Once upon a time Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered construction of the Shahi Bawarchi Khana (Royal Kitchen) inside the Lahore Fort. The kitchen served enticing cuisines to the emperor, queens, prince, princes and other royals. It was the house of several chefs whose recipes were famous all over the sub-continent. Shahi Bawarchi Khana was where the food and delicious cuisines with special Mughal recipes and spices used from Akbari Mandi were prepared along with a huge variety of drinks and sweets and new recipes were frequently tried. A sweet ‘Gulab Jaman’ was also among them. The gaudily dressed servers and helpers with their attractive head gears and fine crockery would carry the food from the Shahi Bawarchi Khana to the chambers of the king, queen, princes, princesses and other courtiers. Any emperor or nobles of the neighbouring areas were also served with food cooked in this very kitchen. As the Mughals met a downfall so did the Shahi Bawarchi Khana. The Sikhs took over and turned it into a food and grain godown and a part of it was converted into a stable for horses and other animals. The Shahi Bawarchi Khana was no more there! What happened later to it? There came the British and the Shahi Bawarchi Khana was turned into a prison and interrogation cells. With the independence of Pakistan the same use of the Shahi Bawarchi Khana continued and people forgot if there was any such Shahi Bawarchi Khana inside the Lahore Fort. The Shahi Bawarchi Khana became a no go area inside the Lahore Fort with waist high shrubs, snakes and reptiles and the structure collapsed, much like the Mughal rule! Recently, the Shahi Bawarchi Khana suddenly became a topic of discussion on social media and one day we found out a Dastaan Goi (storytelling) is held at the Shahi Bawarchi Khana of Lahore Fort. This was something interesting for the people and masses at large. This event was the revival of two lost pieces of history – the Shahi Bawarchi Khana and Dastaan Goi. As the Mughals met a downfall, so did the Shahi Bawarchi Khana. The Sikhs took over and turned it into a food and grain godown and a part of it was converted into a stable for horses and other animals You must be wondering what Dastaan Goi is as it was a lost art revived amidst the historic Shahi Bawarchi Khana. Dastaan Goi was the art of storytelling in the past and most of the historians claim that it predates writing. Dastaan Goi has its origin in the Persian language. Dastan means a ‘tale’ and Goi means ‘telling’ and the words when combined mean “to tell a tale” We get to know from historic accounts that Dastan Goi is a 13th century Urdu storytelling art whereas the Persian style of Dastaan evolved somewhere in the 16th century. In old times, there were travelers who would narrate the stories of the culture, traditions, incidents and experiences and usually a huge gathering was found around them. That was one way of information gathering in the past when there were no communication tools like telephone, mobiles, fax, telegraph, postal services and specially the emails and Google. The Mughals were also fond of this art and it was much popular in the sub continent. This tradition of Dastaan Goi had become the culture of this region and people waited for days and months for travelers and their friends to come and tell them the stories. Dastaan Goi had reached its zenith in the Indian sub-continent in the 19th century and is said to have died with the demise of Mir Baqar Ali in 1928. One of the earliest references in print to Dastaan Goi is a 19th-century text containing 46 volumes of the adventures of Amir Hamza titled Dastan e Amir Hamza. In Lucknow, Dastaan Goi was popular across all classes, and was regularly performed at diverse locations including Chowks (city squares), private households, and afeem khana (public opium houses). Fort William College in Kolkata published an Urdu version of the Dastaan of Amir Hamza in the beginning of the 19th century. Munshi Nawal Kishore, a publisher in Lucknow, began publishing the Dastaans by 1850s. With the passage of time and as the communication facilities became common this art started dying and thus the culture also vanished. In Lahore we tried to find Dastaan Goi but there was none. People had become more interested in films, videos, social media and other communication modes and the tradition of storytelling died. In India Dastaan Goi was revived in 2005 but Pakistan was still not able to revive the lost culture. I must mention here that the Indian poet and Urdu critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi and his nephew, writer, director Mahmood Farooqui, have played significant roles in its revival in the 21st century. How is Dastaan Goi staged? At the centre of Dastaan Goi session is the Dastaango, or storyteller, whose voice is his main artistic tool in orally recreating the Dastan or the story. It is said that Dastaans lasted for ten hours as well and it was the art of the Dastaango to keep the audience alert and interested in it. So the revival of Dastaan Goi inside the Walled City of Lahore took place with the restoration of the dead Shahi Bawarchi Khana by the Walled City of Lahore Authority. Pakistani artist, script writer and storyteller Badar Khan, who also performs in India, took up the Dastaan Goi and started with the story “Dastaan Shehar Lahore Ki”. Badar performed for almost one hour and forty minutes and trust me there was pin drop silence in the Shahi Bawarchi Khana as the audience was so indulge in the story of Lahore. Audience from all walks of life attended the Dastaan Goi and it was surprising that still people wanted such activities in Lahore. The audience was brought into the Shahi Bawarchi Khana through the Alamgiri Gate where the entire Huzoori Bagh was sparkling with illumination and it was a treat for the public. Mughal, Sikh and British Era guards were placed on the route to give the audience an experience of the past. Badar Khan narrated the origins of Lahore at the birth of Price Loh, how the gates of Lahore were erected and demolished and what was the life inside those gates and myths about the names. Then he talked about Data Sahib, Buzurg Bacha Ghoray Shah, Hitler’s gift of a car Mercedes Benz to Allama Mashriqi and its present condition, the horse riders who constructed Ferozepur Road, Hasso Taili a famous character of old Lahore, the story of Koh-i-Noor Diamond, the famous Hakeems of Lahore, story of Guru Arjun Dev and Chandoo Shah, Sultan the contractor, wrestling arenas of Lahore, the gone culture of Basant, stories of Badshahi Mosque and the streets and mohallahs of old city Lahore. The audience was completely absorbed in the unheard and unrevealed stories of Lahore and I am happy that this culture is now picking up. It was important for the youth as well to know their culture and stories of the past as most of the youngsters are unaware of their roots. I hope that Badar Khan would be soon coming up with more stories in Dastaan Goi session and take up the lead in reviving this culture in Pakistan especially in Lahore. The setting where Dastaan Goi took place made relevance with the stories he narrated and in my opinion after the conservation of Shahi Bawarchi Khana it has become a must visit place for everyone. Published in Daily Times, October 27th 2018.