Kahani ki Dukaan (literally, The Story Shop) is a foundation that aims to solve problems that its founders Jasmine Kaur and Anoop Chugh noticed in Gunehar. A couple’s passion project is breaking all kinds of barriers.
BY AVANTIKA CHATURVEDI
Beyond the colorfully paraglide-dotted skies of Bir in Himachal Pradesh, where the valley narrows and pine trees appear lies the tiny village of Gunehar. And somewhere in the forests of Gunehar is a small mud house where children gather each evening to celebrate art.
Kahani ki Dukaan (literally, The Story Shop) is a foundation that aims to solve problems that its founders Jasmine Kaur and Anoop Chugh noticed in Gunehar. “We see tourists visiting these villages and calling them lucky for living in such a beautiful place. But nobody really asks them about their social conditions, their mental health, or how they express themselves,” Anoop explains. Turns out, children from the village had never solved puzzles. They had never drawn freestyle–outside of their art class in school where the sky must always be blue and the grass green–and each drawing was marked out of 10. Kahani ki Dukaan gives these children a space to express their creativity as they please–where the sky is sometimes yellow and the grass pink. This expression of creativity can take many forms; sometimes it is through drawing and painting workshops they organize, sometimes through story writing and performance poetry sessions, other times the children simply read story books and let their imaginations run wild. These sessions are absolutely free of cost. “Some parents are dumbfounded when they learn Kahani ki Dukaan doesn’t cost money,” Jasmine chuckles. “But we just want to try and make a change in some small way.”
Born and brought up in Chandni Chowk in Delhi, where “each house is like a television set”, Anoop had always been drawn to stories—something that also reflected in his choice of career as a journalist. For Jasmine, the strongest bonds of love and friendship had always been formed while travelling through the interiors of India to work with artisans. After she left her job as a shoe designer, Jasmine had always wanted to take performance arts to the villages of India.
It was during the duo’s month-long visit to Bir that the seed for Kahani ki Dukaan was sowed. They came here to interact with locals, write stories about the people they meet, and eventually produce an audio album on these stories. “After the month was over, we tried getting back to our lives. But somehow we were never fully able to leave Bir,” Jasmine says. When the village children continued calling them long after they had left, it was decided. Kahani ki Dukaan had to be set up. “We just loved the place and its people that much.”
Since its inception in 2019, Kahani ki Dukaan has now set up art libraries in five villages across Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. To sustain this cause, Anoop and Jasmine host weekly village walks for travelers visiting Bir and Gunehar, which include a visit to the Kahani ki Dukaan library in Gunehar to look at the art installations adorning its walls, followed by performances in the courtyards of villagers who have been central characters in the duo’s stories, ending with a traditional pahadi meal at a local’s house. For those who feel the pull of the stories of Gunehar and Kahani ki Dukaan, Jasmine and Anoop also do week-long workshops where attendees can explore the art of writing and performing.
The journey to make this story a shop a success has not been without struggle. “Convincing ‘upper-caste’ families to send their children in the same space as the children of ‘lower caste’ families was perhaps our biggest challenge,” Anoop recalls. “Once we got them together under the same roof, we banned the use of surnames.” Above all else, watching the characters hear their stories from an outsider’s perspective is always special for the duo. “When we performed Ranbir’s story—The Boy who grows wings at night,” Jasmine recalls, “There was a newfound confidence in this otherwise shy and quiet boy. I think reactions like his are what drives us to continue doing what we’re doing”.
_________________
Courtesy: CN Traveller
