NEW DELHI:
Raconteurs from Australia, Poland, England and India and a shadow puppetry performance by Kerala artists wove a spectacular tapestry of legends and fairy tales as the magic of story-telling continued to enthral audiences on the second day of ‘Kathakar—International Storytellers Festival’ being held at the magnificent 16th century Mughal Garden Humayun tomb complex here.
On Saturday evening, the youthful Jerzy Szufa from Poland caught the fancy of the crowd with his narration of Polish tales that was accompanied by the occasional strumming from his harp.
“I am passionate about the art of storytelling of fairy tales and legends,’’ recalled Szufa, who had completed an international course on ‘share the right story’’ on the use of storytelling in education.
“Back home, almost on a daily basis I work as an educator at the Royal Lazienksi Museum (Warsaw) and organise author’s story art workshops for both the adults and children,’’ said the Polish storyteller, who has been heavily influenced by eminent storytellers like Jihad Darviche and Dan Yashinsky.
Rendering an encore, celebrated aboriginal storyteller Larry Walsh from Australia set the pace of the late evening mood with his inimitable style of narrating a story replete with the sounds of the animals found in his native outback.
‘’Many of the stories that I relay here, especially of the Duck Bill Platypus and others, are almost 25,000 years old or even older,” said the 65-year veteran raconteur who is a crowd favourite here. With his trademark white beard flowing proudly in the evening breeze, Uncle Larry said the aborigines were scared in their own country before the 1967 referendum. ‘’We used to tell our stories only after dark as we were scared (of white reprisals),’’ he recalled.
It was on 27 May 1967 that Australians voted in favour of changes to the Australian Constitution to improve the services available to the indigenous Australians. The Indian flavour to the event was lent by performance storyteller Shaguna Gahilote, who captivated the audience with her ‘Tale of the Misers’. She helms Ghummakkad Narain—The Travelling Literature Festival and also the ongoing Kathakar which was first performed in 2010.
The tale is about a family of misers whose sole aim in life was to fill their coffers/rooms with silver coins by slashing down expenses, especially on food. As their unbridled greed for money rose, the miser’s family one day had a chance visitor in a monk who sought refuge in their house to escape a heavy downpour. Apparently pleased by the family’s hospitality, the monk asked his hosts to seek three boons. The story continues as the boons become a nightmare and a bane for the miser and his family.
Vergine Gulbenkian from the UK narrated the tale of the burning kindled by a 16th century Caucasian love-epic and her interest in her family stories. Vergine, of Armenian descent, is a Craniovascular Therapist and a storyteller based in London. (The Craniovascular Therapy is a specific non-invasive touch that helps the body’s innate ability to heal.) She also works with museums and exudes sheer joy while telling and listening to stories.
Her interests led her to research the rich Armenian oral traditions, especially about Ashiq, an epic singing and ballad (Dastaan) renditions dating back to the 16th century. The second day of the festival also saw an animated conversation amongst a panel of storytellers moderated by journalist-writer Amrita Tripathi.
Kathakar is being organised by Nivesh, a cultural forum along with HHACH (Himalayan Hub for Art, Culture and Heritage), Babaji Music and Agha Khan Trust for Culture as festival support and venue partners. The festival has been conceptualized by sisters Rachna, Prarthana and Shaguna Gahilote and was first launched in 2010 under the aegis of UNESCO as part of Ghummakkad Narain, in memory of ardent reader Thakur Vishva Narain Singh, the first Braille editor in India.
As the evening shadows lengthened, the riveting Tholpavakoothu of Kerala’s Malabar area came alive playing out the epic Ramayana. Also called shadow puppetry, the show encapsulated this unique art form dating back to almost 2,000 years back. This art form which was once confined to temples is today being played on other platforms too.
The sounds of cymbals and chenda (smaller drums) shattered the silence of nightfall even as the oil lamps behind the thin white cotton curtain threw filigreed silhouettes of the leather-bodied puppets as they moved, danced and fought.
The 59-year old Kalashree Ramachandran Pulavar, who has just returned after participating in the Russian International Puppetry Festival and is the main force behind the shadow puppetry from Kerala, explained how his family for the past 13 generations has been performing at the Bhadarakali Temple of central and northern Kerala.
“At the temples we perform for 21 days during festivals from 10 PM to 4 AM, ’’ the 2015 Sangeet Natak Award winner said.
