 When I hear somebody saying one support a time, I wish to tell you a story. It happened like this. The pleasure of sitting down with a group of people in front of a fire, in front of a feast and telling epic. It's our urge to make sense of our existence and our lives. Stories are very important for cultures. People want stories. We're fundamentally narrative creatures. I think that we are formed by stories. Stories to engage us, entertain us, stimulate our imagination. It tries to point out the wonder of life as lived and it makes us look beyond ourselves. India has always had stories being told or rather retold in different ways. Mainly through performances. And if you look at our music or dance, in fact many of them do have either direct narrations of stories or at least suggestions of stories or certain contexts in our epics. So I think our whole tradition of art and literature is linked to the telling of stories and the ways the stories are told. You have Pandun Ki Kade in Rajasthan, which again is really chronicles of Pandavas. And these are Muslim singers. And these Muslim singers are really community singers. Antiquity of our tradition is not as remarkable as its continuity. For us mythology is not something dead, not something that belongs to the past, it is something that surrounds us, wherever you go. In the Indian context, most traditions of storytelling relate to a particular community. Kabira Teri Jwampadi Gal Gatia Ke Paas Kare Labu Bare Latun Ki Un Bai Udaas Jam Aur Lich Man Sov Ne Mir Gero Shikar Kane Giya Paas Dev Riksha Kare Bir Man Pistu Mesh Jam Leeri Kaavad Hai Deku Satra Pandu Hai Raja Pindra Putra Paas Galta Pandu Hrabi Uza Paap Ne Kalukar Me Koi Dabi Ne Aave Jeon Jaai Pikish Potaram Dadu Maan Ke Zamariya Loto Paani Ne Paayu Khaavne Kheera Odine Deera Milia Satri Khaavad Hai Deha Ko Bali Shingiro Na Bache Hai Raja Bali Ho Dai Paam Da Zameen Vikram Shingiro Na Bache Hai Vika Ne Dharba Satri Khaavad Hai Bhagwan Di Vika Ji Radarshan Bache Hai Sri Krishna Sune Samle Ji Aane Naavari Aur Bhagwan Ramchandar Ji Ke Naav Ki Sita Maya Ke Naav Ki Jai I tell stories to wake up stories in other people because every living being has got a story to tell. Bawls are mostly the poets, the travelling poets who is searching for the spiritual fulfilment or the ananda through songs, dance and music poetry stories. We tell these stories and we try to touch that moment. So in this way, Bawl is a storyteller. As a Bawl, we say that the song must become our body. We must realise it in our body and then only we can give because otherwise it will not touch you. We need to talk also about how the same material is told in 50 different ways. There is Kathakali which is of course, it is what one can say it is a kind of mime but then there is the song in the background which narrates the story which is acted out following very much of the instructions of Bharatha Aindranathesh Aasthara. Pav Kathakali is also one of the examples how the small stories are taken into this globe puppetry which Kathakali also is performing. We are four puppeteers, one drummer, one singer and one stage assistant and we create exact illusion of Kathakali in a short time. You have a story telling in performing arts. You have a story telling in literature. You have also story telling in pictures. A singular story will not do justice either to the human diversity of existence nor of the plurality of human imagination.