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ISN homepage Indian Storytelling Network Mumbai
2)
Neeraj. 3)
Nidhi Bagaria. 5)
Preeti Bapat. 6)
Samvedna
Amitabh. 7)
Shital
Ravi. 9)
Smita Rajan. 1 Aarti Ashwin Kute. Aarti Ashwin Kute is the
founder-director of the Masti Ka Pitara
club, which provides fun-filled science-related story sessions. She is passionate about telling stories to
young people, and also about coaching them to tell stories. She was drawn towards storytelling while
telling stories to her own child. She
has studied storytelling with Ms.Yogita Ahuja, founder of Storycircle Edusaarthi. Aarti believes that science
principles and concepts can be made fun to understand and learn through
stories. She uses stories to explain
concepts like how rainbows are formed, and the life-cycles of butterflies,
frogs, and plants. She introduces
stories to present concepts such as Reuse and Recycle, and Pollution and Its
Causes. Sometimes she uses
already-existing stories, and sometimes she develops her own stories. Aarti Kute is also the founder of
Aarti Kute’s Vedic Maths Learning
Academy where she teaches profound simplicity and efficiency of Vedic
mathematical techniques. Aarti has earned Post Graduate
degrees in Microbiology, and in Marketing Management. She has more than 15 years of work
experience in the Insurance Industry (Medical Underwriting, etc). Aarti truly feels that the blend of
her educational and professional backgrounds, and her storytelling skills,
can help young people to understand complicated concepts easily. Aarti is associated with Navi Mumbai Kendra (Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan's Children's club), and Balvikas
(a Shri Satya Sai Organization). She
conducts various kinds of Storytelling, and Storytelling-related, Workshops,
such as: Making and Telling Stories with Finger Puppets; Warli Art; 20
National Symbols; Diwali Mela; and Writing and Performing Dramas. A photo is here. Contact info Mrs. Aarti Ashwin Kute Founder Director Masti Ka Pitara Aarti Kute’s Vedic Maths Learning
Academy Based in Vashi, Navi Mumbai Mobile: 9619934493 Email: info@aartikute.com , aartikute12@gmail.com Website: www.aartikute.com Presentation @ Chennai
Storytelling Festival 2024: https://youtu.be/5ck3vxGP5LY?si=I2y8vRaRxPii_ITg Facebook: Masti Ka
Pitara Instagram: Vedic
Maths Learning Academy 2 Neeraj. Neeraj is a Motivational Speaker, Storyteller, Mentor, Coach,
Communication Expert, and Retreat Leader worldwide. For him, coaching is learning again and
again…again and again… An
award-winning facilitator, Neeraj uses the timeless techniques of mentoring,
collaboration, and performance.
Neeraj is a voice, speech, diction, accent, and communication mentor
with Narrative Therapy through Transformative Storytelling. Neeraj has been studying holistic
techniques since 1996. During more
than 20 years of learning, relearning, unlearning, sharing, and teaching. It has been his conscious quest to work on
different eclectic Techniques such as Subtle Face Yoga, Shinrin-yoku
(“forest bathing”) Theatre, Languages, Tai Chi, Butoh, Aikido, Expressive
Art, Story Therapy, DOGa Yoga, etc.
He helps people understand subtle and essential aspects of the mind,
body, and spirit connection. Neeraj is the author of the holistic
growth manual “Sapere Aude (Dare to BE Wise)”. He has been featured in various
publications such as BBC-Hindi, Zee TV, Elle, The Hindustan Times, DNA,
Times of India, Indian Express, and News Nation. Neeraj often works in the following
cities (in alphabetical order): Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Dehradun,
Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Meerut, Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, Pune, and
Surat. Contact info 98201 71766 delotusin@gmail.com 3 Nidhi Bagaria. Nidhi
is a Storyteller and and Early Childhood Educator. She has founded The Creative World,
a storytelling and drama program for children. Nidhi has been in the field of education
for over fifteen years. She has
observed first-hand the benefits of stories on children. She believes stories are a universal way to
connect and can be told anywhere. They
help cross barriers of culture and language.
