Sharada Eswar makes her literary debut with a delightful collection of folk tales. Raised in Tamilnadu, India, Eswar is a writer, storyteller, singer, and arts educator based in Brampton. She is also the artistic director of Jumblies Theatre in Toronto, and has been an artistic collaborator with Toronto’s  Soulpepper Theatre. Eswar was part of the delegation representing India at the India Abroad show in Paris and New York, and was also one of three chosen by the Centres Culturels des Lions Clubs de Paris to present Indian culture in Normandy, France. Eswar’s first book for young readers, When the Banyan Sways: Folktales from India (Running the Goat, out now), is an illustrated collection of four folk tales – one each from Tamilnadu, Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Bihar – written in both English and Tamil.

Eswar spoke with Q&Q about the inspiration behind When the Banyan Sways, why stories are vitally important, and what she hopes readers take away from the collection.

Can you speak about the first time you heard a folk tale?
I was probably five or six when I first heard the story of the Monkey and the Crocodile from the Panchatantra fables. My grandmother (I share my name with her) was an amazing storyteller. She lived in a small village in Kerala. Every summer when my cousins and I visited her, she would tell us the most amazing stories. Stories from the Panchatantra, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata.

How much of your work as a writer, storyteller, singer, and arts educator is informed by your South Asian ancestry and heritage?
My personal vision of storytelling is continuously inspired by my ancestry, heritage, and tradition. Tradition is the cornerstone for the creation, practice, and performance of my art. Simultaneously, my work needs to be relevant and accessible to audiences, so I strive to reflect a contemporaneity that makes my storytelling Indian in technique and universal in context.

Illustration: Radha Raulgaonkar.

What inspired When the Banyan Sways?
My daughter, Sanjana, was my inspiration. As a playwright, my plays are rather dark and my daughter, who is my loyal audience, often asks me why I can’t write happy stories. Why does everyone have to die and cry? When I thought of writing something happy, I at once thought of the stories my grandmother would tell us. Incidentally, she would be 100 if she were alive today. In a way, this collection is me paying homage to her.

India has an incredibly rich storytelling culture. How did you decide which folk tales to include in the collection?
Indeed. It was very difficult to choose these four from the ocean of stories. Tamilnadu is my hometown, and so I had to have a story from there; I went to Calcutta, West Bengal, for my graduate studies and have spent some of my best years there; the desert city of Rajasthan holds so much magic and mystery; and the folk tale from Bihar, I first heard from my friend’s mother who is from Gaya (where Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree).

Though your work spans disciplines and art forms, it all revolves around storytelling. What role have stories played in your life?
Stories are fundamental. They’re at the core of my very being. Not just me. If you think about it, you will realize how stories are woven throughout all our lives. We all share stories. Of family, work, and our experiences. We refer to myths, folklore, and characters from TV shows to explain things to ourselves and to others. We construct internal narratives to help us make sense of the world.

What would you tell young readers about the role of stories in their lives? 
Creative thinking is a necessary skill for one’s personal development in all walks of life. As a second generation grows up in a mixed culture, with the challenges of retaining traditional values while adapting to evolving cultural trends, there has never been a more urgent need for an approach to education that prepares children to face the challenges of the future. 

Illustration: Radha Raulgaonkar.

The collection touches on a number of themes from vanity to generosity. Why was it so important to share these with young children? 
When I set out to retell these stories, I didn’t pay much attention to the messages within. I remembered the joy and glee I felt when I first heard them. But subsequent drafts revealed these lessons more clearly, and I was struck by their timelessness and relevance. Look at everything that is happening around us – narcissism is rampant, as is greed. There is a general lack of generosity. By embedding these values in the stories, people will hopefully remember them.

What do you hope readers take away from When the Banyan Sways? 
That there is more to India than Bollywood and butter chicken! Jokes aside, what I hope readers will think about is how stories create an emotional connection, how we can gain a deeper understanding of other people’s experiences. Stories remind us of how we are part of something enduring, something much bigger than ourselves.

This interview has been edited and condensed.