Narayan Desai’s Gandhi Katha in Pune

A series of talks by Narayan Desai on Gandhiji’s life started at the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch Pune. It has been organized by Gandhi National Memorial Society and is titled Gandhi Kathakathan. It will reveal various facets of the Mahatma’s life. The talks are between 6-8 pm from February 16-22.

Not content with his four-volume biography of the Mahatma, Narayan Desai is now taking Gandhiji to people through katha. Besides being a Gandhian scholar, the septuagenarian Desai has links with Gandhiji that go back a generation: he’s the son of Mahadev Desai, the Mahatma’s secretary and close associate.

Desai says he first thought his recent four-volume biography of Gandhiji, Maru Jeevan Aej Mari Vaani, was the culmination of his efforts to let the world know what the Mahatma was and what he stood for. ‘‘But there are people who cannot read or have no time to read,’’ he says. ‘‘I searched for ways of educating them, and came up with the idea of Gandhi katha.’’

Desai says the katha will have a prose narrative, of course, but in order not to bore listeners, there will be parts in verse and song. All this he has written himself.

Moraribapu was my inspiration, said Desai. ‘‘I had no experience of narrating a katha. I observed Moraribapu and learnt how to narrate and represent an incident.’’

Courtesy Ahmedabad Times and Maharashtra Herald Pune