Kilt Trip: A unique collaboration between Scotland and India

Check out a storytelling and music session that incorporates original tales from both countries, and weaves in personal narrative.

Four artists from India, Mohammad Muneem Nazir and Sheena Khalid, and Daniel Allison and Eilidh Firth from Scotland, are collaborating on a story-telling and music session in the city, a culmination of the two week residency that brought together unique aspects of both countries.

The show is called A New Conversation: Where I Stand. It incorporates traditional and original stories from India and Scotland, theatrical and musical performances, and the performers still somehow weave in personal narratives of mythical and ancestral and contemporary homes.

“When we met for the residency, we had no idea what the show is going to be,” says Khalid, 29. “We started with a blank slate but soon realised that our different backgrounds gave us the material for weaving stories and conceptualising a show. So as one of the storytellers, I will be talking about how mills and factories in both the cities have transformed with the economic and cultural changes, while Nazeer will share memories of his growing up years in Kashmir through music and verse.”

Allison, 35, who is also a storyteller, plans to narrate myths and legends from Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia and how they reflect contemporary India.

“For example, there is a classic Scottish legend about the warrior-poet Ossian who was invited to leave Scotland and live in another world where everything was perfect. He went but eventually found himself longing for this world, its strangeness. Nazir and I have created a piece which sets this story against his own story of leaving Kashmir but being pulled to go back and live and share his music there,” he says.

For Firth, 28, the residency was a way to break out of the comfort zone of mainly musical performance and composition. “I play traditional Scottish music on the fiddle (violin) for the performance. I’ll also be taking part in some of the storytelling aspects of the performance - a new experience for me,” she says.