Vayu Naidu

Seasons of Storytelling

DIWALI (6th – 14th November)

The epic Ramayana culminates in the festival of Diwali. Celebrated around the world, preparations begin this week and its finale is on 

14 November in 2020. With COVID restrictions this year we will miss the sparklers, crackers and the yearly bonfire that all come into Diwali’s Lila. 

However, we will be lighting lamps in doors, and in our hearts. After all, this living legend from world epic literature is about the triumph of light in a world engulfed momentarily, by the dark.

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With the odyssey of Sita and Rama and the pantheon of human and animal characters, we understand the struggle continuously to save and raise the value of life against oppression. Here, Life focuses on environment – external and internal. The flower-petals-leaves Rangoli Kolams I’m curating are:

1. The King Receives the gift of his prayers by 

REKHA SUNIL KULKARNI - India. Artist of  Petal-&-Leaves Rangoli

2. Rekha Sunil Kulkarni - The childhood of the Princes. Flower and petal Rangoli in Memory of PRACHI Kulkarni

3. Rekha Sunil Kulkarni - Rama faces his fear and defeats the demon Tataka who is polluting the Dandaka forest. Flower and petal Rangoli in Memory of PRACHI Kulkarni

5. Rekha Sunil Kulkarni's rangoli of the enchanted Sita by the Golden Deer in the forest

4. Rekha Sunil Kulkarni - Sita recognises Rama who breaks Shiva's iron bow and advances with garland. Flower and petal Rangoli in Memory of PRACHI Kulkarni

6. Rekha Sunil Kulkarni's rangoli of Sita advising Hanuman in Ashokavan

7. Rekha Sunil Kulkarni's rangoli of Rama facing Ravana in a battle to save light on earth.

I share the joy of commissioning and curating this album of illustrations by REKHA to a Ramayana I am telling for the first and twenty thousandth and twentieth time.  For me, the lockdowns of this Pandemic are a seed time for infinite possibilities for the future of our planet; starting clear, hands-on, and simple. It is with immense delight that I distribute sweets after the storytelling. The best way for me to bring it to your door is for you to support the women I admire of MANN DESHI who make them.  This will be a story remembered of a time that we can pass on about the Anthropocene too.

 In recreating nights of storytelling in cyber time, the final part of the epic will culminate on 14 November, so do click and share with family and friends, with wishing us the light of wisdom from self-reflection that Ramayana brings time and time after time….

Text and ‘bina patrika’ unscripted Storytelling – Dr Vayu Naidu

©Vayu Naidu: words, images on this website.

More stories and storytelling coming...