Story Wok’s 3rd episode focuses on India.

When we think about stories from India, the epics like Mahabharat and Ramayan jump to mind. Every Indian has grown up listening to stories from the Panchatantra, while the wit and wisdom of Birbal and Tenali Raman make their stories hugely popular.

So, in this episode there are three contrasting tales from the Mahabharat (Veena Seethepalli, India) Panchatantra (CS Radha, India) and a fun folktale from Punjab (Priyanka Chatterjee, India), in our Meso, Dim Sum and Fortune cookie segments respectively.

For our entrée, we chat with a member (Prakrati Agrawal, India) of FEAST INDIA CHAPTER (FIC), the first Special Interest Group of FEAST.

The Story Wok Podcast production team then gathers in the pantry to share some of their favourite sources for finding authentic Indian stories and we’ve listed these below for your convenience.

And in the Tadka, the story clinic, there’s practical advice if you want to use props in your storytelling by Nupur Aggarwal(India)

Here’s a list of authentic Indian story books referred to in the Pantry 

Shereen:

• Folktales from India by A.K Ramanujan, Penguin Books
• The Panchatantra - Teaching Tales of Old India, Retold by Narindar Uberoi Kelly, Hachette India
• For Indian Mythology

The Daughter from a Wishing Tree by Sudha Murthy, Puffin Books

Shikhandi and other queer tales they don't tell you by Devdutt Pattanaik, Penguin 

Books

Meher:

• Sacked by Deepa Agarwal
• Books by Sudha murthy
• Folktales retold & published by Karadi tales & Tulika

Krupa

• Treasury of Asian Stories and Activities for Schools and Libraries - Cathy Spagnoli Link for purchase 

Ritu Vaish:

Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma  Link for amazon

Rituparna Ghosh:

• The World of Indian Stories - A teaching resource of folktales from every state - Cathy Spagnoli (Tulika)
• The Legend of Himal and Nagrai - Folktales from Punjab - Onaiza Drabu (Speaking Tiger)
• Shehzadi Mircha - Folktales from Punjab - Flora Annie Steel (Speaking Tiger)

Episode Hosts

Ritu Vaish has have been an educationist designing, developing and delivering English skill development courses and curriculum for over three decades. As a podcaster, she has a weekly story podcast: Story Prism.

Roger Jenkins is a Singaporean storyteller, a co-founder and Director of FEAST. He came to storytelling via theatre which explains his style that combines both a strong sense of the theatrical with a relaxed, conversational manner-born of his work in improvised comedy. He has a keen interest in promoting accessibility – he is a trained audio describer for the blind and has a deaf tandem-storytelling partner. 

Featured Tellers:

Veena Seethepalli is an educator, storyteller and volunteer who believes that mythology and cultural tales must be told to children to pass down wisdom. As a former preschool teacher, Veena often integrated stories into the curriculum. As a volunteer at government schools she teaches English and personal well-being narrating personal stories. Her travels, interest in Art and gardening find their way into her storytelling. 

CS Radha is a Carnatic Musician and uses her voice modulation, intonation, and gestures to tell stories and sing rhymes. She has lent her voice to over 500 animation rhymes, educational videos and presentations. Her YouTube Channel “Reach World Music” has songs from different genres and languages.

Priyanka Chatterjee aka 'Golpodidi' is an International Story Consultant, an MBA (Gold Medallist), a Design Thinker, an Organic and Organisational storyteller, an Expressive Arts Practitioner and an alumna of International Institute of Storytelling, Emerson College, UK. She's the Director, Storytelling Education and Arts India Council. With 15+ years’ experience in Fortune 500 MNCs & leading Indian Media House, she founded 'Wild Strawberry' - an Art Exploration Organisation. Till date, 'Wild Strawberry' is tasted by 2.5 lakh children and 50,000 adults as Chatterjee has travelled the world with her story bag.

Nupur Aggarwal works as a Teacher Trainer and Story Coach with schools in India, helping teachers leverage storytelling in classrooms. She loves adapting folktales and can be seen travelling across the country enthralling audiences with her skilfully told tales. Her telling style has been appreciated to be energetic, interactive and engaging.

Prakrati Agrawal and Nandita Sankaran

are a team of two passionate individuals, who with their similar interests in Indian mythology and their ancient wisdom of sages, started Story-Mitr in 2020.

Prakrati Agrawal, BE in Computer Science and now a Montessori practitioner and Kathalaya certified storyteller. 

Nandita Sankaran was a practicing Chartered Accountant and a GST specialist and now a Kathalaya certified story teller.

Together they have been successful in conducting online storytelling, games and fun activities for children, adults and senior citizens. 

They strongly believe that stories are all around us and each one has a story to share, they just need a listening ear. 

Story Wok Producers: The podcast is produced by 6 producers:

Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (Singapore)

Meher Gahi (India)

Ritu Vaish (India)

Rituparna Ghosh (India)

Roger Jenkins (Singapore)

Shereen Saif (Dubai)

Story Wok is produced by FEAST(Federation of Asian Storytellers ), (https://www.feast-story.org/ ). Our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating colours from the Philippines in the east to Turkey in the west and the story telling communities that lie in between.

If you are interested in Podcasting, check out our Podcasting for Storytellerswebinar by Rituparna Ghosh at the FEAST store.

Write to us at: [email protected] / [email protected]