The hills of Bhutan will soon be alive with literature as renowned authors and poets gather in the tiny kingdom to participate in a literary festival focussing on the magic and mystique of writings off and from the Himalayan regions.
Indian writers like Gulzar, Chetan Bhagat, Bulbul Sharma and Omair Ahmad will be joined by international names like British author Patrick French as well as local writers and poets from Bhutan for the three-day festival "Mountain Echoes" in Thimphu from 17th May.
The fabled kingdom of dragons known recently for its policy of promoting Gross National Happiness (GNH) over the economic Gross Domestic Product (GDP), provides the perfect setting for writers from different tracts of trans- Himalayan belt to sharing their ideas and literary traditions, say organisers.
"This is the first time that Bhutan is hosting a literary festival. It is a collaborative venture between the governments of India and Bhutan and will focus on the wealth of mountain writing from these countries as well as other international writers," Mita Kapur, who heads Siyahi, one of the organisers told a news agency.
The shortlist of speakers at the festival "Mountain Echoes" includes among others author and Indian ambassador to Bhutan Pavan K Varma, poet Temsula Ao, Namita Gokhale, Omair Ahmed, Bulbul Sharma, Urvashi Butalia and Leila Seth.
Conceptualised by current Indian ambassador to Bhutan, Pavan K Varma "Mountain Echoes," is held under the India Bhutan Foundation.
The foundation was established in August 2003, with the objective to enhance exchange and interaction among the peoples of both countries, through activities in the areas of educational, cultural, scientific and technical fields.
Sessions at the festival include Bhutan through the Ages, Grandmother's Tales, History and Biographies, Language and Identity, Poetry and Archery, Shared Dreams and Shared Metaphors, Writing about Mountains, Architecture and Heritage, Music, Love, Poetry, These Hills called Home, Beyond the Frame, Of Women, By Women, Travellers and Magicians, Winds of Change, and Languages of Belonging which shares the stories, tales and folk narratives
Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
story telling tradition of Dastangoi being revived
storytellers called dastangos are striving to revive the Dastangoi- an ancient art of Urdu storytelling, which has got lost in the pages of history.
Under the practise two men dressed in white seated before the audience start narrating a story that conjures up a magical world of 'Aiiyars' (tricksters) and magicians who fight each other with the former always managing to outsmart the other.
Mahmood Farooqui, who has been working over the past few years to revive the art says, "It has been five years since I began. For my first show I did not have a clear sense of direction but was encouraged by the number of people who turned up to watch."
"We continued to perform dastans and people listened. I hope Dastangoi makes inroads in the street, in mehfils and there are dastans everywhere," he says.
'Tilism-e-Hoshruba' is the favourite 'dastan' of Farooqi, who travels with his companion and narrates in places in Delhi and Mumbai.
Translated it means 'enchantment that steals away the senses' this particular narrative follows closely the practice that evolved in 18th century in India and was popular both among aristocracy and the lay people in Lucknow.
The most famous 'dastan' version, the 'Dastan of Hamza' was printed in 46 huge volumes at the end of the 19th century in Lucknow. The illustrated manuscript created during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar takes a look at the conflict between the righteous Amir Hamza and Laqa who falsely claims divinity.
Though parts of the Hamza Nama had been printed earlier, it was the famous Munshi Naval Kishore one of the early pioneers of printing in India who undertook the task of printing the whole dastan late in the nineteenth century.
Danish Hussein, who teamed up with Farooqui for the Dastangoi performance at the annual Journalism fest of Kamla Nehru College says, "I joined Mahmood in 2005 when Habib Tanveer introduced me to him in 2005 and it was very challenging for me as an actor.
Fortunately, we always found people receptive towards Dastangoi."
"In 1928, Delhi's last dastango Mir Baqr Ali died, I cannot say we perform dastans like the 'dastangos' of ancient times, we do it as per our understanding. We don't know how dastans were performed but all we know is we need to take it more beyond.
"It would be fun if there are more dastangos who can recite a 'Dastan' and spread this oral tradition," says Farooqi who picked up the 'Dastan of Hamza' lying with his Uncle SR Faruqi, said to be the only person who possesses a full set of 46 volumes.
With stalwarts like national award winning actor Naseerrudin Shah joining to promote the art, Dastangoi is set to catch the public interest.
But since the art of Dastangoi uses literal Urdu, was language ever a barrier to connect with the audience?
"Even if people don't understand the language you still can enjoy Dastangoi.There is no one who understands Urdu and even those who know the language find it difficult to comprehend the nuisances. The words have there audio sound which makes you understand the story," says Farooqi.
The duo have also tried to contemporarise the art form and make it a platform to raise contemporary issues in the society.
"There is direct conversation in dastangoi and we have performed dastans on Chattisgarh which is in turmoil and on Partition. For the Partition dastan we have taken excerpts from other writers and woven it to create the partition dastan.It depends on the dastango to take the art forward and create a dastan which can talk about politics and contemporary social issues, says Hussein.
"People go and see the opera even though not all of them would understand Italian. We want to take the the art beyond, I have heard about an epic 'Ganga Avtaran' in Sanskrit and we would love to perform that. We want people to listen to Ramcharit Manas and much more," says Farooqi.
