The old art of storytelling

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A book reading session in progress at a city book store—Asian Age

Remember the good old days of your childhood when your parents and grandparents used to read out your favourite stories and fairy tales? We may have moved on to Android interfaces and Kindles but at some level we still feel nothing compares to the charm of the oldest form of storytelling, when stories used to be read out to us.

Perhaps that’s why book reading sessions are catching up across urban centres with more and more people turning up at bookstores where such sessions are routinely held.
Rajeev Paul, who recently celebrated the success of his book Mumbai Mohabbat Tanhayi, organised a book reading session at a city bookstore with Farhan Akhtar. The actor-turned-author says, “I definitely feel book reading sessions do help in drawing more crowds to the bookstore. Participating in such a session is almost like having a conversation with the author. There was a time when book reading was a common thing and now it’s a ‘different’ thing. People like to do ‘different’ things.”
But Mumbai, in this regard, has a lot of catching up to do, believes Ashwin Sanghi, the author of the best-selling novel Chanakya’s Chant. “Mumbai is still very star-driven where the focus often tends to drift from the book and the author. Here it stands out more as a marketing gimmick than a literary exercise. I think Southern cities like Chennai and also Delhi in the north have moved substantially ahead in this regard. Chennai’s oldest book club still has about 200-300 members in their fortnightly meetings. So there’s definitely an old school literary culture emerging in the country.” he says.
Actress Reshmi Ghosh expresses a desire to attend such book reading sessions. “I would definitely love to attend such a session. I think kids these days are missing out on old forms of storytelling. Technology is killing their innocence,” she says. Seconding her is actress Poonam Jhawer who says, “I agree that the old form of storytelling was the best and still is. Attending such sessions also enhances our talent of storytelling and adds a personal touch in our creative endeavours.”