Ankit Chadha brings Amir Khusrau alive through Dastangoi in Kolkata

In that one hour, Dastangoi artist Ankit Chadha  recreated the life and work of master poet, musician and scholar Amir Khusrau through his own interpretations.

Dastangoi refers to the art of storytelling; it is a compound of two Persian words, Dastan and goi ,which means to tell a Dastan.

Unlike a typical book launch session, where the author reads out excerpts from the text, Chadha hosted a riddle-based quiz instead, where he presented several riddles wrapped in poetry to the audience, asking them to try and decipher the meaning.

An assortment of riddles concealed in the form of poetry which Khusrau penned back then was recreated in Chadha's book 'Amir Khusrau: The Man in Riddles'.

Gloriously illustrated, crafted with care and sprinkled with delightful snippets of history, the book promises to bewilder, inform and entertain young and adults alike.

The evening turned out to be an entertaining one as the author displayed his creativity with words as well as his sense of humour while updating the audience on several historical facts related to the maestro Amir Khusrau.

By the time the evening of clue-hunting and brainstorming riddles reached an end, the audience were moved by the wisdom which the a scholar named  Amir Khusrau had, centuries ago.

(Reporting by Sagar Ghosh)

Image: Ankit Chadha Twitter