“Knowledge is transferred through books, Wisdom is transferred through stories”
Ever After Learning, a learning and development organization that specializes in that magical creative tool called the story, uses stories to make the learning environment fun and engaging for the young and old alike. Storytellers here use all kinds of narratives to achieve this – folktales, fables, myths and legends, as well as originally crafted stories. Whether it’s a founder of a startup looking to storify their entrepreneurial journey, or a child trying to unlock the mysteries of science, Ever After Learning has a story that fits all occasions.
Our team spoke to Founders Nisha and Deeptha about the story of their journey with storytelling and the story of Ever After Learning. Here are a few excerpts from our chat.
What defines Ever After Learning?
Our ability to storify just about anything! Give us a topic 
What influenced you to become storytellers?
Nisha: I’ve been a voracious reader and writer from a very young age. That has been essential to developing a love for the craft and form. And then, since I also do theater, the love for performance is something I could easily tap into. Performance storytelling was to be a natural next step, especially after I met Deeptha and realized I found a partner who’s just as mad about stories as I am!
Deeptha: I grew up listening to stories, everyday, especially by my grandmothers. I guess storytelling was always in my blood but I realized it only much later. As a trainer I was looking for ways to teach my class, that is when storytelling came rushing back to me. I read a research paper about ‘Narrative-based Learning’ and that influenced my thinking a great deal. The power of stories to help someone understand a concept is unparalleled.
[color-box color=” customcolorpicker=” rounded=false dropshadow=false]Folklore is nothing but a reflection of how people lived their lives when times were easier; folktales are simple, powerful and highly adaptable[/color-box]
How have the stories in your life influenced your style of storytelling and the way you place stories?
Nisha: Good Question. I would say I’m drawn more to stories of courage, redemption, loss and longing. These are powerful themes that make for good stories – whether the ones that I write to perform, or from existing folklore. I’m also drawn to stories about inclusivity and diversity and stories about the environment because these are pet causes that I would like to introduce and discuss with my audience.
Deeptha: As a child, my story diet was filled with myths and folktales. Although I moved on to appreciate other genres of stories through books, film and poetry, folklore and mythology have remained close to me. Perhaps, that’s the strength of the oral medium. Folklore is nothing but a reflection of how people lived their lives when times were easier; folktales are simple, powerful and highly adaptable, which is why I enjoy telling them.
Tell us more about ‘Ever After Learning’and the audiences it works with.
Ever After Learning is an organization that centers around the story. We can storify just about anything which means we work across age groups, with individuals and organizations to craft learning modules that revolve around narratives. We work extensively with schools. Using stories, both folklore and original stories, to teach the curriculum is a pet project of ours – we like to think of ourselves as Educators who rescue children from the tyranny of textbooks 😉
With children our work has also revolved around spreading the art of storytelling by teaching kids how to become storytellers. This is a summer program we run and is very popular.
Apart from that we also work with corporates – training programs that use stories and storytelling to develop leadership, communication, presentation and other important work place skills.
You conduct storytelling sessions for a vast variety of audiences. How different is the experience?
Although the love for stories is universal, the experience with each group can be quite different. While the story may remain the same, audiences’ reactions vary. Children love to be entertained. They enjoy stories from a fun perspective first but come up with insightful responses later. Adults process the same story differently. They ‘see’ the story through their filters and draw life lessons from it. While they are more inhibited than children, once they get into the groove, they are willing to roll on the floor, jump in the air and spin around.
Any particular incident/anecdote from your sessions that you would like to share with readers?
There are many we can think of! But 2 specific incidents come to mind.
A child taking part in our Tribe of Tellers summer program chose to stay back with his cousin and finish the workshop with us when he realized that he would miss that last few days of the workshop (and the final performance!) due to a trip to Delhi that came up with his family. The parents left the choice entirely up to him, and when he told us his decision we knew we were doing something right!
The other incident is when a child came to us with a deeper reflection of the communal conflicts in our country after we had conducted a Human Rights Education Through Storytelling Program in her school. She was able to reflect on her own biases and came to us on her own accord with a stated determination to look beyond learned stereotypes. That moment still gives us goosebumps!
[color-box color=” customcolorpicker=” rounded=false dropshadow=false]As storytellers, our preparation and our authenticity is what matters, because the storyteller will reflect in the story one tells.[/color-box]
Do you feel storytelling can be adopted as a full-time profession, like any other? What pros and cons do you foresee/advice that you can give for/to someone who wants to get into this full-time?
Well, we certainly hope so since we plan to continue doing this full time for a long, long time! Like all nascent sectors, we face our challenges too. For us personally, we have faced resource crunches from time to time – money, the right skills to hire, space being one of our key challenges, but we’ve kept at it because we have received tremendous validation from people who matter in fields of education, venture capitalists and business leaders.
The only friendly advice we can give others who’re venturing out into this is what we believe ourselves –
- Do your homework every single time.
- Bring your authentic self to the playground every single day.
As storytellers, our preparation and our authenticity is what matters, because the storyteller will reflect in the story one tells.
Any suggestions to our readers how they can help in keeping stories alive?
There are many things one can do at a personal level – write down your personal narratives and try to ‘storify’ them so that your learning of it deepens and you are able to share this reflection with others.
At a family or organizational level – have story sharing time at home or at the office. Bring in a culture of reflection through stories. It is a powerful medium to bond and learn.
And if you’re a story enthusiast, go for the many storytelling performances that happen in your city every week! Keeping the storyteller motivated and listening to their stories means you’re helping keep the ancient art alive, for who’s a storyteller without a listener!
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Don’t Miss: We love storytellers as much as we love storytelling. On Tell-a-Tale, we’ve featured a lot of talented storytellers, in the past.
Are you a Storyteller? If you’re a storyteller who is actively pursuing storytelling and would like to be featured in this column, drop us a mail at contact AT tell-a-tale.com or reach out to us via Facebook.