Isn’t an expression, communication, and everything that comes tagged along just an extension of our personalities? It’s an art that we consciously and subconsciously master over time. For us, to venture into this world (irrespective of the profession we get into), it becomes highly important to be well acquainted with these basic humanistic qualities.
For kids, schooling does this job on a generic level. But is it always enough? Their imagination, their persona, their thoughts, ideas, and feelings are too vast, lively, and sky-high to fit into a boundary-driven box that we have been accustomed to forever as a society. Storytelling as an art is beyond all sorts of limitations, boundaries, and social norms. It sets you free, it lets you explore yourself and the world around you. It empowers you. It makes you a better person. It helps you venture into the territories you haven’t been to before. It gives birth to newer experiences. How profound this feeling is!
These little souls filled with innocent childlike worldviews get introduced to their inner selves and the world around them through storytelling. The storytelling of any sort, verbal, non-verbal, fiction, non-fiction, through prose, poetries, paintings, illustrations, or any kind of an artform empowers these kids to become better versions of themselves. The habit of consuming art, being surrounded by the vast endless treasure filled with literature introduces them to different facets of humankind and the world they live in. Stories make them express themselves, and help them communicate, and this in turn over time prepares them to go and confidently put their ideas out in the world and articulate their thoughts and feelings in the most accurate possible manner. In simple words, the art of storytelling helps kids be prepared to face life.
It gives me immense joy and happiness to be able to address and have a conversation with these supremely talented bunch of kids and their ever-supportive, encouraging parents. To begin with, having a platform and one which pushes these kids to believe in themselves and come out with stories is like icing on the cake. My association with Wiz Kids Carnival dates back to almost its inception and here we are years down the line celebrating and championing the cause and the kids who are transitioning into future writers, authors, poets, and artists in general. I hope and wish the initiative and every single kid associated with it grows by leaps and bounds edition after edition. Let’s have more and more reasons to smile, celebrate and spread love. Raising a toast to many more years of little masters turning into master storytellers.
Himanshu Nimbhorkar
Himanshu Nimbhorkar works as a freelancing assistant director on feature films, has written a yet to be aired television show, and independently writes and directs shorts (fiction as well as documentaries).
He has previously got his work screened at the prestigious Mumbai-based MAMI Film Festival, Los Angeles-based Lift-Off Sessions, etc.
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