A natural raconteur and performer, for the past decade Chennai-based Jeeva Raghunath has been enthralling children not only in India, but also in Thailand, Malaysia, USA, UK, Canada, Sweden and Cayman Islands with her rich repertoire of Indian, Asian and western folk tales. In a varied and rewarding career, she has conducted training programmes and story-telling work-shops for school teachers in India and abroad, authored four children’s books in English and two in Tamil; translated English folk tales into Tamil and has compered story-telling shows on television in India, UK, Europe and the Middle East. Moreover she has twice represented India at the Asian Children’s Festival organised by the National Library Board of Singapore, and served as a resource person for schools in Singapore and Malaysia for drama and language arts from 2000-04.
“I’ve inherited the story-telling tradition from my grandmother and dancer mother, who continued the tradition. I narrate stories in English and Tamil and avoid using props unless requested. I also conduct workshops for teachers and teacher trainers to enable them to incorporate story-telling in classroom pedagogies for developing children’s language, communication and drama skills. Moreover I work with corporate employees encouraging them to participate in story-telling to enhance their creative and communication skills,” says Raghunath, a home science graduate of Madras University with a diploma in French from the Alliance Francaise.
Beginning her career as a pre-school teacher in the child development lab of her alma mater, Women’s Christian College, Chennai where she trained and worked for six years, in 1983 Raghunath quit to promote a pre-school under the name and style of Saplings. Discouraged by the limitations of teaching pre-schoolers, she sold the school, studied French at the Alliance and taught the language in different schools and colleges. But after 20 years of teaching, she yearned to do something different and changed track, successfully marke-ting children’s books for Tulika Publishers.
“During the book launch of my Tamil translation of Cathy Spagnolli’s Priya’s Day in 1998, I narrated its content which greatly impressed the audience,” recalls Raghunath.
Thus in her new avatar as raconteur she began story-telling sessions in several private and corporation schools in Chennai. Her reputation grew and she got her big break when Tulika invited her to Singapore to participate in the Asian Storytelling Festival in 2000. Raghunath moved to Singapore in 2003, trained over 5,000 teachers in 77 schools and worked in private companies to promote language skills and drama before returning to Chennai in 2006.
Apart from offering consultancy services, the unstoppable Raghunath has ambitious plans to start a School of Arts in Chennai in partnership with the Trichy-based Alpha Group of institutions. “The school will offer children training in music, dance and drama, apart from certificate courses in story-telling and other arts,” says Raghunath, who has been selected to represent India at the Story Olympiad to be held in 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in London.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)