Chapter one
Students and young audiences
- No One Can Dance Your Dance
- Be the Superhero
- Breaking Your Mental Shackles
- Body Shaming: Reclaiming the Mirror
- Influencers Aren't Born, They're Built
One story can change many lives..
Shefali Chopra is a storyteller, speaker and three-time TEDx voice. Twenty years of original work, told to classrooms, campuses, communities, festival stages and boardrooms.
20years
40+stages
3TEDx talks
3countries
Three talks, three stages
On the TEDx stage
Ramta Ram, the one who wanders
A story told well does more than entertain. It changes how a person sees themselves.
Originally from Jammu & Kashmir and raised in Oman, Shefali writes, directs and performs her own work. She studied at the Indian School Muscat, read Business Studies in Dubai, and took a diploma in Computer Programming and Critical Analysis at City & Guilds, London. She comes from a family of filmmakers. Storytelling was the language spoken at home long before it became her work.
Her series Kisse aur Kahaniyan has travelled from village schoolrooms and elder-care communities to university auditoriums, literature festivals and community gatherings in Dubai. She speaks on leadership, communication, parenting, resilience and self-worth, always through narrative rather than instruction. Her audiences run from ten-year-olds to corporate teams, and the method holds across both: name the thing, then tell a story that lets people arrive at it themselves.
She also appears on television debates, where she speaks for the ordinary person rather than the panel: the same instinct that runs through her stage work. She trains speakers and educators to build a storytelling practice of their own, writes for digital publications, and is a registered organ donor: a quiet version of the belief underneath all of it, that what you have is worth passing on.
Original productions
- गंगाGanga
- सत्यSatya
- मैं उड़ना चाहता हूँMain Udna Chahta Hoon
Kisse aur Kahaniyan
Stories don't just entertain, they transform.
Shefali, telling stories over chai with a circle of women.
What she speaks on
Every talk is built for the room it's told in.
Chapter two
Parents and families
- Helicopter Parenting: Loving Without Hovering
- Fill Your Cup of Positivity
- Training the Dragon Mind Through Stories
Chapter three
Corporate and leadership
- Leadership Stories
- Purposeful Communication
- Handling Criticism
- Learn to Change the Narrative
Chapter four
Open and mixed audiences
- Endorsing Your Best Version
Custom themes on request. Tell her the audience and she'll build for it.
Ways to book her
From a keynote to a classroom.
- Keynote30–45 minConferences, festivals, school assemblies
- Storytelling performance45–60 minSchools, cultural evenings, community gatherings
- Short courseMulti-sessionStorytelling technique, taught to every age group: children, students, professionals, elders
- Train the trainerFull or multi-dayFor teachers building a storytelling practice of their own in the classroom
- WorkshopHalf or full dayCorporate teams, leadership groups, speaker training
- Webinar45–60 minParenting groups, distributed teams, student forums
In English and Hindi. Based in Gurugram, travels across India and abroad.
Photographs
From the room
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Where she has told them
Countless stages, three countries.
A selection of the schools, campuses, festivals and communities she has told stories to. There have been many more.
Universities
- Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah UniversityJammu
- KIITBhubaneswar
- SRM UniversityVijayawada
- UPES, Padhan FoundationDehradun
Schools
- Good Shepherd International SchoolOoty
- DPS R.K. PuramNew Delhi
- The Presidium School
- The Suncity School, Sector 37DGurugram
- Manav Rachna SchoolGurugram
- St. Xavier's High SchoolGurugram
- Blue Bells SchoolGurugram
- Brahm Dutt Blue Bells Public SchoolGurugram
- Rotary Public SchoolGurugram
- John Martin SchoolDehradun
- Him Jyoti SchoolDehradun
- IDPSJammu
Festivals
- Dehradun Literature FestivalDehradun
- Delhi Poetry FestivalDelhi
- The Purple Umbrella FestivalDelhi
- Haryana Literature FestivalSecond Edition
- LiterariaAmbala Lit Fest
- FICCI FLODehradun Chapter
Corporate & community
- IndianOil
- Bohra CommunityDubai, UAE
- Hotel AmaltheaThailand
- DataFlow Group
- SheScapes
- CatFitwebinar series
- Max HospitalSaket, New Delhi
- Aatma ClinicAnandpuram
- Community storytelling circleDharamshala
In her own words
Poems
A few of the poems she has written, set down here as she wrote them.
Mirage in the sands
Shefali Chopra
Beautiful walk we took by the seaConversed in the depths of a cup of teaLaughed together there was no tomorrow,Miles away there was no sorrow.Entwined our mindsJust one of its kindsYou were my shoulder and I was your bind..Waking from slumber adjusting my head,A mirage in the sands of my mind.Looked around there was nothing more,Except for the pain left behind.
Magic in the skies
Shefali Chopra
It's a myth that time healsThe cards it dealsA connect can transform our livesAbsolute magic in the skiesTime had no role to playThe weave we created in a dayToday the distance separates us nowCreates a vacuum somehowThe time slithersLeaving the brightest stars in the hazeForgive the past, kiss the futureYou're out of that endless maze
Beyond words
Shefali Chopra
Loving you is so beautifulI started to love myselfTrusting you meantBelieving thy selfWhen we embraced,all the doubts simply vanished in the air.I looked at you and you at meThen we started to look in symmetryNow there are times we don't say a wordYet you speak to me and I talk to you..
I am a dreamer
Shefali Chopra
Take me away from the pain I feelI cannot seeI cannot playI sit by my window, feeling the breeze on my browThe gentle sweet breeze play with me till duskThen it's time for our byesMy mother tucks me in bed with her magical touchOh..!! This feels heavenIn dreams I travel far to the lands unknownI play hide and seek with unknown friendsI see the nature unrolling beautiful colorsWhat intrigues me the most are the dandelionsWhen I blow them, alas..!! They are goneJust like my dreamsWhen I wake up, all are goneI lay still in the bedSmiling, thinking.. Do I have a choiceNo, comes the answer from withinI am a dreamer
I lay still
Shefali Chopra
I lay still in the bedDoctors say I cannot walk any longerOh! Easier said than doneI want to get up and walkGo outside the roomI want to usher someone inI want to dance like I never danced beforeJust walk around the meadows, run aroundCatch a butterfly and play with a houndI want to run away from my troublesRun to my mother and hug her one last timeBut alas..!!Here I lay still
Boundaries of the mind
Shefali Chopra
Boundaries of the mind create a bindThat you can do or not do..I refuse to let my mind play the game..I don't want to tameLet it play the song it wants to..
Not a word is said
Shefali Chopra
Not a word is said,tears roll down my cheeks and they say it all.I shed the leaves to tell you my story..The pain, the anguish, hurt n all.
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Inspiration
Lines she lives by
Words by others that she keeps coming back to, and shares in her sessions.
Speak to people in a way that if they died the next day, you'd be satisfied with the last thing you said to them.
Sometimes you think that you want to disappear, but all you really want is to be found.
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'
Invite her to speak