Stories have always delighted people
of all ages. They are engaging, interesting, and sometimes serve as a means of
escape from the real world. While there are stories of different kinds for
children, Sharda Vishwanathan, along with Raghu Ramachandran, started Tale
Weavers, an educational storytelling initiative for kids, two years ago.
The stories range from those that focus on breaking gender stereotypes to ones
that aim at facilitating the financial literacy of children.
I was at a park when I saw a group of little girls place their
hands against each other’s and compare which one of them had a lighter skin.
The one with the darkest tone was immediately called Kaali (the word for
‘Black’ in Hindi) much to her disappointment. And this was not all. The fairest
amongst them shared her excitement of how she was the “Snow White” of the
group. Completely aghast, I could not stop but question the extent to which
media, be it literature, cinema or advertisements, continue to influence the
society and reinforce the social and cultural norms that seek to normalize the
ideal beauty. How can we change such narratives? Can we have stories that do
not show women as a damsel in distress while waiting for her knight in the
shining armour to come to her rescue? hen I shared this with Raghu
Ramachandran, who is the Co-Founder and Chief Illustrator, the first thing he
mentioned to me was Tinkle. In his words: “As a child, most of us have devoured
Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha stories. Simple stories and visually engaging
illustrations have enthralled readers for years. So how about we come up with
simple conversations and colourful illustrations that represent diversity and
address issues around gender, race, ethnicity on one hand while equipping
children with life skills such as empathy, sensitivity that are key in
addressing social challenges and building a community of changemakers on the
other?”
Sensitive to the different social identities
Here is the story of Tale Weavers
as told to Nanditha Ravindar by Sharda Vishwanathan.
Power of Storytelling
Growing
up, I remember my parents enrolled me in a local library so as to encourage
reading and cultivate an interest in books. Right from the age-old fairy tales
and the very popular illustrated-version of Indian mythology - the Amar Chitra
Katha to internationally acclaimed books that included the Famous Five, The
Secret Seven and Tintin, the library offered me an access to a wide variety of
books. While Enid Blyton’s book introduced me to the world of adventure,
through Tintin I travelled the world sitting in the little corner of my room
and Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) took me back to India’s cultural and religious
history. These books have been an important part of my childhood and I vividly
remember how they were instrumental in shaping my perspectives. Be it
associating fair with good and dark with evil as illustrated in the ACK series
or the extent to which George from Famous Five had to put on a tomboyish image
to be adventurous and be accepted by the boys as they solved mysteries, these
stories have always created a certain image and understanding of what is good
and evil or what girls and boys can do. It was only as I went on to college and
took up a course in critically analyzing discourses and narratives that I
started questioning these representations. This takes me back to the work
undertaken by novelist John Berger who suggests that very young children begin
to recognize patterns and visually read their worlds before they learn to
speak, write or read printed language. So stories matter. Stories are powerful
as they have a strong influence on a reader’s understanding of values,
norms, culture, history and the world around.
How Tale Weavers Was Born
I was at a park when I saw a group of little girls place their
hands against each other’s and compare which one of them had a lighter skin.
The one with the darkest tone was immediately called Kaali (the word for
‘Black’ in Hindi) much to her disappointment. And this was not all. The fairest
amongst them shared her excitement of how she was the “Snow White” of the
group. Completely aghast, I could not stop but question the extent to which
media, be it literature, cinema or advertisements, continue to influence the
society and reinforce the social and cultural norms that seek to normalize the
ideal beauty. How can we change such narratives? Can we have stories that do
not show women as a damsel in distress while waiting for her knight in the
shining armour to come to her rescue? hen I shared this with Raghu
Ramachandran, who is the Co-Founder and Chief Illustrator, the first thing he
mentioned to me was Tinkle. In his words: “As a child, most of us have devoured
Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha stories. Simple stories and visually engaging
illustrations have enthralled readers for years. So how about we come up with
simple conversations and colourful illustrations that represent diversity and
address issues around gender, race, ethnicity on one hand while equipping
children with life skills such as empathy, sensitivity that are key in
addressing social challenges and building a community of changemakers on the
other?”
Thus, Tale Weavers came into being and we decided to call the
initiative “Tale Weavers - Weaving Tales, Breaking Stereotypes” and officially
launched it in March 2017.Through Tale Weavers, we wish to create parallel
narratives aimed at promoting tolerance and inclusivity. We believe that
stories can be used as a tool to engage with children and break stereotypes
around gender while creating awareness on subjects such as Menstruation, Safety
Rules and so on. The topics are addressed in our stories in a manner wherein
the characters live the stories they tell.
Storytelling
Approach
 |
| Sharda and Raghu: Facilitating a workshop |
To describe our approach to writing and illustrating stories, we
use the term SMART-
Sensitive to the different social identities
Mixed bag of characters that represent diversity
Age-appropriate language
Realistic and relatable narratives, as
they are presented in everyday contexts
Tolerance and inclusivity to promote
diversity
Exploring Financial Literacy
I have
been working in the nonprofit sector for over 5 years and have been with
organizations that work in areas as diverse as education, gender and
governance. One of the experiences I really cherish is my work with a nonprofit
that helps equip women with financial literacy skills. By teaching them basic
money management and other financial concepts, the course aimed at empowering
them with requisite skills to make better finance decisions. As I saw the value
and the impact of the course, I wanted to explore the possibility of engaging
with children on financial literacy. It is a very important life skill and like
any other skill, when children are exposed to it at an early age, they not only
learn to value money and understand that it is a finite resource but also
realize the importance of savings.
Thus,through
the characters in our stories, we try and engage with children on what a bank
account is, what a savings account is, what taxes are and why paying taxes is
crucial while reinforcing the need to follow basic money management.
The
Journey So Far
One of
the most challenging aspects of running Tale
Weavers has been finding illustrators. Illustrations are a very important
element in all our stories and we understand the amount of time and effort it takes
to translate the stories into colourful, engaging illustrations that represent
diversity on every level. Achieving this goal continues this goal continues to
be one of our major challenges.
On the
other hand, we have had volunteer writers and illustrators who have always
supported our work and helped grow our story base to 31 stories. That is
something we value and express our gratitude to everyone who has helped us
achieve this feat.
In
addition to this, engaging with children across schools using our stories has
been an enriching experience. To see them not only read the story but also
critically engage in discussions around gender and breaking stereotypes is
something that has been quite an interesting experience for us and a steep
learning curve in itself.
Every
story that our volunteers have written and illustrated and the workshops we
have conducted over the last two years are extremely special to us. We have
conducted story-reading sessions in schools and have also collaborated with
other organizations who have used our stories in their work with children, and
this for us, has been our biggest achievement. In addition to this, we also had
a parent who had reached out to us and ordered 11 personalised copies of some
of our stories to be given away as return gifts on their kid’s birthday.
Future
Plans for Tale Weavers
Currently,
all our books are available online as e-books. But to touch and feel the book
that one is reading is an altogether a different experience which can hardly be
replaced by e-books. So our first effort will be aimed at printing some our
books so as to make them available to a wider community of young readers. We
are also looking at creating read aloud videos of our stories as that will make
accessibility of our books much more inclusive.
As an
initiative that uses storytelling for change, we have also been taking on
commissioned projects and collaborating with other organizations to create
stories to address different life skills and social challenges. Going forward,
we hope to connect and collaborate with other organizations and see how best we
can utilize our skills and their expertise in creating a more positive,
tolerant and inclusive learning space.
You
can read Tale Weavers’ stories here or get in touch with them by sending an email to telltales@tale-weavers.org
