Asma Mundrawala
Asma Mundrawala’s interdisciplinary practice intersects the visual arts, theatre and performance, and education. Her research interests in popular culture, public spheres, Urdu literature and its performative traits critically inform her creative practice and approach to art education. She teaches at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, and is Professor in the Department of Fine Art. Asma is the co-founder and creative director of Zambeel Dramatic Readings. Her current practice renders texts from Urdu literature in a dramatised form to a live audience. She has also initiated and curates the on-going project Zambeelnaama, a monthly audio channel for Zambeel Dramatic Readings. Zambeel Dramatic Readings aims to present texts in Urdu and English rendered in their dramatised form, to create a dynamic collusion between literature and performance. Referencing traditions of storytelling and the contemporary form of the radio play, the work traverses time and geographical boundaries to interpret and enliven narratives through sound and recitation.
Sunday 6th March
Lady Changez Khan
The importance of Ismat Chughtai’s craft, her greatness as the grand dame of Urdu fiction and as the indomitable spirit of the Urdu short story is continually affirmed by the interest in her writing today, and by tributes paid to her by contemporaries and present day readers and writers.
Aik Shauhar ki Khatir was written in the first person and is Chughtai’s humorous account of encounters in a women’s compartment of a train, which reveals perceptions about women in pre-partition India. When a journey in solitude transforms into a cacophonic experience, the author finds herself to be the centre of attention in a female compartment of a train from Jodhpur to Bombay.