Tales of Yore: Stories we Inherited Stories we Invented

Stories are often more relatable when the author can connect to it, when it stems from the world they have been part of. Observing the world around you helps you build these connections.Where do you come from? What is your genealogical identity? When you try to delve deeper, you realise you are only one link in that entire web of family history. The places, the experiences, the culture - all that amalgamates in a different space and time to form the soul that is you.The stories that we have grown up listening to, the stories that are part of our land and heritage, what if you dont just listen and accept but interact and explore? What if those characters have another life?All these thoughts led to the development of the Touch your roots workshop. The Storytelling workshop was conducted as part of the NID Summer Workshop 2025 at Ahmedabad.There were different approaches taken to build contexts - observing the world around you, diving deep into your own family histories, exploring mythologies, and understanding architectural heritage. The participants were taken to the Sarkhej Roza, a 15th century monument as part of interacting with the city heritage.All contexts were explored and characters written and developed. As a storytelling experiment, each participant was given a pool of characters to choose from and build stories out of it.