‘Storytelling is as old as civilisation’: PM Modi requests families to set aside time for it

New Delhi: Maintaining that storytelling is as old as civilisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday requested people to set aside some time for story telling as a family.

Mr Modi began this month’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ by talking about storytelling, which has been a part of the nation for centuries.

“As a family, set aside some time for storytelling. This will be a wonderful experience,” he said.

In the 69th episode of the programme, Mr Modi said, “India has a glorious tradition of storytelling. All across India, there are many Indians making story telling popular.”

These days, stories relating to science are gaining popularity, he said further.

Mr Modi said, “History of stories is as old as human civilization. ‘Where there is a soul there is a story’.”

Stories bring to fore creative and sensitive aspect of one’s personality, stories are interactive. On one side is story teller, on the other, listeners or the readers, he pointed out.

He narrated an anecdote from his life, on the subject of storytelling and emphasised the importance of stories.

He said, “Stories bring to light our emotions, joy and sorrow, inquisitiveness or indifference. To realise the power of stories watch a mother narrating a story to put her little baby to sleep or to feed.”

“Stories compel you to think. Especially, stories for the children hones their creativity and define their identity, personality. There has been a thriving tradition of storytelling in India.”

The Prime Minister said, “During these times of Corona, the entire world is passing through multiple cycles of change. Today when a distance of two yards has become a compulsory necessity, this very pandemic has also bonded the family members and brought them together.”

He said, “To stay together for such a long time, how to spend time, how to make every moment, a moment of joy, many families faced these problems. The reason for it was our customs, which were inherent in our family values, their absence was being felt.”

He stated that it seems that there are many families where all these have been lost and because of this, due to that deficiency, many families found it tough to live through the corona times.

“We must have realised that the customs established by our elders, are so important even today and when they are not present their absence is so dearly felt, one such mode is the art of storytelling”.

PM Modi interacted with members of the Bangalore Storytelling Society.

He said there are many initiatives popularising stories from rural India. “There are people like Vaishali Vyavhare Deshpande, who are popularising it in Marathi also. In Gujarat, Yogita Bansal Ahujao is doing a commendable work in the field of stories.”

“Many other people must be working in these areas, you must share about them on social media,” he said.

With Gandhi Jayanti approaching, Mr Modi remembered Mahatma Gandhi.

He said, “Had we followed the essence of Bapu’s economic philosophy, we would never have to be working to build an Aatmanirbhar Bharat now. It would have happened much earlier.” (UNI)