All the world’s a stage: In Old Delhi, he keeps history alive

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“I borrow from the medieval art of dastan-goi and kathawachan traditions of storytelling. But my stories on the many deaths and rebirths Delhi has lived through and my style are local — based out of the confines of the six gateways of Shahjahanabad,” says Alam, seated at his friend and fellow artiste Akram Khan’s clothes shop in Meena Bazaar.

Alam traces his ancestry to the days of the Mughals, who brought in artisans from Central Asia to build Shahjahanabad. Alam’s ancestors were professional tangawalas, ferrying construction material, and later people, on carriages drawn by mules and horses.

Alam grew up watching his grandfather, Haji Ibrahim Sheikh Farooqi, shout out gossip and tales of Old Delhi while journeying from one gate to another within the Walled City. While Alam’s father discarded the family profession, buying an autorickshaw around 40 years ago, Alam decided to keep the stories alive.

“I got involved in theatre in college and decided to revive my grandfather’s style of storytelling through a theatrical art form. That way, I could keep up with my theatre and keep alive my ancestral legacy, which has virtually vanished with the tanga going out of use as a mode of transport, especially during the urban facelift before the Commonwealth Games,” Alam said.

Alam spent months forming his troupe of artistes, gathering roughly 40 youths from Old Delhi to form the ‘Talent Group’ in 2000. The group began performing at small nukkads and market corners, and eventually got a chance to perform on stage.

Over the years, they have performed across the country for INTACH, the Union Ministry of Culture, the MCDs, the Delhi government and other cultural bodies. Alam’s troupe is currently under a contract to narrate stories in municipal schools in Old Delhi.

Alam, however, feels that cultural shows have become less of a priority for the central and state governments, and the number of shows and contracts have dipped as a result.

His group, too, has shrunk to a few members, with most getting married or taking up work elsewhere. Struggling to keep his profession going, Alam occasionally helps with his family’s fish business in Ghazipur mandi.

“My art is my identity. Through this oral tradition, I am keeping alive a way of life and an art that the tangawalas of Old Delhi embodied. They were the traditional raconteurs of Delhi, indulging their sawari with tales of Old Delhi’s galis and mohallas and its erstwhile kings and wazirs. Those stories and my grandfather’s andaaz of storytelling is something I want to keep alive,” Alam said.