In a 15‑minute virtual workshop titled “Story Spark Day 4 – Photo Storytelling,” the host (Speaker A) guides participants through a “story digging” exercise that uses personal photos from their phone camera folders as the seed for narratives. The session begins with the host sharing a photo of his daughter’s rangoli, illustrating how we often underestimate the creative abilities of those close to us. Participants then each present a picture and its associated story: Tanay describes a photo of his cousins on a toy train, highlighting a child’s adaptability after returning from Switzerland; Rajesh shares a birthday selfie taken at his office, reflecting on emotional transitions as he prepares to leave his job; Dr Alka presents a food‑related image from a conference, emphasizing the communal joy of cooking and the loss of process in the era of food delivery apps. Throughout, the facilitator stresses the power of pairing authentic personal images with storytelling to make narratives more compelling, and challenges viewers to repeat the exercise with their own photos. The session concludes with a reminder to keep learning, stepping out of comfort zones, and to look forward to Day 5.
Chapters
Awesome! Welcome to day 4 of Story Sparks series. This is again a small 15-minute, and today's challenge, today's series is also going to be very, very interesting because you are going to dig stories from your own very personal thing. Now we all have this device that we can't live without. Yes, I'm talking about our phone, and today we are going to use this device to do something called story digging. So I'm gonna give you an example, and then we'll have 1 minute of silence for you to actually dig into your story. Morning, Tanay, good to have you here.
Good morning.
Yeah, so we are doing this today. We are doing exercise where we are going to do a story digging out of this device that we are all can't live without. And the exercise is we are going to go into the photo gallery of our phone and specifically to the camera folder because we all keep taking pictures. And I want you to take and pick one of the photos you took recently and share a story about that. So I'm gonna start by myself sharing a photo and then telling a story behind, and once I'm done, I'll give you 1 or 2 minutes for everyone to think, browse through the photos, and then share the stories. I've got one of the photos here I'm going to share, so I hope you'll be able to see it. It's, uh, Rangoli made by my daughter. And the story is, isn't this interesting, that how sometimes we underestimate our own people? So this is the story. One day before the Diwali, my daughter has got these full colors in the form of powder, and she's already insisting that, okay, I want to make a rangoli, I want to make a rangoli. But we thought she's just a kid, so my wife was busy doing the house chores and I'm doing something else. We said, okay, hold on, we'll come with you, we'll teach you how to do. And we just leave her with the color and powders and we go into kitchen and my own office room. And then 10 minutes back, 10 minutes afterwards, we come back and we see this beautiful rangolis prepared by her. It was to our utter surprise that she already knew how to do. It was we who were underestimating her talent. And this gives me this point that sometimes we underestimate our own people, and we need to give them more creative liberty, more opportunities for them to practice what they already have. So that's a beautiful story. That's a story This is the picture taken by myself. I'll show the picture again. And now it's time for you to think about your— go to your phone, browse to one of your pictures, and we'll have 2 minutes. I'll play the music, so go ahead. And when you are presenting the picture, think about what is the background of the story, how did it proceed, and what is the takeaway out of that story. So let me share the music and go through your picture gallery. All right, I think we have done a minute, so let's start with person who is on the video. So Tanay, have you found a picture and do you want to share the story?
No, I have found the picture but I was not able to share it. But okay, uh, let me describe this picture and then I will show it after.
No problem, no problem.
Okay, so this picture is, is of my daughters with, with their, with their cousin sister of Diwali. They all are sitting on a, on a toy train. Okay, and this is, this is picture is from my, uh, village, uh, where, where I was on Diwali. So the, their cousin sister is returned from Germany, means at the age of, say, 3, she went there. Not Germany, Switzerland.
Okay.
And for 5 years she lived there, and because of the visa issue, uh, they, they came back, and now she is studying in a village school, and she was studying in German Now she is studying in English or Hindi, and also subject and everything has changed. From Switzerland to a village school, this is a, there's a big difference, okay? But she is happy, she has adapted to the, to the environment, and now she's like learning Hindi and like mingling with, with local kids, and she's, she's not at all like fuzzy or anything. And this shows the adaptability of a human nature.
Absolutely, very, very well. And I— and you can try sharing the screen now if I have enabled it for the members. So see if you are able to, otherwise we'll proceed to someone else.
Just give me—
I didn't understand the exercise today because I was on and off the screen.
Okay, I'll tell you the exercise. So the exercise was to browse the phone gallery and specifically to the folder where you have taken a picture and then describe it in the form of a story. So how I describe it, I took a picture of a rangoli made by my daughter, and the story goes that sometimes we underestimate the power of our own people. So we thought that she is too young to make a rangoli. And we need to instruct her. But within few minutes, even when we were away doing something else, she prepared the beautiful rangolis. So that's a reminder for us to have trust in our own people and do not underestimate. So this is the picture, I'll show you. So this is the picture of rangoli she made on the balcony, right? So that's one example. So you can also look into your phone and see if you have a photo taken by yourself, and how would you like to describe that? That's the challenge for today. Okay, okay. All right, so, so, yes, I have.
