About the Story: Tortoise and the Carabao

Tortoise wanted to be friends with Carabao but was teased by Carabao instead. Tortoise challenged Carabao to a race up and down five hills. Carabao thought that he would win the race but at the top of each hill, Carabao always found Tortoise waiting for him there. Carabao raced down the fifth hill and found to his dismay that Tortoise had already reached the finish-line before he did. In his anger, Carabao kicked Tortoise who landed so hard on his back that his shell cracked. As for Carabao, he kicked Tortoise so hard that his hoof spilt. That is why to this day Tortoises have cracked shells and Carabaos have split hooves. Whenever Karen tells this story to children, they inevitably ask: “So is the story true?” Maybe it is, maybe not. Who knows?

About Karen

Karen first told this story to a group of children at the Family Service Centre. The children loved how the tortoise won a larger animal through its wit. Karen has told this story at various libraries and preschools and it never fails to draw huge laughter. On her ‘tortoise days’, Karen is a learning support teacher for children in the primary school. She brings stories into their learning spaces, telling stories to teach, fire their imagination and have LOTS of fun together.

About the Story:

"Fish in the frying pan"- Dee says that this story has been with her for a long time. She says that it is something that reminds her to review & revisit beliefs, why she does things the way she does! The source of this adapted version, can be found at https://rogerjenkins.com.sg/sfve-juniors/

About Dee Palanisamy:

Durgah Devi (Dee) Palanisamy is a multicultural storyteller and is fascinated by stories across the world. With more than two decades of experience working with stories, she is constantly striving to create spaces and programs that use stories to encourage discovery, education and entertainment. Dee loves oral stories and founded Deelightfultales, which aims to renew the traditions of the spoken word. Born and raised in Singapore, Dee is proficiently bilingual in English and Tamil. Now she lives in Melbourne, Australia with her family and continues to tell stories for children, adults and personal stories. As a versatile performer, she connects with her audience through her stories and believes in the magic of storytelling.

About the Story:

This is a folktale from South India. It's a story about a poor couple who yearn to have some

crispy dosas... and a demon who longs for some of it as well. Do they all get to finally have

it? How? Parvathy and Meenu did an adaptation of this folktale as a tandem presentation.

About Parvathy Eswaran:

Parvathy Eswaran is a storyteller by Passion and by Choice. She believes that stories are

there all around us in plenty as free as the air we breathe and we as storytellers can be the

channel to spread them.

Parvathy believes that storytelling is an important educational tool and conducts workshops

for teachers on the techniques of storytelling. She also conducts workshops for children and

adults on the art of storytelling. She has performed in many spaces including National

Storytelling Network (USA), FEAST (Singapore), Chennai Storytelling Festival, Under the

Aalamaram festival and Indonesian Storytelling Festival, Jakarta. Her journey in storytelling

started at Kathalaya, after a 25-year stint in the corporate.

About Meenu Sivaramakrishnan:

A Professional Performance Storyteller, Author, Voice-over artist, Carnatic Singer, Theatre

Artist and Educator – Meenu Sivaramakrishnan is a Passionpreneur today after a decade in

IT industry leading several teams across geographies. She then moved on to do a

partnership venture to make science learning a joyful experience. It is then, she explored

the art of using oral storytelling as a learning pedagogy and saw the powerful impact of

stories. Thus, in her humble attempt to rekindle the joy for oral storytelling, she founded

her own initiative called “KATHA GALATTA – Unleash Your Joy Through Stories”.



Meenu does interactive oral storytelling sessions/performances and story-based workshops

for children and adults. She has performed at festivals like Morocco Marrakesh International

Storytelling festival, Chennai Storytelling Festival, Bangalore Storytelling Festival, Jharkhand

Storytelling Festival etc. She was also a visiting faculty for the Integrated Management

Program at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and co-facilitated two

courses based on the Art of Storytelling. She is currently the Storytelling Lead, facilitating

regular storytelling sessions and story-based trainings at The Green School Bangalore. She

also does Voice-Overs for e-learning modules, animations and audio stories. She has

authored 2 children’s stories and got them published through Story weaver- Pratham Books

and Pachyderm Tales.

The Story: The Monkey's Necklace

Priscilla first found this story in a picture book by Anne Rockwell, 'The Stolen Necklace: A Picture Tale from India'. It is based on a Jataka tale. It has changed and grown with the telling, but the wise gardener and the cheeky monkey remain the same.

About Priscilla

Priscilla has been a full-time storyteller since 1993, after five years as a storytelling librarian. She travels the world with a head full of stories and a bag full of puppets. Though she doesn't always use puppets in her storytelling, they often accompany her at performances for young children. She tells folktales, stories from books and her own stories. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas (USA) with her ginger cat Pippin. You can find out more about her and sign up for her newsletter on her website, https://www.priscillahowe.com/

The Story: The Chinese Wedding

The story is about an ethnic group in South East Asia that is famous in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. There are Chinese, Arab, Dutch and Indian Peranakans. The story gives you glimpses of some of the practices, rituals and beliefs or superstitions of a Chinese wedding which is a very grand affair.

