This is a very special episode, for, we are celebrating World Storytelling Day 2022. World Storytelling Day is a worldwide celebration of Oral Storytelling celebrated each year on March 20 and the goal is to celebrate the art of storytelling with as many people as possible, both listeners and storytellers. Each year World Storytelling Day has a theme around which the storytellers tell their stories. The storytellers are free to choose their stories, but most of them try to connect to the theme.

The theme of World Storytelling Day 2022 is “Lost and Found”. It was inspired by all that we lost in the past years, and the hope of stories inspiring us to find it back again.

Taqarrabie from Indonesia enthusiastically narrates an Indonesian story for the children and young at heart. Do you know that a pair of slippers lost something? Listen to this beautiful story in our Miso segment to know what the pair of slippers finally found. 

In Dim Sum, the adult segment, we bring to you the story of Iravaan, one of the lesser known stories from Mahabharatha, the great Indian epic, wonderfully narrated by Meera Venkatesan. Pure love found and lost just in a day!!

Our Fortune Cookie is a beautiful Malay story of how perseverance and a kind heart can bring back what one lost. Juriah Atan and Kausar Karimi seamlessly narrate this story not in one but two languages, Malay and English. 

“Mapping of a story is non-negotiable and is a must” says Rituparna Ghosh in the segment Ace the Story, where we have our producer Shubha interviewing Rituparna. She shares some tips on how to go about mapping a story.

Last but not the least, wouldn’t you like to know what we producers ‘lost and found’ . Listen to our pantry discussion and also to know the Feast offerings in the month of April. 

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Prakrati Agrawal, a storyteller and an edutainer, loves telling stories that make one laugh and learn at the same time.

Shubha Das particularly enjoys indulging in and telling folktales. For her stories are a piece of art and hence,believes in performing it in a manner that leaves an aural and visual imprint with linguistic hues in the minds of her audience.

Parvathy Eswaran: A storyteller by passion and by choice, believes that stories are there everywhere just like the air we breathe and we, as storytellers act as a medium to spread and bring the stories to you.

Featured Tellers

Taqarrabie is a filmmaker, author, and storyteller who is passionate about spreading Indonesian stories and her own original stories in Bahasa Indonesia, Minangkabau, and English. She was introduced to the universe of oral telling by her parents when she was little, and she began her journey as a teller in 2017. Bie has performed at various storytelling festivals, libraries, events, hospitals, and schools for children and adults. She also has given basic storytelling workshops for teachers, parents, and students. She loves costume parties if you'd like to invite her to one!

Meera Venkatesan is a professional performance storyteller, trainer and learning consultant with a love of words and a deep desire to create meaningful learning. She has combined these passions to carve a space in applying stories to cement learning. She spearheads content with Anahata United efforts, an NGO providing career guidance to children. She specializes in creating story based curriculums for Social Emotional Learning, Communication skills, Languages, STEM and many more. She is a part of the creative storytelling group Katha Krafters who specialize in training, and curating performances for adults and children. She has participated in both online and offline storytelling festivals.

Juriah Atan, is a storyteller from Singapore. As an educator and workshop facilitator, she uses stories to engage participants. She has told stories to all age groups, from preschoolers to seniors. She loves stories with a touch of humour. She tells stories in English and Malay. 

Kausar Karimi loves to travel and go for hikes and walks. She enjoys the

outdoors and tries to look for stories that she comes across through her travels. Her motto is “There is a tale at every turn” and that keeps her interested in people and places. Not afraid to try different things, Kausar is a Speech and Drama instructor who uses stories to bring out the creative expression in the kids. She loves a good dramatization of folklore and often uses props and puppets to express herself.

Rituparna Ghosh:You can describe her as a story digger, story charmer, story gatherer, story extractor, story spotter…she is anything but just a storyteller! An international storyteller and a TEDx speaker Rituparna is the Founder of Your Story Bag, a Storytelling, Training, and Consulting company. She works with listeners, children, adults, organisations, not-for-profits, and corporates helping them harness the power of stories. Rituparna produces two podcasts called Golpo, Stories from Around the World, and What’s in Your Story Bag. She believes that Storytelling will be the strongest currency in the world and she is actively engaged in making it a sustainable career in India. 

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

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For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org