12/03/2019
Friends, colleagues and associates are invited to the special screening of Narayan Desai's Gandhi Katha (10 DVDs : 15 Hours) over 6 days from 15th March to 20th March 2019 at India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi. The screening has been organised to celebrate 150 Years of Mahatma Gandhi and 15 Years of Gandhi Katha by Working Group on Alternative Strategies and India International Centre.
Gandhi Katha was started by Narayan Desai in 2004 as reparative act of creating non-violence after the violence in Gujarat in 2002. Narayan Bhai took the Gandhi Katha across India and abroad till he passed away in 2015.
Narayan Desai was the son of Mahadev Desai, Gandhiji's secretary and biographer and was brought up in Gandhjii's Ashrams in Sabarmati and Sevagram. He joined Vinobha Bhave and the Bhoodan Movement. He served as the Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith. Narayan Desai won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati in 1993 for the biography of his father and the Moortidevi Award for the year 2004, given by Bharatiya Jnanpith, for his biography of Gandhiji.
Kathas have been an age old communication from in India. Narayan Bhai completely revolutionised the Katha form by making it contemporary and relevant to our times. The DVDs capture Narayan Bhai's inimitable style of vibrant and earthy storytelling as he reads, enacts, recreates from his four-volume biography of Gandhi, Maru Jivan Ej Mari Vani (My Life is My Message) (2004), translated into English (Orient BlackSwan, 2009), interspersed with live songs and bhajans sung by the students of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi.
The 15 hours recording of these DVDs was done by CFTV Public Service Communications with a multi-camera set-up during the Gandhi Katha held at the Gandhi King Memorial Plaza - India International Centre in November 2010.
