Festival of Stories' to usher in Bangalore Habba in December

Festival of Stories' to usher in Bangalore Habba in December

The Hindu

Workshops to be held for schoolchildren to revive the oral tradition

# Bangalore Habba to be held in first week of December
# Storytelling workshop to be conducted over 15 days in schools in the city
# Each workshop to be held for half a day

BANGALORE: It's "habba" time again or at least close to it. We mean the annual Bangalore Habba, of course. The festival that celebrates the spirit of the city will be held during the first week of December, just as Christmas trees begins to appear in shopping malls and the sounds of jingle bells and cash registers ringing mingle.

This year Kathalaya, an organisation devoted to reviving the ancient Indian art of story telling, has joined hands with Bangalore Habba to have a "Festival of Stories" for children across schools in Bangalore.

A series of workshops will be held to create awareness about the oral tradition, story telling and the use of folk arts in education. According to Nandini Alva, "Bangalore Habba is a city festival held every December and it brings together all sections of society to celebrate Bangalore.

This year, as a curtain raiser to the habba, we want to take performing arts to schools and help children discover its relevance in the curriculum. The workshop will give them an insight into our culture and traditional practices in education. Children will be the key target."

The "Festival of Stories" will include story telling through puppetry, script writing and toy theatre, theatre and body language, Origami, masks, chitrakathas, clay modelling, voice training and creativity.

"The workshop will be for half a day. Kathalaya will organise it over 15 days this month, just in time for the main habba. We are getting professionally trained resource persons for the workshops. The workshops will be interactive and expose children to different genres of story telling. The workshops are aimed at creating an appreciation for the oral tradition and folklore," said Geeta Ramanujam, Executive Director, Kathalaya Trust.

The trust is dedicated to the cause of making a positive social change in education through story telling. The organisation began its work in 1998 and has reached out to over 20,000 children and 10,000 teachers.

Bangalore Habba is held in December each year to bring together different sections of society to experience the culture and traditions that are unique to the city.