The skyline of Chennai’s coast is pinned in place by the Arabian Nights-like turrets of the High Court on the one side, and the Gothic spire of the San Thome Cathedral on the other. Between the two, they define the city where modern India was founded and from where the Union Jack unfurled across Asia.
It is a sight that Vijay Prabhat Kamalakara, founder-CEO of Storytrails, and his team, has often gazed upon as they introduce travellers to the monuments of colonial India in their walking tour — British blueprints.
It is among the many walks that Storytrails has led since 2007, showcasing India through story-based walking and audio tours and local experiences, helmed by writers and researchers. “When I moved to Chennai over 15 years ago to work in IT we used to pack off our visiting clients in a cab with a guide on a one-day trip to Mamallapuram. Storytrails was founded because we discovered that Chennai had more stories to tell, more nooks and crannies to discover than the usual trip down ECR. Our team likes to research, and shares that passion for places and love for history with others,” says Vijay.
Storytrails recently launched The Temple of Treasures and Other Incredible Tales of Indian Monuments(published by Hachette). The book picks 30 sites from across India that have been part of their walking tours and explores events surrounding them that have shaped our culture and history.
The pendulum of time in the book swings between the stories of Stone Caskets with the Buddha’s Remains on the Sanchi Stupa to the Coolest Building in the Country — the story of the Madras Ice House.
“We script our tours and go beyond dates and dynasties to make the sites relatable. We live in an age of too much information, so what we hope to do is make the participant get interested to read about the place and discover it for themselves.”
Over the years, Storytrails has taken its story-based learning programmes to schools across India, held walking tours in Mumbai, Chennai, Puducherry, Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram, created Three-Minute Storytrails for YouTube and developed audio tours that self guide at your own time and pace if you happen to be at a particular location.
“We started with a pilot project at the Government Museum Egmore and installed one at DakshinaChitra, partnering with corporate organisations that encourage local engagement with culture, and with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department to install the app at marquee monuments and museums across the State. The app is free as we want every visitor to be able to access it, and since it’sstory-based, it gives more than just information. We hope to go live soon with audio tours at places like Mammallapuram and the Brihadeeswara temple.”
“Our walks are structured for 15 people at a time,” says Vijay. “For the larger audience we have our tech-driven offerings. Stories have been scripted and rescripted over the years, and we take care to have them vetted by researchers and experts like epigraphists and archaeologists.”
With the truth about history often fraying at the edges today, has it become increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction? “Oh we do get a fair share of trolls,” says Vijay with a laugh, “but we hope that through our research-based stories, more people are driven to discover India for themselves.”