Now, 'dastans' are being translated into English and the duo reckons that they have no problem if dastans are performed in English but they believe the orality has to be maintained in the translation. (BJ-05/10)
Under the practise two men dressed in white seated before the audience start narrating a story that conjures up a magical world of 'Aiiyars' (tricksters) and magicians who fight each other with the former always managing to outsmart the other.
Mahmood Farooqui, who has been working over the past few years to revive the art says, "It has been five years since I began. For my first show I did not have a clear sense of direction but was encouraged by the number of people who turned up to watch."
"We continued to perform dastans and people listened. I hope Dastangoi makes inroads in the street, in mehfils and there are dastans everywhere," he says.
'Tilism-e-Hoshruba' is the favourite 'dastan' of Farooqi, who travels with his companion and narrates in places in Delhi and Mumbai.
Translated it means 'enchantment that steals away the senses' this particular narrative follows closely the practice that evolved in 18th century in India and was popular both among aristocracy and the lay people in Lucknow.
The most famous 'dastan' version, the 'Dastan of Hamza' was printed in 46 huge volumes at the end of the 19th century in Lucknow. The illustrated manuscript created during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar takes a look at the conflict between the righteous Amir Hamza and Laqa who falsely claims divinity.
Though parts of the Hamza Nama had been printed earlier, it was the famous Munshi Naval Kishore one of the early pioneers of printing in India who undertook the task of printing the whole dastan late in the nineteenth century.
Danish Hussein, who teamed up with Farooqui for the Dastangoi performance at the annual Journalism fest of Kamla Nehru College says, "I joined Mahmood in 2005 when Habib Tanveer introduced me to him in 2005 and it was very challenging for me as an actor.
Fortunately, we always found people receptive towards Dastangoi."
"In 1928, Delhi's last dastango Mir Baqr Ali died, I cannot say we perform dastans like the 'dastangos' of ancient times, we do it as per our understanding. We don't know how dastans were performed but all we know is we need to take it more beyond.
"It would be fun if there are more dastangos who can recite a 'Dastan' and spread this oral tradition," says Farooqi who picked up the 'Dastan of Hamza' lying with his Uncle SR Faruqi, said to be the only person who possesses a full set of 46 volumes.
With stalwarts like national award winning actor Naseerrudin Shah joining to promote the art, Dastangoi is set to catch the public interest.
But since the art of Dastangoi uses literal Urdu, was language ever a barrier to connect with the audience?
"Even if people don't understand the language you still can enjoy Dastangoi.There is no one who understands Urdu and even those who know the language find it difficult to comprehend the nuisances. The words have there audio sound which makes you understand the story," says Farooqi.
The duo have also tried to contemporarise the art form and make it a platform to raise contemporary issues in the society.
"There is direct conversation in dastangoi and we have performed dastans on Chattisgarh which is in turmoil and on Partition. For the Partition dastan we have taken excerpts from other writers and woven it to create the partition dastan.It depends on the dastango to take the art forward and create a dastan which can talk about politics and contemporary social issues, says Hussein.
"People go and see the opera even though not all of them would understand Italian. We want to take the the art beyond, I have heard about an epic 'Ganga Avtaran' in Sanskrit and we would love to perform that. We want people to listen to Ramcharit Manas and much more," says Farooqi.
Now, 'dastans' are being translated into English and the duo reckons that they have no problem if dastans are performed in English but they believe the orality has to be maintained in the translation. (BJ-05/10)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Special Diwali Issues in Marathi
Maharashtra has a wonderful tradition in marathi literary scene. Almost all daily, weekly and monthly publications take out special issues for Diwali. This offers a widest variety of writing of accomplished, renowned as well as of new and upcoaming writers and poets to be available at one time. This tradition has completed its century this year.
It might be worth an idea to urge local libraries to procures some issues. This year these are typically priced at indian Rs 60 to Rs100 each.
Now there are some online issues too. Some of those are www.manogat.com, www.upakram.org, www.mayboli.com. This is a good opportunity for marathi readers who are living outside maharashtra and do not have easy access to printed marathi matter.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Online dictionary in north east india's regional languages
XOBODO is an organisation of volunteers spread across the world. They are developing an online dictionary between english and north-east india's regional languages. Thei vision is to demolish language barriers and thereby fuel mutual friendship and cooperation among the peoples of entire region. They are looking for volunteers in languages like Khasi ,Dimasa,Bodo, Karbi, Nagamese, Garo, Ao, Mizo (Lushai) ,Mishing, Tanii (Apatani) ,Monpa, Tai, Meitei-lon, Bishnupriya, Chakma, Kok-Borok, Kuki etc. Anybody can become member and contribute words, check spelling, meanings etc.
This online dictionary is brainchild of Bikran Baruah, a petroleum engineer, now in Dubai. Buljit Buragohain, an IITan, is the Publicity Secretary.
Already there are more than 17000 words in Assamese, more than 10000 in English besides number of words in various NE regional languages. Dictionary is updated daily.
This online dictionary is brainchild of Bikran Baruah, a petroleum engineer, now in Dubai. Buljit Buragohain, an IITan, is the Publicity Secretary.
Already there are more than 17000 words in Assamese, more than 10000 in English besides number of words in various NE regional languages. Dictionary is updated daily.
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