kochi when the pandemic began in march 2020 harish r namboothiripad 48 an upper primary school teacher in ernakulam started telling heartwarming malayalam stories and fantasy tales he wrote in the form of whatsapp audio clips his sole aim was to keep children aged below 12 engaged while promoting their reading habitthe plan was to stop whatsapp storytelling once the lockdown was lifted however his stories became a hit not just among children but also grandparents thanks to his engaging style and tone of narration they urged him to continue his storytellingnamboothiripad is into his third year of storytelling and over the last two years he has written and narrated 450 stories his audience isnt limited to kerala several malayali expatriates in different parts of the globe listen to his stories across 200 whatsapp groups his audiostories are now being shared among parents as bedtime storiesthe malayalam teacher from ramamangalam high school in kakkoor near koothattukulam is also a up teacher trainer in ernakulam he said storytelling is one of the mostproven methods to keep kids engaged and at a time when reading habits are poor among kids he aims to inculcate the same through his storiesi started storytelling through our residents whatsapp community when many said managing kids confined to houses during the pandemic was challenging when my stories reached others people started asking for more and it became a part of my routine the verbal storytelling format is an alltime favourite for kids and even adults pandemic gave me an opportunity to embrace digital platforms for storytelling and it allows me to narrate tales with necessary intonations and pauses he saidthe stories have an average length of five minutes and some even go up to 10 minutes most stories are childrenoriented with moral lessons but namboothiripad now tells stories of a serious nature and topics once in a while for his elderly listenersas his story bank has been exhausted he has to create four stories a week to give his listeners something new his mother nalini antharjanam who encouraged namboothiripads passion for reading and narrating stories from childhood helps him even now with ideas and setting for new stories old stories are recirculated often as there are many new listenersnamboothiripad who is also an author has written nearly 50 childrens books over the last three decades he is also the vicepresident of kakkoor village library and district coordinator of pn panicker foundation in ernakulam he has won several awards for his storytelling skills