This language festival in Delhi celebrates the art of storytelling

You might have heard dastangos impressively narrate winding tales, but have you witnessed an 8-year-old perform dastangoi? For fans of literature, there’s this and a world of books that will unravel at the Indian Languages Festival Samanvay.

This festival was introduced in Delhi’s cultural calendar to promote Indian languages. This year, the event is focused on literature for young adults and children. And there will also be performances by children for children. Fouzia Dastango, who will present poetic stories at the event, says the act will open with kids performing dastangoi. “‘Raghav Mehta, 8, will present Dastan-e-Mahabharat, as written in Urdu by Danish Iqbal, combining with Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s Krishna Ki Chetaavanee’— and Mahua Agarwal, 10, will narrate the tale of a girl who has long hair. These are short stories for which the kids have been rehearsing for a month.”

Alongside these shows, there will be discussions by children’s authors, and a gamut of book stalls. Shantanu Duttagupta, publishing head, Scholastic India, says, “India has a vast repository of languages. Our folklore and oral storytelling tradition has a lot of potential to be translated from regional languages to English or Hindi. Though we are publishing in regional languages, but certainly we can do more.”

CATCH IT LIVE

What: ILF Samanvay 2018
Where: India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road
When: Nov 10 and 11
Timing: 11am to 7pm
Nearest Metro Station: Jor Bagh on Yellow Line, JLN Stadium on Violet Line