Srinagar
A five-day visual storytelling workshop ‘Jhelum Fables’ kicked off at picturesque Roots houseboat situated on river Jhelum in Srinagar.
The first of its kinds of visual storytelling workshop, held on a houseboat, aims to enhance creativity among the youth through writing and photography.
The workshop is conducted by Dr Tabeenah Anjum Qureshi, a Kashmiri origin journalist who is presently working in Jaipur, with a national English daily.
“The workshop is about observing, imagining and then writing about the photographs captured by the participants in the workshop. Apart from learning basics of photography and writing, the participants will be asked to make their own visual story with the help of two mediums – pen and camera, which we will be displayed on the last day of the workshop,”said Tabeenah Anjum, also a recipient of national award in photography conferred by I & B ministry , Government of India.
The Jhelum Fables is attended by Kashmiri youth hailing from different backgrounds such as engineering, humanities, IT, science etc. However, their common interests-creative writing and photography has brought them together.
“This workshop is close to my heart. It feels that I am giving back to Jhelum and the valley (my hometown) whose aesthetics has inspired my life. Such small attempts make a great difference to those who aim to excel in any art form. And there couldn’t have been an authentic place other than a traditional houseboat on river Jhelum,” added Tabeenah, who is equally passionate about teaching and is associates as a visiting faculty with reputed media institutes of India.
The organiser of the workshop is Roots Learning group, a student club whose objective is to conduct short courses and workshops on a variety of categories. The Roots group operating in a houseboat is an empowering space for students where an open exchange of ideas and dialogue can take place. “The idea was to establish a space where small workshops with a closed group can be held. The youth in Kashmir lack access and opportunities to art and culture in some sense. Our aim was to establish one such space. This is our first ever workshop and we chose visual storytelling by Tabeenah Anjum. This is just the beginning, we aim to conduct many such programs,”Mahi Burza, a young entrepreneur and founder of ROOTS, explained.
“The five-day workshop will commence on Saturday,” said the statement.
