Lucknow’s popular storyteller Himanshu Bajpai is set to engage with a global audience with tales on Sufi poet-philosopher Amir Khusrau at a special event being organized by the US-based Harvard University.

To be held on October 8, Bajpai’s session is titled Khusrau’s River of Love: Cosmopolitanism and Inclusion in South Asian Traditions and will be a part of the fourth annual ‘Worldwide Week’ at Harvard, according to the varsity’s invitation letter to him.

“Qissa goi is one of the oldest art traditions in India, and the world. The form that I practice is daastan-goi that belongs to the medieval era. My city Lucknow is considered the epicenter of the medieval era of qissa goi, the ‘Mecca’ of daastan goi, in eighteenth and nineteenth century’’.

Bajpai, 33, will be accompanied by international singer Ali Sethi in the musical storytelling session interspersed with analysis and commentary by Harvard professor Ali Asani, stated The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute linked with the Harvard University.

The ‘Worldwide Week’ kicked off on October 2 and shall continue with events through October 9. It will be “delivered entirely virtually” for fall 2020, allowing audiences to join in from all over the world and affording attendees even greater opportunities for participation.

Bajpai, a qissa-go, an author and expert in the Awadhi or ‘Lucknawi’ culture, stated it was a matter of pride that the world-renowned university has chosen him for the program.

“Through my art, I have also tried to highlight the great culture of Hindustan and especially my city Lucknow, and I am looking forward to doing it from the Harvard’s platform also,” he stated

“Be it the languages, the literature or the music of the Indian subcontinent, Amir Khusrau has made an unforgettable contribution in all fields,” he added.

Born in the Raja Bazar area of Old Lucknow, the storyteller is among the few who have had a major influence on making the traditional qissa-goi (story-telling) a full-time profession in recent years.

“Now I am the only full-time qissa go in Lucknow and hoping to take this tradition further,” added Bajpai, who was honored by President Ram Nath Kovind in February 2020 for his art at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Over the last six years, he has travelled to countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe performing more than 150 story-telling sessions on subjects like ‘Kakori’, Mahatma Gandhi, Kabir, Chandrakanta, Tulsidas, and Mangoes.