In the day and age of technology, storytelling helps bring a personal
touch to communication with one's audience members. Nidhi has been conducting workshops with
leading bookstores in Mumbai for over a decade. She works with various NGOs, using stories
to enhance language development and better expression of ideas. She has participated in community events
like "Happy Streets", in which she narrated stories on the streets
of Mumbai. She has performed and
conducted workshops in festivals such as the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival
(Mumbai), and the Lulu Readers Fest (Kochi, Kerala). Nidhi is passionate about
storytelling. She enjoys working with
children, but believes stories can have a positive impact with both children
and adults. Her style is interactive
with props, songs, and movement. She
uses a combination of stories and art-and-craft in her workshops, in which
she narrates all types of stories, including myths and folktales (such as animal
fables and fairytales) -- and coaches workshop participants to do the
same. Nidhi conducts storytelling workshops
for children and is also a teacher-trainer -- she has conducted workshops for
teachers in various schools as well as balwadis. She is based in Mumbai and works all over
India. Contact
info 98922
19417 Email:
bagarianidhi@hotmail.com Facebook:
https://tinyurl.com/the-creative-world
Nilum leads a Kathalaya Story
Space in Mumbai. 80979
58410 Storyspace is a Kathalaya
undertaking around the world. 5 Preeti Bapat. Preeti
earned a Masters in "Human Resources", and a Diploma in
"Training and Development" from the Indian Society of Training and
Development, New Delhi. She worked for
some years in the Corporate World.
However, she had little interest in routinely spending hours
facilitating regular training programs and maintaining training records,
neck-deep in excel spreadsheets almost every day. Even with this monotone schedule, the
creative juices would automatically flow if she was challenged to develop
activities around training workshops or writing small instant caselets. Gradually, the quest for learning
nuances of Storytelling grew multifold, as Preeti began to realise that for
any successful training or learning experience, a storyboard and the keyword
“CONNECT” is pivotal. She learned about Kathalaya, and
enrolled for the beginner’s course in 2015.
The world of stories was a perfect environment for her, and this was
the start of a new beginning in Preeti's professional life. Currently, Preeti is continuing her
Storytelling training with Kathalaya, and leads a Kathalaya Storyspace
in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. She
cherishes creating new stories and tweaking existing ones. Preeti's first published article, “The Gift of
Storytelling” (6mb, pdf), appeared in the Nov 2017 issue of Life Positive magazine. She feels immense pleasure in calling her
profession as "Storyteller" and is evolving more with it each day! Storytelling-related Services: A)
Storytelling Workshops for Children (3-14 years). 1)
Group 1 (3 - 6.5 years): Stories with Art and Craft. 2)
Group 2 (6.5 - 8 years): Stories with Art and Craft; and Story prompts to
invoke thoughts and help the children create their own stories (using story
cards) 3)
Group 3 (8.5 - 14 years): Stories with Art and Craft; and Writing prompts for
creative writing (one liner and story cubes).
Also showing ways Mind Maps and memory techniques can be used for easy
recall (for academic study). B)
Workshops for Pre-school Teachers: Basics
of Storytelling: 6 hour workshop. -
Selecting stories. -
Establishing connect with the pre-schoolers. Contact
info 98190
88071 storyspace_kharghar@yahoo.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kharghar.preeti Storyspace is a Kathalaya
undertaking around the world. 6 Samvedna Amitabh. Samvedna
is the founder of Kahaanipur, which offers
storytelling performances and training.
She is a storyteller; a writer of poetry, short stories, and drama; a
journalist; and a trainer in all of these fields. She has worked as a
journalist for some of India's leading Hindi and English newspapers, and for
a Hindi television channel. In 2007,
she published a book of poems, Ladkiyaan
jo pul hoti hain, which received the "Vaageeshwari Samman"
award from the Madhya Pradesh government.
