[Reader-list] Dastangoi at IIC

[Punam Zutshi]

Mahmood, Himanshu and Sarai, Congratulations on a perfectly riveting
performance at IIC!

Mahmood and Himanshu seem to have pulled off a masterly recreation of the
dastangoi in tandem.The feat surely lies in presenting a dastangoi style
which has both originality and integrity.One finds it difficult to imagine
anything but the wry and not so wry humour and sophistication with which the
" tilism " stories were told.

Wish though, that there was more on dastans and dastangoi in the limited
time available by Prof Farooqui and Mahmood.

Some preliminary questions for Mahmood :

What is the tone/style of  the bazm and war stories ( razm?)? Would the
style adopted by Mahmood and Himanshu be appropriate to the narration of
these other streams?

The magical universe is also parodied in some ways in some ways isn't it?
Have you thought of Bettelheim's 'uses of enchantment' in this context?

There is blood and violence and 'aaiyari' in these stories...what is the
world view of the dastans? What do the dastans say about love and war and
magic? What of the relationship between Khuda and Shaitan, and between their
powers and tilism?

What is the relationship of these stories to speech , literature and poetry?
Could you elaborate a little on Ghalib's view of these dastans? Have other
major writers commented on these texts?

Regards,

Punam