A Scottish tale with a Bengali touch

Kolkata: The ambience was surreal. A young woman wooing the audience by narrating a Scottish folk tale while a young woman kept on unfolding the “pat” (a painting depicting a particular story) of the entire folk tale.
The old world of a Bengali grandmother putting her grandchildren to sleep at bed time was recreated as the Scottish storyteller Ruth Kirkpatrick, narrated a Scottish folk tale before the audience.
Kirkpatrick, a professional storyteller, is here in Kolkata in connection with the Kolkata Book Fair, which has Scotland as its theme.
With the help of the British Council and the storyteller herself, Swarna Patua, a resident of West Midnapur, who does not understand a word of English, portrayed the Scottish folk tale with absolute ease.
Patua is a painter who works on themes as diverse as terrorism and folk tales.
Patuas belong to a community of artists-cum-storytellers.
Kirkpatrick seems to be overwhelmed after seeing the efforts of Swarna who got to understand the tale by translation made by Council members who also explained the several images and symbols of the Scottish tale.
“I am fascinated by her efforts. I will take the traditional pat with me to Scotland. I find many similarities between the folk tales of Scotland and that of Bengal. I wish, I will keep visiting Kolkata frequently. Moreover, I will want to find that things will really remain the same as they are now,” said Kirkpatrick. “I relished the challenge of working with the vulnerable and underprivileged classes of society,” she added.
Nandita Pal Chowdhury, an art consultant said the members of British Council have put in a lot of efforts to make her understand the Scottish tale.
“She neither knows English nor the topography of Scotland. She does not even know the characters that are generally used in the traditional Scottish folk tales. We tried to make her understand about the landscape and the characters of Scotland by showing her several images so that she can put these things together while depicting the story,” said Pal Chowdhury.