The Storytellers

This is the story behind Katha Kids.

Subba Rao is our Chief Storyteller. He worked with Anant Pai and Kamala Chandrakant to tell stories from Indian mythology, history and folklore in the Amar Chitra Katha series. Later, the team came out with the idea of a comics digest for children, TINKLE. Subbu narrated many of the stories which appeared in TINKLE, Luis Fernandes scripted them and Kamala edited them. Now, where did Subbu get those stories from? These were the stories he had heard from his blind grandmother, Godavari Ajji, who must have heard them from her grandmother! Thus, stories flow down the ages like a river. One can trace the source of a river, but not the origin of a story!

As a child, Subbu used to accompany his mother to a Hanuman temple in the neighbourhood. Here, a traditional storyteller would recite verses from the Mahabharata and explain its meaning for an hour every day. For three years, Subbu listened to stories from the great epic. During the Ram Navami season in the month of March, pandals would be put up to accommodate a large audience. For ten days, traditional storytellers would tell stories from mythology; the stories would be spiced up with songs to the accompaniment of harmonium and tabla. Subbu would not miss a single session, earning the ire of his father, who was worried that his son’s studies would suffer. As luck would have it, when he grew up and was looking for employment, Subbu got a job as a story writer!

When Subbu started telling stories to his son, Siddharth, the little fellow would demand stories to be told of things that he pointed at — clouds, crow, ceiling fan, cupboard and so on. Soon, Krishna, Siddharth’s younger brother joined the fun.

When the kids grew up and got busy with their work, storytelling in Subbu’s household took a back seat. Then came Eesha, Subbu’s grand-daughter. As she started growing up, the dormant story teller in Subbu woke up. He started telling stories to Eesha. This was a new Avatar. Eesha calls him Subbu Tata (Grandpa Subbu). Eesha’s cousins, Sahil, Ishir, and friends also join in the story sessions. So as dusk falls, kids listen to stories from Subbu Tata. The good old stories are now taking new colours.

Subbu Tata says: “I’ve great fun telling these stories to kids. These are Katha Kids, kids who love stories.”

Every time you tell a story it gets a new life. No story is told in the same way twice. When you read a story, it comes alive in your mind. The story that comes alive in your own imagination is a new story. Thus, stories live forever. They are evergreen.

What’s more, while children find it fun to listen to or read stories, underneath the stories are subtle hints about how people behave, their motives, their drive; thus, in a way stories prepare children for the real world they would soon enter. Vishnu Sharma and Aesop were not only good storytellers, they also helped the listeners to understand the world through their stories.

We want to extend the joy of stories and storytelling to our friends, family, their friends, and the whole world. Katha Kids is our effort to spread the LOVE for stories and reading.

Siddharth today is a digital marketer. He is the dream merchant urging kids and their parents to click on kathakids.com. Krishna, who writes travel shows and documentaries, coordinates editorial operations. Gururaj Rao edits the stories.

We are supported by friends love kids and storytelling. Friends like Gayatri Madan Dutt, who writes stories and Goutam Sen, Mohan Das, Saumya and Marina, who are illustrating stories. More friends will be joining us soon.

Have fun. Read a story. Tell a story. Listen to a story.

Story tellers:

· Subba Rao

· Krishna Rao

. Gayatri Madan Dutt

Copy Editor: Gururaj Rao

Illustrations:

· Goutam Sen

· Mohandas

· Marina

· Saumya Shukla

Logo design:

Bhavesh Sawant