While moral stories, fairy tales and epics are some of the run-of-the-mill themes for every story teller, a group of city based story tellers are keen on unravelling the lesser known facts of Bengaluru. The members of Bangalore Storytelling Society are exploring a whole new dimension of storytelling as they take the audience to the hidden facts and myths behind many places, food and joints in the city which still remain solid reminiscences of a bygone era.
“In a bid to keep alive the culture and history of Bengaluru, you must first know the founder of the city and the architect par excellence that he was”, says Aparna Athreya.
“Kempe Gowda was a visionary and he erected the four pillars on the four sides of the city marked the city limits. Our children and grandchildren should be aware of these things and there is no other way than story telling that can keep these interesting pieces of history alive in them,” says Aparna Athreya who is a member of the Bangalore Storytelling Society.
While Bengaluru is often known for its pubs, traffic, multi-cuisine eateries and the fast life, these story tellers focus on keeping alive the history and culture of the city which might be unknown even to those who are born and bred in Bengaluru.
“There was a bull that used to visit the area every night and eat away all the ground nuts. One day, a farmer came in, patted the bull on its head and suddenly it turned into a stone.
Interestingly, the bull-shaped stone started growing in size every day until someone placed a stone on its head. This is the legendary storybehind the bull temple in Basavana Gudi,” said Lavanya Prasad who is also part of the story telling society.
Most of us have would have savoured Maddur vada at least once but none of us would have guessed that this typical speciality snack of Karnataka was the innovation of a guy at a way-side eatery who ran out of time.
“Once, this guy at a small eatery near the railway station found that the batter for vada wasn’t ready yet and the train was about to reach. He suddenly mixed some Dal and red chillies, flattened and fried them to make the Maddur vada, which later turned into the most loved snack of Karnataka. It is after a lot of reading and researching that we get hold of such interesting stories but the hard work is worth it because it connects me to my past and it is interesting beyond words,’’ states Priya Muthukumar, who left her teaching profession to become a full-time story teller.
