The story of my stories
Since my early childhood, stories were my sanctuary. Once a week, after school, much to my delight, we would make the familiar pilgrimage to the local library, to collect our prashad* of five fresh books. Nestled in my den, at the back of my mother’s wardrobe, I immersed myself in those magical worlds - I was Matilda and Ma’s cupboard led to Narnia.
Behind that curtain of neatly hung saris, I dreamt up my own tales - often involving a quirky gang of (four or five) friends, getting into scraps on their amazing and brave adventures.
I imagined those stories as plays, sounding out the dialogue of each character, or rather whispering, so I wouldn’t incur the shame of hearing: “Shermina, stop talking to yourself!”
My sister was my first official cast member, no more a babbling baby, toddling around our overgrown garden, she was transformed into: Queen Selina, empress of the Jungle. Such was the joy of imagination.
Even as I grew, I could not leave those childish things behind, putting on plays and skits at any opportunity - family events, girl guides, school - expanding my pool of potential performers and collaborators. Like many children, those stories helped me make sense of a complex and sometimes confusing world.
*Prashad means gift of God, often used to describe the blessed food received from the temple.
Storytelling in the community
Eventually the day came to leave my daydreaming behind, and like a good (south asian, diaspora, 2nd gen) girl - I became a doctor instead.
But between the night shifts and weekends, the call of the creative just kept coming back. It was my faith community - The Ismailis that provided me that outlet.
I am lucky to be part of a faith community committed to a strong tradition of voluntary service, creativity and social development.
I cut my teeth using my little skits to facilitate youth workshops, then tried my hand at directing, producing and writing for our annual variety shows. I gradually learnt the ropes, collaborating with amateur and professional artists and googling ‘how to write a tech script’ in my spare time.
I went on to create monologues, comedies, situational dramas and full length plays and musicals. Sometimes these were performed in professional theatres and sometimes in community spaces - specifically with the purpose of promoting community dialogue on tough or taboo issues.
Over the pandemic, I was given the opportunity to write and co-direct for our global TV channel - The Ismaili TV - creating, collaborating and rehearsing virtually, with artists from around the world.
Cultural to clinical
Perhaps, it is not surprising that I was drawn to children’s medicine, pre-occupied as I remained with the joy of play. I had clearly found my tribe. However, only recently, as a consultant, did I contemplate that I might combine the creative with the clinical.
Much of what we learnt at medical school was distilled into neat categories. We spent vast amounts of time learning extensive lists of symptoms and signs, pills and potions. Our enducation encompassed all that was known then of diagnosis, disease and treatment. As I became more senior, I realised, unfortunately, that this particular way of learning, left us ill-prepared to deal with our most challenging task - contemplating complexity.
Patients very rarely present like case studies in text books - their conditions overlap, they have unexplained symptoms, they may not be able to communicate their pain. Sadly, some have been exposed to such conditions that no pill or potions could ever hope to cure.
It occurred to me that this complexity is the very essence of who we are as human beings. It made sense that the humanities were better placed to understand it. I came back to my stories, now all the richer for listening to the thousands of stories of my patients and their families.
In 2023 I began my Masters Degree in Applied Theatre at the University of East London. It was clear, I had already been using theatre and story telling for many years as socially engaged practice in my faith community to promote change.
I could now turn this cultural practice towards my clinical work.
Shermina Kumari
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