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Indian narrator talks about how Covid changed her art of story telling

Chennai - She now has participants from around the globe including the UAE and the US.

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When the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed in March 2020, Pretigaya Haran, a freelance storyteller in Chennai, was wondering whether she would be able to continue with her profession.

Fortunately, she decided against giving up storytelling and a month later, had her first online workshop. It’s been a huge success and since then, she has done nearly 70 sessions. “I had my misgivings about narrating stories online,” Pretigaya told a newspaper. “In a face-to-face storytelling session, there would be emotion, and I would draw energy from the audience. How could that be achieved by peering into a screen?”

Interestingly, she now has participants from around the globe including the UAE and the US. She describes it as “a high jump in my seven-year-old career. I was on top of the world as I did not have to affect any collaborations to get new audience. WhatsApp and Facebook were enough to spread the word,” adds Pretigaya, who runs Story Sack.

She admits that while traditional storytelling is more powerful, the digital version in interactive and more engaging. “I use breakout rooms and other features in Zoom to make my sessions more engaging and I am still exploring many more features thanks to the feedback from my participants,” she adds.

• India