Kahanibaaz | An Event Celebrated Young Storytellers

Bihar, a land of wonderful art, culture and literature and so the three months effort of  Kahanighar’s  event KAHANIBAAZ  had compiled one new story in the history of art.Sunday evening at Patna was fascinated with stories and storytellers. “Kahanibaaz’’, a grand event that took place at Premchand Theatre’s  auditorium, was a fallout of 3 months dedicated effort by the child storytellers of Kahanighar from various states of India. Kahanighar is a combined venture by Rony Banerjee and Minakshi Jha Banerjee who are working with under-privileged children since 2014.

The Chief Guest of the event was the famous storyteller, author and bollywood lyricist Neelesh Misra , along with the dignified personas  Padma Shri Usha Kiran Khan, Hrishikesh Sulabh, Anuradha  Pradhan, Nivedita Shakeel, Geetashree, Anish Ankur, Pawan, Naval Shukla, Pranav Kumar Chaudhary and Deepak Yatri  who were the judges of the selection panel. Kahanibaaz honored 51 Best Child Story Writers from two age groups, who were selected from Bihar, Varanasi, Pune and Delhi. Their stories were compiled into a book named ‘Kahanibaaz’ that was launched on the stage of the auditorium.

Ritu Singh, a young girl from Patna came with her friends to listen to the stories  by children , according to Ritu,

“ I  usually don’t stick to stories but listening to such talented kids as storytellers made my evening wonderful. I wish ‘ KAHANIBAAZ’ to happen again in the town.’’

The event started with a tribute to the artist and social worker Rana Banerjee. Following various magical performances by children of Kahanighar.  Added with a theme song of ‘ Kahanibaaz’ and Kahanighar theme by Khamosh Band. The auditorium left no seats empty. In the history of the Premchand Theatre , the day must have been noted as a masterstroke. Hearing Neelesh Misra with his real life story behind storytelling.

“Stories make you a good human. It’s not just an art, it’s humanity as  you start thinking like your characters and their lives”. He also admired the folk performance by Kahanighar’s children,” Watching the Kahanighar Initiative  towards stories and storytelling is a big thing given to the society, stories are a great medium of learning. The children of Kahanighar are skilled enough that I want to combine them to my ‘ Goan Connection Newspaper’. We would like Kahanighar to get established even in Uttar Pradesh.”

Altogether ,the event was summed up by Minakshi Jha Banerjee, the founder of Kahanighar who discussed the journey of Kahanighar to Kahanibaaz book launch.

“ Kahanighar is all about connecting children with the stories of grand mothers, about king, about queen , all about life to reconnect with childhood and learn through stories. Life never gives a second chance to live the beautiful phase called childhood, so make it a memory life long. Kahanighar started in Bihar connecting with every group of children from village as well as town. ’’ said Minakshi Jha Banerjee.

The praiseworthy and unique effort of Kahanighar is making it a buzz of the town among every age group. Patnabeats wishes Kahanighar to grow more and lead this journey to the national and international level in coming days.

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Quote of the day:“Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story. (from 'Instructions')” 
― Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders