A Dastangoi twist to the Maldhari story

Amdavadis will get a glimpse of the land and lives of pastoralists which will be organised by the Centre for Pastoralism, an initiative of Sahjeevan, at Mill Owner's Association Building from October 5 to 8.

The internationally acclaimed exhibition titled 'Living Lightly - Journeys with Pastoralists', will present a blend of music, poetry, art, photo essays, speciality food stores, films, workshops and live events from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm.

Ankit Chadha, an acclaimed promoter of Dastangoi and an award winning author of "Amir Khusrau - The Man in Riddles" and "My Gandhi Story", is in city to perform 'Dastan-e-Khanabadosh' - a story of nomadic Maldharis as part of the exhibition.

Talking to mediapersons at an event on Tuesday, Chadha, who started performing Dastangoi in 2010, and quit his corporate job to take up Dastangoi as a full time profession, said, "Dastan (a persian word) means story and Goi means the act of narrating the story. I have tried to get some inspiration from Kabir in terms of what is the value of going slow in life. I do mention him in the storytelling."

Chadha has spoken on Dastangoi globally, including at Princeton, Harvard and Yale. He also introduced the form of musical narration that uniquely brings together stories and music. He has also worked on Dastangoi performances for children. Dastan Alice Ki was the first modern adaptation of Dastangoi for children.