and combinations of all these - the social and cognitive abilities of children seem to be declining by the day.
Moreover, the loss of the previously seen ‘joint family’ - growing up with grandparents, aunts, uncles, older cousins, and just in general, elders and little ones all under the same roof: it comes with its own privations, one of which being deprived of proper storytelling.
We all are gradually becoming more and more aware that the protection of the self-identity, and inculcation of sustainable values in the next generation must be accomplished;
(1) intentionally and (2) with no further delay.
May there be many more such works that give life to the story-telling tradition of our civilization, that bridge the gap between future generations and previous ones, as well as that which address the unnecessary identity challenges that the young of today are battling with.