#25: Why do I make people tell their stories?
a note from my experience of building Stories Worth Sharing- India's largest offline storytelling network!
A lot of things we as humans do can often be traced to their childhood. I grew up with an ailing mother and lived away from my father when growing up. Inability to make friends left me craving for a reliable ear. My first blog past garnered 70+ views in 2009–10 (had hardly 2–3 friends)
Magic! The loner now got a bunch of people who were reading what he had to say. It pushed me hard to talk about the things that matter the most to me.
Life changed with internet and by 15, I was on FB groups connecting with writers online making money out of the network. Dates on calendar changed and I met more people craving to be heard.
I realized that a large chunk of out youth find comfort in sharing their stories with random strangers that they may never see again!
Came the winter of 2017. It brought along a rough patch. I found a way out of it via conversations and stories. I start re-meeting people I had encountered at different places and guess what? It worked!
Stories Worth Sharing Meetup then came up as a random idea which grew organically when put to public. I am asked often about how did we manage to reach 100+ cities at a mere age of 20-21? (Check what the Indian media wrote about us here)
In the reply, I just smile and think of the 15 year old kid who organized a bunch of 10 to write when the internet in India was just ‘starting up’
So, what did we do?
We ensured that when someone speaks, everyone listens. We glamourized the art of listening over the speech. How did I realize the essence of this conclusion? Childhood.
Now that I look back after the pandemic, I see more and more people in need of coming back to Stories Worth Sharing Meetups. I feel glad and proud of the fact that we could revolutionize the way India connects with their stories, from Saurashtra in Gujarat to Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh.
If you liked this story, I will urge you to support me as I bring more such perspectives to you.
How?
Simply share the link to this post on your WhatsApp story.
-OR- Contribute a small amount (Pay What You Want)
Watch my 100 #1MinuteBookReviews here