Short Stories with Anurag Sharma

Attendees at Anurag Sharma ji Zoom event

You are never too old to listen to a story. Even the simplest ones can have the ability to communicate a unique perspective of our world, whether they be emotionally intense or just an extended joke.

And last month, Hindi 102 and 204 each had the pleasure of attending a short story workshop with Anurag Sharma. We learned how to use our growing knowledge of the Hindi language to share our own stories. For his day job, Mr. Sharma works as an IT Project Manager in a bank. But he is also the founder, publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of Setu Bilingual Journal of Arts and Literature. The bilingual journal publishes every month and is based out of Pittsburgh in the United States.

Mr. Sharma began the Hindi 102 workshop by using one of his own stories as an example. The story was very simple. But it communicated a reality that many people face every day. It featured a conversation where a father had to explain to his son that they could simply not afford to eat certain vegetables and fruit because they were too expensive.

It proved to be a useful lesson in the art of telling a short story. And it also introduced us to the names for common foods like ककड़ी (cucumber) or अखरोट (walnut). A short lesson then followed in the different elements that constitute a good story: interesting characters, engaging plot, and an element of tension.

Inspired, we each dived into the process of creating our own stories. Both Mr. Sharma and Kusum-ji were incredibly helpful at this step as they encouraged us along the way. They also provided guidance on pronunciation and plot structure as we read our stories to each other.

 Looking back on the workshop, it was a wonderful experience. The desire to create stories that properly expressed our ideas helped push us to search for and to learn new words. Participation in this short story the workshop served as another creative outlet, joining the numerous karaoke sessions and skit presentations that have allowed Hindi classes at Duke to dive into the different aspects of the Hindi language and Indian culture.

Here are a few comments from the students about the class:  

Aarushi said, “I really enjoyed the story workshop with Anurag Sharma. The way he spoke was easy for me to understand. He also gave great tips on story-writing which could be applied to both Hindi and English.”

Geshna expressed, “It was also a good experience to be able to interact with another native Hindi speaker and practice listening and talking in Hindi. I enjoyed applying what we have learned so far in class to storytelling.”

According to Harsha, “It was initially difficult but I think it was a good exercise to apply the thing we learned in class to a real-world context.”

Mihir said, “I enjoyed hearing his feedback on our stories.”

Pippa wrote, “The advice he gave us about storytelling was pretty standard from what I could understand given that I’ve written many stories in English. My story probably could have benefitted from more drama or description, but the exercise, in general, was fun because it put the words we’ve been learning into real scenarios!”

In Sahil’s words, “Most of the Hindi we’ve encountered so far has to do with everyday objects and actions. So, I enjoyed seeing how Hindi could be used in storytelling and creative writing.”

Rohit said, “it also helped that we had a heads up to come into class with some kind of short story idea. Definitely think his workshop is something that should continue on in future semesters!”

This workshop was sponsored and supported by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke Service-learning and David L. Paletz Innovative Teaching.