Alnoor Rajan Talwar is a poet, blogger and owner of a Toronto-based catering company. He shares his experiences as an immigrant to Canada and a patient of multiple sclerosis through children's storytelling sessions, adult literary classes and his personal blogs.
I tell stories because they transport me, along with my audience, to another world: a world of magic, of intrigue, of fantasy and of mystery. One of my past stories was Aesop's "How the Elephant Got his Trunk." I look for stories that will hold the interest of children while at the same time touch on the ethics of being a good person. I tell stories that teach new things, new words and, most of all, that allow my audience to share their own experiences and stories. This is done at a local mosque every Friday after evening prayer.
The story time is a time for relaxing, for sharing and for fun. It lets the kids’ imaginations run wild. I hear about the tooth fairy, the stars that come down at night, about the little people that live in the garden and all sorts of fantastic tales that I knew were true as a child myself. One of the most delightful attributes of young children is their ability to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves in story worlds. Seeing them reminds me to believe.
Stories help children to relate to how others are feeling and, in doing so, accept their own feelings. The storytelling sessions enable me to encourage the children to read more and become good and confident learners. I try to look for different role models in my stories and often reverse conventional gender roles, having the mummy cleaning the car or the daddy cooking the meal and doing the laundry.
Themed storytelling days precede holidays and events like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, Eid, Diwali, Thanksgiving and Christmas. These sessions are followed with creative activities like greeting card making. I will sometimes improvise and allow the storytelling to take me to different dimensions. This helps my own imagination and has helped me become a better poet.
I am also involved in English literary classes with adult immigrants at the same mosque. We learn new words by role playing and emphasizing language skills that are fitting for a variety of life situations like shopping, going to a restaurant or visiting the doctor. It is very similar to storytelling in that the emphasis is on learning — be it new words, idioms or grammar.
Both the storytelling and the adult literary classes have helped me become a better listener and a more imaginative and empathetic writer. I channel some of this energy into the two blogs that I write. The first, mymstreatment.blogspot.com, discusses my treatments for multiple sclerosis and speaks out against the toxicity of our food, water and air, and how I live with MS without the use of prescription medication by removing sources of toxicity in my environment. It also has useful articles and information that the media and the medical profession do not tell us.
The other blog, alnoorsdiary.blogspot.com, is made up of letters to various newspapers, governments and radio stations, as well as observations of what I sometimes like to call "the disintegration of life." For example, there is a post about how advertising has become almost incomprehensible, and there is a letter that I have written to the alleged terrorists here in Canada, from one Canadian Muslim to another.
I am happiest when I am telling stories, teaching and writing. It takes the negativity in my life and turns it to something positive that helps to enrich other people’s lives.
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Alnoor Rajan Talwar is a Kenyan-born Canadian. His background is in Hotel Management and Communication and he owns and operates a corporate catering business in Toronto.
He began writing plays during college, writing and producing five plays including "The Daughter’s Husband and the Father’s Lover" about inter-racial love in politically unstable Kenya. He has since written articles and poetry for many publications including local newspapers and The Ismaili Net.
His first book, Unanswered Questions and Unquestioned Answers, is a collection of reflective thoughts during times of loneliness and times of love.
His second, I Have Good News and Bad News, is a candid account of his life with multiple sclerosis and how he comes out triumphantly despite the challenges of illness and life. It relates his fight with MS using a mind/body/spirit approach with an emphasis on natural treatments, supplements and diet. It is a candid look at how one can face life despite its challenges, and it is informative of practices the medical profession might term "witchcraft."
To contact Alnoor or purchase his books, visit him online.
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