“Do you know who a hermit is?”, asks Nisha Agarwal of a group of six, wide-eyed children and is flooded with delightful replies. Seated on the floor and leaning on low blue tables at her house in Mattancherry, the group is Nisha’s storytelling and art class. Listening to the exchange, 12-year-old Manya says she will build a tree house for the hermit, a homeless wanderer. When Nisha describes the physical appearance of Lord Shiva with his body smeared with ash, the class enters into a discussion on the properties of ash and why it is considered pure by Indians. She is narrating the riveting tale of Shiva’s first wife, Sati who immolated herself to keep the honour of her husband. The class also discusses the banned tradition of Sati and the fact that the two are not interconnected.
“Nobody tells the correct story of Sati. There’s always confusion regarding the practice of women joining their dead husbands on the funeral pyre and Sati, the Goddess of marital fidelity,” explains Nisha
The storytelling is followed by teaching the children to illustrate the stories in different Indian art forms such as Warli, Madhubani, Gond, Kalighat and Saura.
