An Evening Spent, Telling A Tale!

Sundays are supposed to be cheat days, aren’t they? You get to stay in bed as long as you want, eat whatever keeps you alive, have a FRIENDS marathon, check your newsfeeds every now and then, and curse yourself for not doing the piled up work. Such was my last Sunday, that is, 13 November 2016 till I randomly invited a couple of my friends on Facebook for an event of Storytelling Open Mic that I had signed up ‘going’ two weeks ago but was in no mood to attend that day. Being quite sure that no one I know will show up and another event being there in two weeks from now, I was quite comfortably tucked into bed when at four in the evening I got an unexpected call.

Contradicting me, one of my friends did show up. I panicked. I had to be there ASAP. But obviously when you want things to go fast, they tend to get slower. I reached the venue, Lamakaan, at five. I went there as an audience, and had no plans to do anything more than clapping. As soon as I entered the designated hall, I was surprised to see a man enacting a Panchatantra story with a twist. I was then even surer of remaining an audience for the entire event irrespective the past experience in college theatre. My friend quickly briefed me on whatever had happened, which included two rounds of ice breakers; explaining the rules of storytelling and some stories from the audience.  I sat back comfortably in my seat to enjoy the rest of the event.

My friend, Aishwarya Prusty, telling her story.
Image Source: TTTI FB Page

I was amused to see people, comfortably sharing their stories and personal experiences. I was surprised when my friend decided to talk about her really interesting incident of running away from an engineering college, because it simply wasn’t her cup of tea. And there I was, sitting, thinking, if they can speak out loud then why can’t I! I have always been someone who writes and takes the backstage when it comes to speaking.

In that one room, people from all age groups, and different backgrounds were present. Laughte

Santosh addressing the tale tellers at the beginning of the event
Image Source: TTTI FB Page

rs were shared with everyone. People were allowed to give  genuine or should I say ‘ruthless’ feedbacks as the coordinator/founder/MD of Tale Tellers Troupe, Hyderabad, Santosh Mohan Veeranki kept reminding us every now and then. From personal experiences to the stories of Arunima Sinha were shared and somewhere I heard myself saying, if I don’t speak up today, I might not get a chance again. So irrespective of the stage fright, irrespective of so many people having set sort of standard of storytelling by the end, irrespective of my heart beating really fast, I volunteered to tell my tale.

Surviving cancer being the most happening thing in my life, I decided to tell my story one more time, not in a one-to-one conversation, not in front of a camera, but in front of a live audience. Everyone was a stranger in that room. The fact was terrifying, as well as comforting. I was pretty sure that the memory of the experience is now rusted and won’t take more than 10-15 minutes to speak about it. To my surprise, I went on describing all the funny incidents in great detail beginning with, a classmate had back then declared that his heartbreak is irreparable and more painful than my early symptoms that can merely be healed by a few tablets.

And that's me, telling my Leukemia tales. 

I had to ask the audience to tell me to stop. The response to the story was overwhelming. But I made sure that people know, I was not a brave soul after all. At that age, I did not understand cancer fully to have been able to fight it ‘bravely.’ All that I wanted back then was to go back home and to school, and be with my friends. But the experience of speaking all of it, in spite of the numerous blog posts, was an entirely different thing. It was nervousness and happiness put together in a grinder. In the end, there was a sense of achievement in simply making myself speak in front of an audience, no matter how big or small. Also, the ambience in that room full of strangers was surprisingly comforting.

Now I am pretty sure that I am going to attend as many events as I can that are organised by the Tale Tellers Troupe in Hyderabad or any other city that I happen to be in. It’s not simply telling the stories, but listening to them is an equally enthralling experience. If anyone has any story to tell and wants an audience that is equally passionate about storytelling, this is definitely the place to be in!

All the photos of the last event of #StorytellingOpenMic at Lamakaan can be found in the Facebook page of Tale Tellers Troupe, Hyderabad.

If you are a new reader on my blog and are curious about my Leukemia Diaries, then do check out my previous posts here. Also, if you are not a big fan of reading so much, then check out the award winning documentary Leukemia - Not Just A Disease by Antarik Anwesan for a shorter version of the entire story.