NGO strives to restore oral traditions

Our Correspondent

Chamba, August 23

Chamba’s famous NGO, ‘Not On Map’, celebrated World Folklore Day here on Saturday by organising an online folk restoration festival. The NGO initiated a nationwide digital movement, ‘folk-athon’ on the occasion.

The prominent personalities of the area, including Padma Shree awardees Vijay Sharma, a miniature painting artist, and Joravarsinh Jadav, a folklore preservation expert, along with Piyush Raj, a singer, and Vikas, a local artist, had a conversation on folklore. The six-hour digital webinar emphasised the need of creating awareness about the restoration of the rich oral traditions spanning across Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, and Rajasthan to Manipur.

As many as 50 eminent folk artistes from 20 states recited poems, recalled ancient stories and presented musical performances, celebrating their authentic age-old traditions. “The idea of documenting the rural skills and digitising them to make the oral traditions globally accessible, were suggested by project lead Apoorva Gautam, and national coordinator Bhavesh Pandya,” said Kumar Anubhav, founder, Not On Map. Not On Map co-founder Manuj Sharma said an initiative, ‘Lok dhara abhiyan’, had been launched to document the stories of various states.

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