Telling Tales

Whether it was a smart, witty story about Akbar and Birbal or the tantalizing tale of Tintin, stories have been an integral part of our childhoods. These short tales about good values, adventures, funny incidents, and daring heroes kept us entertained, while also helping us become better human beings. Now, Tales at the Museum, a two-day storytelling festival at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum gives us a chance to once again revel in the joy of a good story and enjoy the act of storytelling.

Tales at the Museum has been inspired by an ongoing exhibition at the museum — ‘Spectral Times’ by Sarnath Banerjee (curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta) — which has a good deal of storytelling via graphic sketches and radio recordings. Talking about how the exhibition inspired the event, Ruta Waghmare, assistant curator, says, “We took a leaf out of the exhibition, as the museum does a lot of outreach programs, not only inspired by the permanent collection, but also by ongoing exhibitions. And storytelling is a huge part of this particular exhibition. There are stories told through art and there will be actual storytelling, where people will sit in a room and listen to stories coming out of a radio. Plus, the museum is full of stories.”

To discover the hidden stories of the museum, the festival will start with a walk that will take you through the lesser-known parts of the museum. “We have tours happening over two days, which look at hidden histories of the museum. One will get a sneak peek at the interesting histories behind unique art objects in the museum, as well as a look at how stories are told through iconography and other material that is part of the collection,” explains Ruta, who is co-curating this festival with curatorial assistant, Laharee Mitra.

From discovering a Japanese storytelling form called Kamishibai to peeking at cave paintings and decoding them, this festival helps you enjoy different kinds of stories and storytelling. An alternate storytelling workshop named Language beyond Words, conducted by artist and archeologist Anagha Bhatt will take you on a storytelling journey through prehistoric times. Talking about her interest in archaeological storytelling, Anagha says, “As an artist, I found it very interesting that when, probably, verbal language did not exist, people used to still communicate with each other. They used to make paintings on caves for various reasons. And later on, I came to know that you can interpret those paintings in many ways. It’s up to you how you perceive those paintings.” At her workshop, you can learn about these cave paintings, their origins and how they were rediscovered. Anagha has also planned an interesting workshop that will require participants to first pen down a narrative and then narrate it in pictographic format. Later, the art made by each participant will be shuffled around, interpreted by other participants and compared to the original story.

While art and story go hand in hand quite easily, science and storytelling are two words that are never used in the same sentence. Dr. AP Jayaraman is here to challenge this thought with his workshop called Story of Osmosis. “This is a paradigm in science, that science and stories are incompatible. But all science communicators, especially scientists, have been trying to tell stories about their work so people can understand what they’re doing,” says the president of STEAM Academy. At this workshop, he will teach the science of reverse osmosis through stories. Giving an example, he says, “A king is arranging swayamvar (practice of a girl choosing a husband from among a list of suitors) for his princess daughter and so, many princes have come. There is a royal feast, and the king dictates that farmers should bring the best milk for making pudding. So, all the farmers bring cartloads of milk, except for one farmer’s son, who brought only one barrel, put it in a huge stainless steel tank and then started adding 50 barrels of water. He was caught red-handed by the king’s guards. When he was asked to explain his actions, he replied, ‘Sir, I applied reverse osmosis because I first collected all the milk and removed the water from it. I brought the concentrate here and I’m bringing it back to normal state by adding water.’” The story will also include in detail the process of reverse osmosis to help children understand the concept better.

The workshop will happen on May 4 and 5, 10 am onwards.