Story time with Janaki Sabesh

Janaki Sabesh, actor, author and Carnatic singer, brings four decades of passion for story-telling to Coimbatore

There is something about the unbridled joy in the faces of children that drives story-teller Janaki Sabesh. “I get instant gratification when I narrate a story to children,” says Janaki, who is also an actor, author and Carnatic singer. “I thrive on this,” she adds. Janaki, known for her roles in Tamil films such as Ghilli and Jeans, is in Coimbatore this weekend to present story-telling sessions for children and their parents. “This is going to be my first time in Coimbatore for a public performance in an intimate space,” she says, speaking about Kadhai @ Vidhai.

Janaki brings to the event over four decades of passion for story-telling and working with children. She started out with audio cassettes of stories for children, called Learning Train that she recorded in 1995. In 2014, she started the storytelling initiative Golpo Tales Unlimited and has had her hands full ever since.

“In life, stories are everything,” feels Janaki, adding that after a career in sales and marketing for 20 years, she now uses stories in corporate training. “Stories can help in team building and connect better with each other,” she says.

At her event in the city, she will also present stories that she wrote, such as The Jungle Storytelling Festival (Tulika) and Paati’s Rasam (Karadi Tales), that won the Jarul Book Award. “There will be plenty of humour,” she says adding that her background in theatre and music will add new dimensions to the performance. “I usually do not employ props in my narration; but for The Jungle Storytelling Festival, I will introduce to the children an ostrich puppet a friend knitted for me,” says Janaki.

Janaki will also be interacting with parents. “I hope to talk to them about Paati’s Rasam, that deals with an important topic: losing a loved one,” she says. Janaki believes in letting her listeners’ imagination do all the work, rather than show them pages from a book. “For instance, they would’ve visualised the ostrich in my story in their own way,” she says, which is why she shows them books with the stories only towards the end of the session. “You should see their faces when they see the characters come alive in the pages,” she says, adding that their sense of wonder is something else. “I have been stunned by responses from children at several occasions.”