The Importance of Storytelling
Filed under: Storytelling
Storytelling was a way of life in India at a time when there was no such entertainment as radio, TV or movies to congregate around. The popular pastime was to sit around a storyteller in the evenings; be it at home around grandmother, around the professional storyteller in the moonlight under a banyan tree, or on the temple grounds.
Unlike TV or a movie, the purpose of storytelling was not only to provide entertainment, but also to impart lessons in right behavior. Such gathering/telling strengthened the human bonds in a subtle way and left a lasting impact on the listener. Thus the lessons on duty, truth, right behavior, etc. became the criteria for right living.
It is time storytelling as a recreational tool and a teaching instrument was revived.