At present, she is writing a story for teenagers. The story is designed to help the teenagers
handle their years of adolescence. She
is also writing lyrics for a nomadic play in Hindi. This play is scheduled to be staged soon in
Ahmedabad and elsewhere. Samvedna has done storytelling for preschoolers,
for children at activity centres, for families, and for seniors at old-age
homes. With an NGO in Mumbai, she
tells stories to underprivileged children, and writes scripts for the
children's performances. It was while swimming in the middle
waters of her life that she discovered storytelling, as a serious
professional activity. A performer in
her had always been an undercurrent of her personality. Storytelling helped her to vent out all
that had been lying latent for long. Samvedna does storytelling mainly in
Hindi and Urdu, and also interacts with audience members in English. In her storytelling work, she seeks to
address some of the most sensitive issues in the contemporary urban world. Her work is dedicated to promoting gender
and social equality, to respecting the creative process in people, and
finally to helping to facilitate communal harmony and world peace. Creativity, improvisation, and
innovation are trademarks of Samvedna's storytelling style. She does storytelling with music as
well. Her years of work as a
journalist contribute to her analytical way of thinking and leading
interactive discussions after stories are told. She offers storytelling performances and
training for all age-groups, from toddlers to seniors. She is happy to customize workshops. Contact
info 98201
24082 kahaanipur@gmail.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/kahaanipur 7 Shital Ravi. Shital
Ravi, a Co-founder of Disha Counseling Center, holds a postgraduate degree in
Counseling Psychology from Mumbai University.
In the last 24 years of her counseling practice, she has worked
extensively with children, adolescents, and adults. Shital is a Storytelling Therapist,
having been trained in Storytelling Therapy for Counselling and Life Coaching
by the World Storytelling Institute.
She is also a Mindfulness Master Practitioner. A prolific writer, Shital has written
widely on mental health, parenting, and related topics, and has been featured
as a columnist in a few leading print media.
She is currently writing “Pashu Neeti”, a monthly newsletter of Disha
showcasing wisdom from the animal kingdom.
Shital is also a poet. She writes in three languages, and has
published a tri-lingual anthology titled “Do Kavitayein”. Her short stories have been published in
newspaper dailies such as Hindustan Times, and Dombivli Kalyan Plus
of Times of India. Not just a story writer, Shital is also
a storyteller. In February 2021 she
told a story in the Chennai Storytelling Festival. A seasoned classical danseuse, Shital
holds a “Nritya Alamkar” in Bharatanatyam from the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva
Mahavidyalaya. She has won National
titles such as “Singar Mani” and “Natyamayuri”, is a graded artiste of the
Doordarshan, and is a recipient of the “Central Government Scholarship”
awarded by the Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Govt. of India. Giving shape to her inclination towards
“Seva Bhava”, Shital co-founded Saaraakassh Trust in 2015, working for the
betterment of tribal people in Maharashtra.
The focus is on helping people to improve their Education, Health,
Sanitation, and Environment. A project
close to her heart is “Pudchi Peedhi, Pudcha Paaul” (“the next step of the
next generation”) which uses storytelling, dance, music, games, role play and
a host of other activities to strengthen life skills in the tribal and
underprivileged children for a better and “Atmanirbhar Bharata”
(“Self-reliant India”). She uses
storytelling techniques in her counseling
and social work and offers these services especially in relation to
children. A photo is here. Contact 92235
04310 shital@dishaforu.com
8 Shukrita Sankaran. The
Storyteller Mumbai. Shukrita
Sankaran – entrepreneur, pre-school teacher, writer, and podcaster – has been
known as The Storyteller Mumbai since 2020. The Storyteller Mumbai started off as a podcast on
platforms such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. It was an avenue by which to narrate true
stories of various famous personalities, bringing out their essences. Shukrita also took part in numerous poetry
challenges online and now is an avid poet, inspired especially by William Wordsworth
and Robert Frost. Shukrita started writing as a hobby,
journaling about her experiences over the years. Finally, after penning a few articles on Medium,
she created her own website
where she shares all her creative pursuits.
The website is a labour of love. Shukrita has a degree in psychology, and
is a trained Montessori teacher. She
did an advanced course in creative writing from Symbiosis, Pune. She is an entrepreneur who helps to manage
the family business by running the store Mysore Creation. She also is a Bibliotherapist who believes
in the power of the written word to heal and transform individuals across all
age groups. She is interested in
Therapeutic Storytelling and penned her first story for a group of
homeopathic practioners in Romania in 2022.
This story can be read on her website here. Shukrita works alongside her husband who
is a homeopathic practitioner.
Together they are aiming to create a world in which they can
facilitate healing and growth.