About Mabel Lee

Mabel Lee has been a professional storyteller since 2000. She was a member of Talespin, a ground breaking collaborative that helped pioneer adult performance in storytelling in Singapore in the early 2000s. A founding member of the Storytelling Association (Singapore), she has held executive posts for five terms. She has told stories at the Asian Civilisations Museum, the National Gallery and the Singapore International Storytelling Festival as well as at the annual 398.2 Storytelling Festival. She also participated in the Sakal Times International Storytelling Festival in India; in Pune (2018) and Chennai (2019), bringing stories to children and conducting workshops for teachers. Over the years, Mabel has mentored many aspiring tellers in honing their stories for performance.

The Story: The Princess of Umbrella Hill

Puteri Bukit Payung (A folktale from Terengganu) 

About Mindy Neo

Mindy enjoys connecting with adults and children through the ancient art of story. She loves insights and lessons best when they’re wrapped in funny or poignant stories. She tells traditional tales as well as true stories from her own life. She also tells stories of biodiversity and conservation and hopes that through storytelling, people might have a deeper sense of humanity and appreciation for biodiversity

About the Story: The Seventh Sun

The Seventh Sun is a folktale from Orissa, India. Ramya met the story on the wonderful Pratham Books Storyweaver platform. The story just seemed to keep nudging at her gently, like as if the story was telling her heart something and she journeyed with the story.

This folktale is about a time when there were seven suns in the sky and when the humans found the rays of the suns to be very hot, seven brothers send the suns away with their bows and arrows. The earth plunges in darkness. The animals in the jungle all try to bring back the sun, when surprisingly an animal who wasn’t expected to bring the sun – yes, the rooster is able to bring the sun back.

She says – “To me, I felt like the rooster had a song in his heart, the song was also a wish to be able to do something purposeful just didn’t know what, how. And at the moment in the story when everyone was trying to bring the sun down, he just felt called to sing his song. Like the wise quote that tells us, “A bird does not sing because it has an answer but sings because it has a song” And I remember this story and what it became for me at that moment in my life (and even now). I shared the story, sang the song because I had that song in my heart. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be able to share this story, this journey at the FEAST Fest 2021, in the “In Nature’s Lap” segment.”

About Ramya Iyer

Ramya’s journey with stories began with a pondering on a fulfilling life, a life of meaning. She believes in the strength of a warm, holding and healing space. She finds herself working towards bringing people closer to themselves and more connected to each other through story, song, play, expression. She seeks to contribute to help people reflect, heal, grow and live fulfilling lives. She is fascinated by the magic and power that every person's story holds, every moment, every day. Objects and belongings we carry in our hearts as we travel along our lives seem to call out to her heart. And dreams, dreams intrigue her – the ones that meet us while asleep and while awake! She’s a storyteller, writer, expressive arts-based practitioner and positive psychology-based life mentor, coach.

Ramya's journey is called The Bright Lamp Storytells. She has contributed through writing into digital anthologies on women’s and mothers' stories, a book on poetry by Half Baked Beans Publishing, a story close to her life has found home in the anthology on elephant stories ‘Airavata’ by Pachyderm stories. She has written two stories on the Pratham Books Storyweaver platform. She is grateful to have been able to contribute an adapted version of a folktale titled 'A Farmer Princess'; a Bhili folktale, to FEAST 2019 Anthology titled ‘Royals Wise and Otherwise’. She has received an Engineering degree from the University of Mumbai, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She worked in technology and marketing analytics before moving to Bangalore and into the world of stories, storytelling, the expressive arts. She is eager to be discovering life and the world through the lens of stories, the inter-connectedness of it all, grateful to witness them as part of nature, the world. Ramya feels she is trying to live a fulfilling life -- one breath, one step, one day at a time.

About the Story: The Monkey King

This is an enduring story, a timeless Jataka tale, inspired by the life of the Bodhisattva, retold by Shobha Viswanath in her book "The Monkey King" published by Karadi Tales. Janaki fell in love with the story when she read it and was very happy to perform it at the FEAST Fest 2021.

Here is the story synopsis - A juicy mango from the monkey kingdom reaches the king of Benares, sparking a quest for the source of this delightful fruit. Will Kapi, the wise monkey king, be able to safeguard his people? 

About Janaki Sabesh

There are stories hidden everywhere, and Janaki Sabesh loves discovering them!

Janaki’s engagement with children began when she produced an audio cassette “The

Learning Train” (1995) simplifying the world of numbers through stories and songs. Her

distinctive and authentic style of blending narration, music and movement is loved by

children, youngsters, corporate professionals, teachers and everyone alike.

