Performances
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
Aparna Jaishankar, Vikram Sridhar
Join storytellers Aparna Jaishankar and Vikram Sridhar, as they take us on a mythical and magical journey, highlighting stories from various versions of the Ramayana; from well-known texts to lesser-known folk legends. Playing off each other, they will present complementary, parallel, and contested narratives through prose, poetry and dialogue in this unique performance. Looking closely at a few select folios from one of MAP’s exhibitions, they explore diverse themes, particularly ecology, an aspect often overlooked in the Ramayana.
This event has been conceptualised as part of the exhibition, Book of Gold: The Kanchanachitra Ramayana of Banaras curated by Kavita Singh and Parul Singh. The exhibition displays nearly 80 folios from an extraordinary illustrated manuscript of the Ramcharitmanas — bringing them together for the first time in a public display.
You can book the tickets for the event here (On the spot bookings are also available).
Aparna Jaishankar
Aparna Jaishankar, a Gold Medallist in Social Work (MSW) from Bharathiar University, is a Storyteller with experience in Education, Corporate and Performance sectors. History, Languages, Ethics and Perspectives are some of the topics covered in her modules for modern day educators and learners of varied ability and age groups. She has designed and facilitated workshops for corporates in managing employee – employer narratives.
Aparna’s personal favourite genre of stories is Indic Mythology, particularly the Mahabharata. She enjoys the various versions of the genre found in the nooks and crannies of the Indian subcontinent in the form of songs, theatre, dance, weaving, ritual practices and more. She loves to incorporate stories from these rich sources into her stage performances.
Vikram Sridhar
Vikram Sridhar is a Performance Storyteller, Theatre Practitioner and a Narrative based Facilitator, combining his various interests and work over 20+ years in Theatre, Conservation and Social Work.
Based in Bangalore and Chennai, he has spoken at multiple events on the power of stories and theatre, like TEDx, and quoted in various media. He travels the country extensively, performing and speaking at public spaces, community libraries, schools, corporates, business conferences, literary & cultural festivals for children, students and adults. With an engineering, management and a law degree from institutes like SRM, IIT and NALSAR, Vikram moved on to be a full time Arts Practitioner. He believes in the Desi way of storytelling as a strong medium of conservation from nature to human relationships as his stories are rooted in folklore, myths and legends inspired from various communities of the soil. He strongly believes that ‘A Story a Day keeps the Doctor Away ‘ — not an apple!