Shukrita has worked with children who have health issues, engaging
them to get to the depths of their own inner selves. News from Shukrita in May 2023 – about
her new book, Poetic Resonance, and more – is here. A photo is here. Contact
info storyteller.shukrita@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/shukrita.nikam/about 9 Smita Rajan. Smita is
a Storyteller, Dance Artist and Educator, and Personal Counsellor utilising
methods of Storytelling and Dance Movement Therapy. An artist at heart, Smita's creative
zeal is her strength. With over 10
years of experience in practicing, teaching, and choreographing
Bharathanatyam, and a Masters in Dance, Smita sees Dance as a way of enhanced
living. In 2018, she founded Parampara Creative Dance and Movement,
a creative hub for Expressive Arts, Classical Dance, Creative Movement, and
Storytelling, for learners across all age groups. Smita has also co-founded The Katha Club, a story club that
facilitates open, safe, and neutral spaces to explore, engage, and
express. Smita conducts Storytelling
sessions for: 1) Children 5 years and above, 2) Teenagers, and 3) Young
Adults. Parampara Creative Dance and Movement
has been awarded best narrative by the Global Cleanup Heroes in the Global
Environment Summit. As a dancer Smita uses stories to create
mini-dramas and plays on varied topics of relevance. Smita is a personal counsellor using
Storytelling and Dance Movement Therapy methods in her work, especially with
trauma survivors, and people experiencing neurosis and Post Traumatic Stress
Syndrome. Smita enjoys working on: • Body
conditioning, flexibility, toning, balance, self-awareness, shaping,
confidence building, and gait. •
Creating educational modules using Dance and Movement. • Muscle
memory and its applications. •
Performance based narration of stories. •
"Dance: A Language," a community program initiated by Smita that
focuses on mindful dancing and healing processes through dance. Education *
Masters in Applied Psychology, Annamalai University (Expected to complete in
2022). *
Masters in Fine Arts, Bharathanatyam, 2015, Bharathidasan University, Trichy. *
Masters of Business Administration, 2010, Symbiosis SCDL, Pune, Masters in
Communication *
Bachelors of Business Administration, 2008, Madras Christian College, Madras
University, Chennai. Certifications *
Certified Personal Counsellor, 2020, Institute of Human Technology. *
Certified Professional Storyteller, 2020, World Story Institute. * PG
Certified Dance and Movement Therapist, 2019, Kinections, Rochester, NY and
Sancheti Healthcare Academy * PG
Certified Special Educator (LD, ADHD, and Autism), 2018,
Asian College of Teachers and Institute of Cambridge *
Certified in Indian Sign Language (ISL), 2018, Talking Hands. Contact
info 99580
95989 smita1752@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/smitarajan29 https://www.instagram.com/smitarajan29 Usha is a Mumbai-based storyteller who believes in the power of
stories and keeps the ancient art of oral tradition alive with stories that
transform and inspire.
Usha has been storytelling at
national and international festivals, events and conferences in India,
Singapore,Thailand, Iran, Sydney, Malaysia and the United States. She has taught storytelling
courses and has presented a variety of workshops to adults, children and
families. She has been a speaker on storytelling and is active in the
international storytelling community. Usha continues to be fascinated by
the world of stories -- ancient lore both written and told. She loves to
bring different voices together, weaving threads of untold stories of women
heroes stitching together forgotten fairytales, fragments of myth, songs and
music. Usha has directed and performed in
storytelling ensemble shows for the past several years and during the past
two years took her shows virtually to San Francisco, Bangkok, Malaysia,
Florida and Purdue, Indiana. Award-winning storyteller, author,
classical vocalist, puppeteer and radio show host, Usha Venkatraman is the
founder and festival director of Mumbai Storytellers Society, an
initiative born out of her zeal to keep the storytelling tradition alive.
Usha curated the first Science Storytelling Festival SCIFARI in 2019
in Mumbai India. Usha hosts Storytellers Café,
a weekly radio show on Bharat FM, a Cincinnati based radio station. Usha has
authored a children’s picture book on animal advocacy, which was written
after her year long work with an animal activist organisation in the 90’s. Usha has performed across India and
around the globe. A photo is here. Contact info Founder: Mumbai
Storytellers Society Founder: Scifari
- Exploring Science Through Stories Festival Director: Gaatha - Mumbai
International Storytelling Festival. Host: Storytellers
Cafe on Bharat FM Radio Mobile: 98201 79303 https://www.ushavenkatraman.
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