The audience at the Parivartan Vocational and Technical Centre was a mixed bag of varying age groups with autistic spectrum disorder. When storyteller Astha Chadha visited the centre, she started her session with introductions so that the audience can warm up and listen to her attentively. Astha assigned every member of the audience a character from the story to familiarise them and give a sense of relatability. They even danced like the kids in the story. The colours brought along by Astha fascinated one of the kids, who couldn’t wait to use them. Astha invited the children one-by-one to draw any thing that they would want to see up in the night sky. And the results were a colourful collage of contrasting things; some drew stars, some drew faces, one kid drew a cat, one drew an elephant with five legs and four tails. With a growing sense of comfort, the children in the audience shared their favourite movies and songs. The session opened up a space for communication and bonding, which was the highlight of the day.