Janaki has authored ‘The Jungle Storytelling Festival’ (2018), a picture book for children

published by Tulika Books and co- authored her 2nd picture book titled, 'Paati's

Rasam'(2021) with her daughter Dhwani Sabesh, published by Karadi Tales. ‘Paati’s Rasam’

won the 2023 National Jarul Book Award that recognises Indian picture books. Her third

book is a multi-format one, titled “Appu the thirsty crow” published by Crea-Play. She has

also written short stories on request, for the Parent Circle magazine and for the 800th edition

of Tinkle magazine.

Wearing a variety of hats (and totally in love with it!) of an accomplished actor (of over 30

films in Tamil and a couple in Telugu & Malayalam), voice-over & theatre artist, experienced

marketer, facilitator, professional speaker, she is also the Chief Fun Officer at her own

storytelling initiative 'Golpo Tales'- Golpo meaning story in Bengali.

She is a visiting faculty at Great Lakes Institute of Management where she teaches various

aspects of storytelling as part of Corporate Learning and Development.

Janaki has curated multiple stories and monologues that she performs for adult audiences.

She also brings people together through intimate storytelling experiences around personal

tales, food, music and nostalgia.



She believes : “A story told from the heart will always win more hearts”.

About the Story: The Amazing Race

Nancy says " I believe it was during covid and many people were working from home. This wild rooster roamed a park near my home and it crowed at all times of the day and sometimes night. I was very surprised by that because I always thought roosters crow ONLY in the mornings! I have always liked the story about the great race across China by the 12 animals of the zodiac and I decided to tell my version with rooster as the main character. I believe everyone has their own special abilities"

About Nancy Leppard

Nancy always says how blessed she is to be a storyteller. To be a part of The Storytelling Association of Singapore as well as FEAST. 

She has fond memories of taking part in the global online Feast Fest during that isolated time of Covid. She is currently teaching at a primary school and she uses stories to explain concepts across different subjects to help the pupils remember better. 

Her favourite quote by Albert Einstein is

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be even more intelligent, read them more fairy tales”

About the Story: UTHLEN

Is a spine-chilling Khasi folktale from Meghalaya, a state in the North-Eastern part of India. Meenu had crafted this folktale after quite some research and multiple rounds of discussions with some people from the Khasi tribe to present it in the adult segment of FEAST FEST. The folktale is about a malicious man-eating serpent called U-Thlen who terrorized the local people. He was later deceived and killed. But did U-Thlen really allow death be the end of himself?

About Meenu Sivaramakrishnan

A Professional Performance Storyteller, Author, Voice-over artist, Carnatic Singer, Theatre Artist and Educator – in no particular order, Meenu Sivaramakrishnan dons several hats today! After a decade in IT industry leading several teams across geographies, Meenu moved on to do a partnership venture to make science learning a joyful experience. It is then, she explored the art of using oral storytelling as a learning pedagogy and saw the powerful impact of stories. Thus, in her humble attempt to rekindle the joy for oral storytelling, she founded her own initiative called “KATHA GALATTA – Unleash Your Joy Through Stories”.

Meenu does interactive oral storytelling sessions/performances and story-based workshops for children and adults. She was also a visiting faculty for the Integrated Management Program at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and co-facilitated two courses based on the Art of Storytelling. She is currently the Storytelling Lead, facilitating regular storytelling sessions and story-based trainings at The Green School Bangalore. She also does Voice-Overs for e-learning modules, animations and audio stories. She has authored 2 children’s stories and got them published through Story weaver- Pratham Books and Pachyderm Tales.

About the story by Meher

Millionaire Miser is a Buddhist folktale that I crafted for my telling at the FEAST FEST 2021 under the Mentees Showcase. The tale deals with the life of a miser, suppressed desires of his spouse and a witty divine encounter. I thoroughly enjoyed developing this story under my adult mentorship programme with Sheila Wee.

About Meher

Meher Gehi is a nuanced and versatile performance storyteller, story trainer and voice artist. Her wide repertoire encompasses traditional, folk, original fiction, personal, mythological and literary tales. She loves to infuse her storytelling with music, theatrics and spirituality. Her performances are known to enchant young and old alike.

Meher's foray into storytelling was incidental. While narrating tales to her 6-month-old daughter, she fell in love with the art and universe of storytelling. She decided to immerse herself in this joyful world starting with her own neighbourhood. Meher has performed at national and international storytelling festivals (eg. Gaatha, Under the Aalamaram, Kanoon etc.), in prestigious schools (eg. Bombay Scottish, Ecole Mondiale) and venues (CSMVS, Kitab Khana) across Mumbai and India. Today, Meher trains children, teens and adults in storytelling and confident communication. Under her signature programme called 'Storyfic!' she mentors children to become captivating storytellers cum speakers. Her work as a voice artist includes an original story for Storytel India, 80 short stories for Navneet Publications and an infomercial for Jammu & Kashmir Rural Livelihood Mission (A Govt. of India initiative)

Meher was one of the inception producers /hosts of the FEAST StoryWOK podcast. She is also one of the authors of Feast's anthology of water-themed Asian folktales Splash Splosh!. Meher has been part of the FEAST Fulcrum and currently assists the Directors in the FEAST Foundations of Oral Storytelling Curse