Delhiwale: Portrait of a storyteller

Faizan, a young storyteller from Delhi, shares his journey of friendship and writing, blending Hinglish to engage youth, with a story on smoking's impact.

“I have switched three schools since my childhood. In each school I would meet new folks. Some of them became good friends, but such friendships would end with that school. Although good in studies, I was constantly in search of a friend for life. Finally, in 11th standard, I found such a friend — a cigarette.”

Hookup se Mohabbat, a story that Faizan is reading aloud from his mobile to Asad and Hammad. (HT Photo)

So begins Hookup se Mohabbat, a story that Faizan is reading aloud from his mobile to Asad and Hammad. The three friends are huddled about a parked scooter this smoggy evening on a city street. In his 20s, Faizan finished writing the story a day ago, and is expecting an honest critique from his confidants. The language is neither purely English, nor purely Hindi. It is Hinglish—lots of Hindi interspersed with English words. Faizan always types a story’s first draft on his laptop, he says.

Some of us might take this young man in kurta -pajama as a writer, but Faizan sees himself as an oral storyteller. He could as well be a 21st century version of Old Delhi’s dastangoi storytellers who, as the legend goes, would recite their stories on the stone staircase of Jama Masjid. Faizan, too, is from the Walled City—he lives in Gali Dakotan—but his favoured venue for storytelling happens to be YouTube.

As for his current story, Faizan confesses to inserting “bad words” to make it “relatable to youth.” Is that also the reason that it appears to condone smoking? “No, no, my story has two parts! It ends with the hero quitting the bad habit.” The second part is still to be written, but the storyteller has already finalised its title — My last cigarette.