On 19th January 2015, Yamuna- the SRCC Magazine organised Terribly Tiny Tales workshop in the college. The famous ‘tweet sized’ tale writing group had earlier visited many colleges like IIT Delhi, IIT Mumbai to name some. But this was for the first time that it came to a Delhi University College.
With over 400 registrations for the workshop, the organisers were in a dilemma to accommodate them all. Seminar Room with a seating of just 100 students at maximum was the venue and people eager to attend four times. An hour before the scheduled time, the students were queuing up and the view at the entry gate was as if some celebrity had come. Some of the students who couldn’t register were seen roaming around the venue with disappointment. And those who arrived late though had registered, regretted that a metro pause or a traffic jam stopped them from entering the gates.
By 11 the whole seminar room was filled with people eagerly waiting for their favourite group. And soon Anuj Gosalia, the founder of Terribly Tiny Tales (ttt) with his 2 fellow writers entered wearing the ttt merchandise. (Probably marketing it: P). Without wasting any time, he started off with the workshop. On the look of it, initially it appeared a simple presentation. But within minutes the boring look vanished. The three of them interacted very well with the audience even while discussing the journey to TTT. The founders were also from commerce background wanting to start a cool start-up. And then they made this group, which now has more than three million followers on social media.
Further during the time, they talked about brevity and yet cool nature of the Terribly Tiny Tale, what guidelines they generally follow, how many drafts they make and all the behind the scenes. The black postcard thing instead of just posting the tale, I must say was one of their strong points. With this idea, they become the next talk of the college town. Most importantly Anuj told the thought process of writing any matter. Intent, Content and Construct; sounds easy but once you start following it you end up with good 10-15 drafts. Drafts of the most famous TTT’s were the award for the people who could make it to the venue in time.
‘Terribly Tiny Tales; let’s #begin’, then was the best half an hour. Giving the word as #begin, 100 students wrote their own Terribly Tiny Tale. Scribbling on A4 sheet papers, scratching their heads, editing to complete the tale in 140 characters and silence, was what happened when the SRites were asked to jot down their story. The excitement to be able to read out their 140 characters to the TTT members was visible on their faces. One by one the hands went up and every last two became last five and so on. Each story was a different take on #begin- some a comedy, some a satire, some evoking sadness and some elating happiness. Not even one of the 20-25 that were read was similar in any manner. And then each person in that surrounding had a different interpretation, giving perspectives to the same tweet tale.
With reciting tales, the workshop ended only for the audience to want more of them. But Terribly Tiny Tale was on a time crunch and hence collected the stories from the rest assuring them being read. They walked away in hopes of coming back again, putting a stall the next time for the much demanded merchandise and connecting with their fans more often. Those who missed it don’t be disheartened because you can always write yourself a tale and send it to them through the Facebook page. Tiny Tales are ruling our news feed and we terribly love them there.
