Story 1- How Seethathali creeper got it's name

This is the story that Parvathy's grandfather told her about how a creeper, Seethathali got it's name.
Parvathy's ancestral home is in Cheppad, Kerala. This was the first story that came to her mind after I asked her to narrate one for me.

Sita or Seetha was the wife of Rama, king of Ayodha in the epic Ramayana.
A thali is a chain that married women wear. It's worn in various parts of the country in different forms, and has different names.

The first audio is in Malayalam, the second is the translated version.
Do give it a minute to load :)



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Story Telling

Greetings!

A couple of years ago, I started wondering about story telling traditions. Specifically oral story telling traditions. As a child, my mom would tell me stories every night, my favorites being tales of Akbar and Birbal and Shivaji Maharaj. There was also stories that she used to make up for me. What I then decided to do was find out how many of my friends from Kerala, South India had their parents or grandparents tell them stories when they were little. Also, from those who did say that they heard stories I requested them each to narrate the tale in the language they heard it. This is going to be my new project and I will upload the stories in their voice (once I figure out how exactly to), along with the translated versions (both audio and text).

A surprise that awaited me was that quite a few of my friends had never heard stories when they were younger. What I plan to do later on is collect more information and stories and figure out if this is the same case all across India, and if there is a trend in age groups which have positive and negative replies.

But before that, look out for the next post, the first story! :)