It was a great opportunity for me to travel to India in September 2007. I was very happy to be able to tell stories there, even in English, which isn't my mother tongue... It was a short but an extraordinary journey for me, unforgettable.
In India, stories are transmitted orally, mostly. There are fewer books. Having said that, I would like to say that reading and listening are two ways to know stories and both are important. I have decided to be part of this chain of transmission through books and through oral tradition.
Telling stories and bringing books closer to people is a difficult task. And whoever chooses to do so should have fire within. I chose to do something challenging: I decided to be a storyteller, and in that too, I wanted to be of a different kind. I am not a traditional storyteller. My family did not approve of it. “That's not a real job”, said my father. “Stories are not serious,” said my mother.
Therefore, if one chooses that route, I feel that there should be a strong urge. When I met Atula in Delhi at the IBBY storytelling conference, I felt she was an “intense” someone and well rooted. I saw she appreciates and pines for perfection, so I immediately looked forward to seeing Reading Rainbow. Two days later, in Ahmehabad, I enjoyed visiting the Centre because I am a passionate person myself and everything there was done with passion! The children were so warm, I felt at home! They were so attentive, they made my stories strong. I felt this was a work, done well. It made me happy because in India there are only very few people helping children with books, and this was one honest effort.
More than 25 years ago, when I began, we were very few in France. I had to learn by myself. I love books so I started to look for stories in all sorts of books. I tried to find good material in these books and build my own world of stories. Reading takes more time than listening, so it took long for me, afterwards, to construct a real orality... But over the years I have realized that it was the reading and researching of books that had given me a strong foundation in the telling of tales. Each time I would tell my audience where my story came from and how I had experimented and created it in my own way. THANK YOU BOOKS!
I have taken so much from books; I feel I have to give back. At first, I was afraid of writing because it's too much solitude... but I have always loved it. I have now begun to write and create books, while rewriting traditional stories with “my” point of view and illustrators I choose. I publish books and produce audio cds so that children can read and listen and discover that reading and listening are different, yet inter-dependent.
In the Northern African tradition, people say: “What you receive as big as the hand, you should give it back as big as the arm.” That is what I try to achieve. Making books is for me a way to thank stories. They “lie at rest” in their written form... waiting, until someone will tell them! I feel people have been telling lovely stories around the world. But if these are not documented and preserved in books, we might lose them. Stories need mouths and ears air and variations, and also a home to stay alive forever. Books are the best home for them.
Ultimately, I would say that each time I tell a story, it is different: the feelings, the words, even if the story is the same. Each time it is new, because of the audience! I travel in order to give more meaning to the stories I choose with my heart, and I need to get real sensations of a country and its culture. And in India, I experienced every story I told, as new. Now, they have a new taste and telling some of them in Europe is a need now.
In Delhi, I met so many storytellers and writers from India and abroad. Everyone is taking a step forward, and I am thankful for that.
Good wishes to all who are in this adventure, to go on doing the good work. It is the best way to communicate one's thoughts, despite the diversity and differences in opinion. I hope to come back to India again. I hope I meet all those people again and that we may work together again, that is my wish. |
