Kshamatha, Founder of Katha&Krafts – Hyderabad, practices storytelling with the purpose of serving humanity and spreading the joy of learning through stories. Fondly known as Shammu aunty, she is loved by kids of all ages for her child-like innocence and musical stories.
After 7 successful years in the software industry as a Team Manager, Kshamatha decided to pursue a more rewarding experience – that of a stay-at-home mom and a Storyteller. Having witnessed first-hand how stories, music and books inspired her daughter’s growth in the early years, she was inspired to share this bliss with other children because “Storytelling is sharing happiness”.
This also helped Kshamatha to nurture her own childhood passion of reading books which she had to forego due to the growing pressure of academics.
For the last five years, Katha&Krafts has been conducting regular storytelling classes for children below 12 years. The stories are effectively narrated and brought to life using puppets, props, visual imagery, music and physical movement. Both oral narratives and read -alouds have been an integral part of the classes to improve the child’s listening, speaking and reading skills. The carefully-crafted after-story activities like art and crafts, brain games, worksheets, drama and role-play help children to enrich their language and communication skills.
Kshamatha has completed certified workshops on storytelling from Secret Passages and Federation of Asian Storytellers(FEAST). As a versatile teller who is fluent in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, she has curated, assisted and performed at several online events and children’s literature festivals.
With Katha&Krafts, she embodies the famous quote, “As you grow older you discover that you have two hands, one to help yourself and the other to help others”.
She is not only associated with several playschools, NGOs and Govt. schools, but has also been actively raising funds through her online classes and virtual fundraiser event KathaDhara, to aid the underprivileged, families hit by pandemic and cancer patients who are in need of financial assistance.
She credits her students for their love, and the trust and support of the parents, her friends and her peers, in making her initiatives a recurring success. Her peers often refer to her as a “Sutradhaar” who always brings people together for a good cause.
Her initiative StoryParty, that has won the hearts of kids and adults alike, is a Facebook live event, where she bonds over stories with different artists who use storytelling in their profession and spreads awareness on various storytelling forms.
To know more details about Katha&Krafts, please visit https://www.facebook.com/Kathaandkrafts/
