Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ MAP Academy
What is this space?
India continues to remain that land where all traditions, all customs and grandeurs begin with a story. A story that is always deep rooted in Hindustan. And thus Kaahaani Ghar is that Khazaana (treasure), where we collect all those beautiful tales that mirror the culture and values of this land. Not merely folktales but all forms of oral traditions – proverbs, aphorisms, anecdotes, rumours, songs, impromptu folk street plays.
Sapir (1970: 68) acknowledges language as a valuable guide to the scientific study of a particular culture, because ‘the network of cultural patterns of a civilization is indexed in the language which expresses that civilization’. It is therefore obvious that the speech of a particular community embodies and transmits its folklore, and folklore is naturally an authentic manifestation of the speech.
Kaahaani Ghar wants to grow into a bag full of Indian magic stored in the form of folklore, curated from the corners of the country, not just traversing various cultures, linguistic groups, casteist groups, religious groups, ethnic groups, tribal groups, but the whole – the whole beautiful India because that is how we see it. We strongly believe in the power of the linguistics and how it holds everything together. We want to make folklore accessible to all especially the young generation so that it can be carried to next and so on. Though digital is the new face of the world, folklore is barely present on digital and even if it is, accessibility and democratization is vague. Kaahaani Ghar wants to change that. Together.