Kamishiba

Kamishiba is an ancient Japanese form of story telling. Scenes were drawn on paper and the story was told holding the picture to the audience.
I drew these pictures for a story and told it in a story telling workshop at Avvai . The workshop was conducted by the famous story teller Cathy Spagnoli.

Once upon a time there lived a king who was very vain. As he grew older he started to lose his hair and started to become bald.The king was very distressed over his receding  hair line.If you are the king and you have a problem,you have an advantage of making it someone else's problem.So, that is what our dear king did.

He summoned the palace physician and ordered him to brew a remedy for his baldness or face serious consequences.

The royal physician was  a very clever man, He knew it was futile to argue with the king and he also knew he cannot follow the kings orders . There is no cure for baldness, he walked home in deep thought,

As promised the royal  physician met the king on the said date, handed him  a bottle of oil promising hair growth. He told the king that it is not a matter of just applying the oil that is going to do the trick , the king needs to also have the will to grow his hair back. The king answered that he was very willing and would do what it takes to cure his baldness. To this the physician said that he has follow the instructions really carefully. The king had to apply the oil only after bath and not more than ten drops per day and what ever he does he must not think of mangoes.The king thought easy enough even he could follow such simple instructions.

The king began the treatment the very next day. He took his bath and then he took exactly ten drops of the oil and then what next he thought, he should not think of -mangoes!!!!!!. Now he could not take his mind off mangoes , One day it would be mangoes in  a tree next it would be mango juice in a bottle next it would be mangoes cut and served on plate. Slowly not only did he think of mangoes during his bath both the rest of the day too. It became too unbearable , 

The king got rid of the bottle and decided he looked good the way he is and he also feels better.

The royal physicians cleverness saved him from the king's wrath.

THE END

I have told this story to almost all my class students and my students have liked my drawings. Its quite long ago since I drew it the paper is falling apart .Feels good to post it here on my blog.