Tell a tale at language festival in the Capital

You might have heard dastangos impressively narrate winding tales, but have you witnessed an 8-yearold 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 to promote Indian languages. This year, it focuses on literature for young adults and children. Fouzia Dastango, who will present poetic stories at the event, says, “Raghav Mehta, 8, will present the story of the Pied Piper — as written by Safdar Hashmi — 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.”

The fest will have discussions by children’s authors, and an array of book stalls to promote regional languages in children’s literature. 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.”

Catch the fest on November 10 and 11, from 11am to 7pm, at India Habitat Centre.

Storytelling and film screenings will be part of this festival