In my own little way I have always been a story teller. But I have never consciously worked at the art of story-telling. Besides, I have never come across anyone who is a professional story teller, as in America. Maybe it's because practically every other house has a grandmother who has a fund of stories, generally mythological. I grew up in such a household, with a maternal grandmother who knew hundreds of stories, of kings and queens, of gods and goddesses, not to forget the stories about my mother's childhood, which seemed more fantastic to me than all the others!

Being a shy child, I never did any sort of public speaking. But my parents and friends always enjoyed my descriptions of people, incidents etc. and called it vivid and entertaining. Having inherited some of my father's great sense of humour, I could make people (read friends and relatives) laugh. All through my life I have read voraciously and I also loved writing letters. My enjoyment of language was, however, largely limited to the written word.

Then, in my 20s, two things happened that changed my life. I started teaching English to 15-17 year olds, whose usage of English was limited to the classroom. To get them interested in the texts I unconsciously started relying on facial expressions and gestures. Soon I realised that both the children and I were enjoying our English classes.

The 2nd change came about with the arrival of my daughter. When she was 2, she enjoyed my reading to her, but she actually screamed with laughter and her eyes went round in astonishment as I told her stories cooked up on the spur of the moment. From repetitive stories (of a little girl going to school with her father, facing obstacles like a big black dog, sudden rain etc. )we progressed to the universally loved The lion and the mouse, the hare and the tortoise, the Pied Piper(it was such fun to do the various rats!) and soon  moved on to stories of topical interest--The girl who didn't like combing her hair, the girl who got ready for school by herself (need I say more?!). As she grew a little older, I found this story telling grew more and more interactive, with my daughter supplying a lot of the twists and turns.

Somewhere around this time Subbu came into our lives--a lion cub glove puppet that enriched our lives beyond all expectations. Subbu could be naughty one moment, sad the other; he could cajole and coax; whisper, whimper, talk and roar-- storytelling with Subbu opened up a whole new world of sounds, voice modulation, even movements as I experimented with Subbu scratching his head, cocking his ear, twitching his tail--all by moving my fingers. The reward was my daughter's delighted squeals. She enjoyed it so much that Subbu, to her, was a real cub with a life of his own, not at all connected to my fingers!

These were private storytelling sessions where both my daughter and I were completely unselfconscious and often used a mixture of 3-4 languages, and where creativity led us into hysterically funny situations.

My storytelling sessions in school, however, were different. For one, they were always more controlled and I was conscious of the time I had at my disposal. I used only English, because improving their language was my focus. I generally chose stories with a message, but took good care to wrap up that message in layers of interesting situations. I often told them bits from the classics and was delighted when some read the whole book. I have always been interested in folk tales and enjoyed telling them to my students. Many of those students, now themselves parents, tell me that their interest in English started with those stories in class.

When I started telling stories to my students and my daughter, I did not realise that I would be enriching our lives so much. Along with the enjoyment we shared, there was the bonus of improving our language skills, gaining confidence, developing a sense of humour and definitely becoming more good-tempered.

What else could one need in life?! Those memories are the warmth of winter evenings. As I write this Subbu's presence on my now 22 year old's table assures me of the next storytelling session 8-10 years down the line, this time with grand-children!