Children get a byte of Indian epics on new mobile app

We have apps for pretty much everything — right from fitness to beauty, to new hangout spots in town, we have all the information in our hand. But Sriram Raghavan, a banker, was wondering why there is no app to make the children of the 21st century learn about Indian culture. This idea led him to create an app called Gurukula.com.

A resident of Ashok Nagar, Sriram works as group vice-president of SunTrust Bank in Florida. He often travels between India and the US to conduct fun-filled storytelling sessions where children could learn about Indian culture. The banker has conducted 500 storytelling sessions for children in the US and India

“Being a banker, the reason for me to organise storytelling sessions for children is to inculcate values through stories, which is relatable to them. If you notice, all value-based storytelling sessions cater only to adults, there is nothing for children,” he says.

On creating an app exclusively for Indian epics, Sriram says, “My idea was to connect ancient epics to modern day life applications and make stories relevant to the lifestyle of today’s generation. In this process, the originality of ancient epics shouldn’t be lost. I wanted the content to be authentic — I chose Vyasa’s Mahabharata, which is in Sanskrit. For this, I learned the language for two years and then started to read the book. In this technology-driven era, children are glued to gadgets. So the best way to convey epic stories is through a mobile application.”

The app teaches Indian epics like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Panchatantra in the form of comic books, audio books and story books. “The app connects children to like-minded characters and helps them develop a deep righteous attitude for life. We have taken original epics in samskritam and abridged/translated them to maintain purity and avoid distortions. Audio books are narrated as short 10-minute chapters in an easy-to-understand style. In the comic books, you can see over 40 colourful images per chapter carefully designed to engage the child. For the story books, we have translated the chapters directly from original texts. It’s written in simple English. Moral values from every story are identified and explained to help the child get grounded in values,” explains Sriram.