Dastangoi: The Persian Art of Storytelling

Last week, I went to attend a storytelling session at the India Habitat Centre. The effort was to revive the dying art of Persian storytelling. Here are the photographs of the four artists who held the attention of a house full of listeners for almost 2 hours.


You can read about the performance we saw and the synopsis of the stories told in Urdu here:

India Gate

INDIA GATE: A symbol that defines Delhi for most.

"Garche hai mulq-e-daccan meN in dinoN qadr-e-suxan.
Kaun Jaye Zauq par dilli ki galiyaaN chhod kar."

Roughly translated from Urdu, this means that although the seat of power has shifted to the south along with all the comforts of the world, who would want to leave the streets of Delhi. This is a couplet (called 'sher' in Urdu) penned by Zauq, a contemporary of the incredible Ghalib. These lines are something that define what Delhi means to a true Delhiite. For a Delhiite there is no other place like Delhi. Nothing, money, power, authority, will attract us away from Delhi. Even though relations might take us all over the world, a Delhiite will always want to return to the place he belongs.