Dastangoi is an old Urdu storytelling artform. The word Dastan means a tale; the suffix -goi mean "to tell a tale".

In Dastan-e-Sahir, we, in an artistic way present before you the story of Sahir Ludhianvi. Through Sahir’s own poetry and incidences shared by his friends as wells as contemporaries, we throw light on the life and literary stature of one of the most celebrated poet and lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi. His sensitive lyrics on various aspects of society made him immensely successful in Bollywood and the magic of his poetry is such that it is relevant even now.

About the artist:

Dr Himanshu Bajpai

Dr. Himanshu Bajpai is a leading dastango of the country. He has performed more than 400 shows in several countries viz. Singapore, UAE, Turkey etc. Moreover, he has been honoured by the former President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind for storytelling. He was invited by the prestigious Harvard University to perform in the Harvard Worldwide Week. He has been a part of Netflix show “Sacred Games Season 2”. His book “Qissa Qissa Lucknowa” published by Rajkamal Prakashan has been a bestseller and he won Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2021 for it. He has a PhD in Journalism.

Dr. Pragya Sharma

Dr. Pragya Sharma is Lucknow’s first female dastango. She has performed more than 100 shows in different cities across the globe. 'Qissa Jhansi ki Rani ka' was her premier dastangoi along with Himanshu Bajpai. Himanshu and Pragya's dastangoi has been appreciated by PM Modi. Pragya is an environment enthusiast and has a PhD in Economics on the issue of Groundwater Sustainability in India’s Agriculture Sector. She has formerly worked with National Green Tribunal.