Stories unify minds

This is so beautiful and so humbling!

As hate crimes rise and the atmosphere around us turns more and more toxic, three Muslims - Dastango Firoz Khan,  Danish Iqbal and Fouziya are narrating the Hindu epic, Mahabharata is chaste Urdu!

Written and directed by playwright Danish Iqbal, Dastan-e-Mahabharat is a rendition of the epic using the art form of Dastangoi — a tradition of Urdu storytelling that dates back to the 13th century. Using poetry from various Urdu versions of the epic, and alternating this with the narration of the great battle, this dastan grips audiences not just for the intensity of the story, but also for the harmony of the two facets of Indian culture.

But thus art form of, narrating Hindu stories in Urdu is not new - in the 18th-19th century, a lot of writings on Hinduism took place in Persian. There are more than 70 books on Gita and 100 on Ramayana in Urdu.

The audience, generally a mix of people from all religions, is appreciative. For most of them, the most fascinating aspect is listening to a Hindu myth in Urdu.

Indeed what an experience and what a way to unify cultures and show that at the bottom of it all, we all are just the same – religion is just a way of leading life in the right way.