Concept Note: Vision – Bringing stories to build peace among humanity (Podcast series)

(Amir R Thapa)

I  would like to create some meaningful content which can bring peace of mind among community through various kind of conflict stories. Such stories could be personal or it could be profession or it could carry diverse social and political messages as well.

As I work as a curator at the book shop I meet many people who come to the book shop seeking peace through book reading. Books could be such medium where I can co relate such stories with the message in the books and convey it to the general public through media productions.  I have experienced that lots of people come with personal and professional problem and seek a refuge through books. And as they sit at the reading space at the book shop they tend to calm down and stay quiet until they find someone to talk. I am always asking questions to people on why they are choosing certain book for their read and as we talk people open up about their conflict related issues at home and at work or about personal relationships and issues.

The book shop is established envisioning community hub through its creative reading space. As it intends to be a global community hub through story telling and social interactions based on local issues but anchored by global context. As I sit here , I feel like I could do a great community service when I talk to people and hear their stories. These stories could be happy sometimes and these could be mind boggling as well. This is relevant to me because I could talk to people, suggest them on a good read based on their situations and sort of gather stories and be a good story teller. Such story telling could help many others who come across similar circumstances.

Any thing that is true and which are serious and which are able to bring conflict consciousness among people should be captured and conveyed. Perhaps such story telling could teach morals to others and deescalates conflict in many parts of the world.

Any body who comes to the book shop to relief themselves. Of course they are not going to open up to me uncles I create a relationship with them therefore my humble and benevolent approach towards people coming to the book shop is the starting point. Language for such conversation could be in Nepali or English.

I would like to create a podcast series based on such stories. I am planning to publish this through social media and podcast hub globally so that it can reach out to people globally.

Perhaps , the series that I am trying to create could be a platform for people to come and listen how story telling can bring peace in one’s life. Sharing is really important so these podcast content could be used as an example in many peace building institutions.

Perhaps I could also create series based on various conflict related stories such as Maoist conflict stories. ( for example ty to create  6 to 12 series of podcast dedicated only on Maoist Conflict era)