Sanjay Chakrabarty’s interesting performing art presentation, An Ordinary Story will be showcased at 6pm as part of the Partitions: A Visual Representation at the Hay Festival Dhaka 2013 today.
An Ordinary Story is a presentation based on the graphic narrative book This Side That Side and was also presented at the Goethe Institut On November 13. The mono performance played by Sanjay Chakrabarty, was a very contemporary and compelling presentation of a performing arts piece that was presented to the audience. It was a silent performance that was very clear in conveying its message.
At the beginning of the performance, Sanjay appeared wrapped in a vibrant red cloth like a scarlet mummified figure. The story unfolds with a child being born in a world where everything is red that fills him with terror and tempts him to get rid of the intimidating colour. Then, the audience was encouraged to unwrap the cloth and as Sanjay was being unveiled, pieces of paper with words relating to partition, such as nationalities, fear and many others started to fall away from the folds, liberating him from the constant fear and trauma that is usually a part of the political identity that sets one person apart from the other.
This Side That Side is a compilation by Vishwajyoti Ghosh. The graphical narratives in the book are about partition of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and all issues related to the phenomenon that is an ingrained part of everyone living in this part of the world.
Forty-eight contributors across the South Asian region supplied a total of twenty eight narratives, in which the authors have shared their personal experience or collected the untold stories from their early generations. The unique book is a creative exploration, which comprises epochal moment by comic artists, illustrators, filmmakers, theatre artists and storytellers from across South Asia.
A short trailer was screened at the event, that tried to satisfy the curiosity of the present day, about the other side of the border through dialogues and visual images.
Arpita Das, publisher from the YODA Press said: “It took around two and a half years to work on this graphic novel. The book caters to bring the voice of opinion together in the same platform. It was a mammoth of an achievement, to see the writers and artist both coming on one platform and explaining their views on partition.”
The curator, Vishwajyoti said: “The graphic novel is not only confined on the history of the partition. It is about moving on, and the way people are dealing with partition. Currently I am a resident of Delhi, but I am originally from Barisal town of Bangladesh. I shared my piece of history from the standpoint of my early generation.”
On the occasion of Hay Festival, The book This Side That Side will be available at Bangla Academy.