Ep 50: Shobha Viswanath, Karadi Tales: The soundtrack of Indian childhood

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Swishing Mindsets with Anuradha Varma

Anuradha Varma

60 episodes

4 days ago

Listen in to conversations that "swish" or shift your perspective! Journalist and Mindset Coach Anuradha Varma interviews a diverse cast of people who share their expertise and experiences on a range of themes, across spirituality, inclusivity, entrepreneurship, mythology, and popular culture. Follow and share to stay updated and grow the conversation.

Anuradha is a journalist with nearly three decades of experience, having worked as head of Parenting for Indian Express Online, editor of interiors magazine Casaviva, as well as with publications such as The Times of India, The Pioneer, etc. She is also a certified Mindset Coach with expertise in Mindfulness, EFT and NLP.

Follow her on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
Email: swishingmindsets@gmail.com

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are personal. Listener discretion is advised.

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Education,

Religion & Spirituality,

Spirituality,

Health & Fitness,

Mental Health

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Ep 50: Shobha Viswanath, Karadi Tales: The soundtrack of Indian childhood

Swishing Mindsets with Anuradha Varma

49 minutes

5 months ago

Ep 50: Shobha Viswanath, Karadi Tales: The soundtrack of Indian childhood

When Shobha Viswanath returned to India from the US in 1995, she couldn’t find audiobooks for her young daughter, something that her son had enjoyed growing up. That prompted her to start Karadi Tales and its signature audio cassettes that accompanied illustrated books. Children could read along as they listened to the story, encouraging "sight vocabulary" as Shobha calls it and, more importantly, have fun in the process!

Married into a family of Carnatic classical musicians, Shoba tells us, the family band ‘3 Brothers & a Violin’ provided the score for the books, narrated first by actor Naseeruddin Shah and his theatre troupe, and later Gulzar, Girish Karnad, Saeed Jaffrey, among others. Usha Uthup lent her voice to some very Indian-themed nursery rhymes written by Shobha and set to classical ragas.

In a journey spanning nearly three decades, Karadi Tales also set up Karadi Path, an education company that teaches English to learners of all ages and backgrounds using an immersion method, inspired by how we pick up our mother-tongue. They also collaborated with P. Sainath, founder-editor of the People's Archive of Rural India, to create chapter books around grim realities faced by children, such as migration and climate crisis, tinged with hope.

The goal, however, remains to inspire and empower children and adults with the magic of storytelling and the joy of reading, says Shobha. Listen in!

Timestamps:
00:45 The start of Karadi Tales, nearly 30 years ago
05:09 Naseeruddin Shah as their first narrator for the book
07:50 Launching the first audio books as the pioneers
12:00 Moving into picture books
14:40 Songs that became popular, such as from Monkey King
15:00 Writing English rhymes for Indian kids, set on classical ragas
19:45 Recording with Rahul Dravid
20:50 Challenges of packaging the book and audio together
21:48 Her experience as a special educator for visually-impaired kids
25:25 Starting Karadi Path education, to support language labs
31:36 Drawing stories from rural India, with P. Sainath
38:44 Reaching a larger audience through schools
41:58 Message for parents and educators
45:05 What’s next for Karadi?
46:00 The financial challenge of recording audio books

Follow Anuradha on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
Email: swishingmindsets@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are personal. Listener discretion is advised.