Jayanthi Kumaresh uses veena to tell kids stories

The series, streamed on YouTube, uses ragas to narrate stories from Jataka Tales and Panchatantra

Renowned classical musician Jayanthi Kumaresh has launched a web series called ‘Cup O’ Carnatic Kids’.

It aims to popularise Carnatic music and the veena among children. Each episode tells a story in five-seven minutes.

Jayanthi, who lives in Bengaluru, says the series is an attempt “to enter the world of children and bring them closer to the rich, versatile Carnatic music that moulds itself and becomes relevant in every situation”.

After doing a series on various aspects of Carnatic music, she realised that “nothing had been exclusively done for children yet”. This series aims to give a musical experience to children and to the child in everyone, she adds.

“In our previous program, the ‘Cup O’ Carnatic Fun series’, I worked on episodes connecting contemporary tales of Harry Potter, James Bond and other characters with ragas. It worked well with children. I wanted to introduce veena in a language that children understood,” she says.

The current series, which has six episodes, narrates stories from Jataka Tales and Panchatantra with the help of Carnatic ragas. “There were four elements in it — the story itself which is rehashed, saying it with music, introducing different ragas and giving notations to the ragas,” she says.

The stories are ‘The lion and the mouse’, ‘The peacock and the cuckoo’, ‘The ant and the grasshopper’, ‘The angry young boy’, ‘The monkey and the crocodile’ and ‘The story of two frogs’. “I chose stories which had a takeaway for everyone and had some drama in them. Also, they had to be crisp as the attention span of people is limited,” she adds.

Jayanthi adds that children from across the world — US, Australia, London, New Zealand — sent her videos playing the ragas after watching the series.

Why it is called ‘Cup O’ Carnatic’? “Carnatic music is a vast ocean and the episodes aim to give a small glimpse of this world in a cup. We hope that the viewer will be able to watch and learn a new aspect about music in an episode, while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee,” says the maestro.