Okay, I will show it.
Do we have to show the picture?
It's better to show, we get the context, but it's not—
let me see the screen.
We can, we can. Yeah, yeah, we can see them. You're doing it. Thank you for sharing that. Story power to you, SPTY. Okay, Alka ji, do you have a picture to share a story.
I have like— I have taken 1,000 pictures yesterday because I'm in 3 days in the conference. So pictures and pictures and pictures only are there.
But you have to have a picture with the story. Okay, let's go to Rajesh while you try to figure out.
I'm showing. Okay, sharing the— okay, first let me share it.
Sure.
Then I don't know, I wouldn't be able to do it or not.
Okay, so if you're on phone, you should be able to click on the share button.
I know. Yes, I'm able to clear. I'm just getting photo now.
Okay, okay, no problem.
So I've got the picture, now I have to share it with you.
Is it visible?
Yes, we can see that.
Yep.
Okay, go ahead.
Yeah, now I need to unshare, right?
You can, you can continue. Tell us the story.
Yeah, okay. The story behind this is, this is a picture, uh, clicked by me on my birthday. I was sitting at office like after the celebration was over and I was at my desk. And as I have decided to like quit my job this year, I got emotional like this is my last birthday which I'm celebrating with my colleagues, my boss, and in the office. And I was just sitting quiet over there for like maybe for 5 minutes.. And I thought, like, I was just getting emotional, uh, that life has so many colors. Sometimes you take a hard decision, but on the second moment you become emotional for some or the other thing. And I was just sitting over there and I clicked this photograph. It's a selfie I took along with all those gifts and on my station. And there was, uh, what was behind in my thing these are the moments which I'm capturing. So, uh, on my birthdays, when— whenever I'll remember people and whenever I'll remember my office, this will be the picture which will reflect their love, their care for me. So that, that was the, uh, like, uh, mentality behind that picture when I clicked. And people were just— my colleagues who were sitting over there, they were just laughing, what are you doing? We had so many pictures now and still we are taking pictures. And then I shared with them, yes, this picture, this photograph will always remind me about your care and love which you have shown for me. So human, human is, uh, is a creature who is always full of emotions, and we wanted to carry Uh, we wanted to have everything with them, right? So that is the story, that be emotional, um, with the things. But yes, we have to keep moving ahead with the, with that care and love. Just move ahead in the life.
Awesome, that's amazing. Beautiful story with amazing pictures. So story power to you. And let's go to now Dr. Alka.
Can you see the picture?
Yes.
So it's about food. Actually, nothing brings people together like good food. So we were really— we were just in the conference, and this place is— it's Golf Times and Golf Wines and Golf Campus in Bangalore. And the campus is very beautiful. So one of the wall paintings were written like this. The story is that when we were children, my mom— our family, either we were going out to somebody else's house on the weekend to eat food, or somebody else was coming to my house to eat food. And my mom, she had this habit that she'll start preparing her lunch and her dinner preparation from Monday to Saturday, or to Friday. And Saturday, Sunday, we have, we have our people coming over. So when she'll be peeling the peas and she'll be soaking the chana, she'll be doing all kinds of preparations and she'll be asking, 'I'm going to make this, I'm going to make that.' So the story which comes to me is that my friend was coming to my house a few days back and I told my daughter-in-law, 'I want to make chana and bhatura for her, she likes it very much.' And she said, 'Mummy, why are you wasting your time?' Why don't you call Swiggy and Zomato? So today is a world of Swiggy and Zomato, and the process is lost. The message that I want to give is, when you are in the process of doing certain things in your life, you are immersed in that process, and that process gives you momentum, it gives you movement, it gives you happiness. And at that time, I want to say that our parents, they were so happy, our families were so happy. We were not— we were doing the things which we wanted, which give us happiness. And pleasure. And when, by serving food to other people, by meeting the people, we come together, and togetherness is magical. This is what I wanted to share. Thank you.
Amazing, amazing, excellent story, and story power to you. So for those who are going to watch this recording, here is the challenge for you as well. Go look into your phone, your camera folder, find a picture, Share the picture along with the story, and we all think that we need to take external stories when you are presenting, when you are sharing. If you use these pictures with your story, it is going to be 100% more powerful than taking a random picture on internet and posting. So go ahead and do that. That was day 4 of StorySpark session. See you tomorrow. As I say every time, keep Keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of your comfort zone. See you for day 5. Story power to you.
