Exploring heritage through storytelling

Gopala Krishna, of Visakhapatnam started ‘Hyderabad Trails’ in June 2015 to explore the city’s architecture, heritage and culture. He shares experiences of the city by organising walks, gatherings, and events.

“Story-telling is a good art form and extensively used in ancient times. It is also a challenge for the storyteller because we must narrate in front of the live audience and we get immediate feedback. Before the Hyderabad Trails, I used to make short films.

I am always interested to visit new places and knowing about stories and heritage. I started Hyderabad Trails to build a community of like-minded people to share stories about the city,” said Gopala Krishna.

Hyderabad Trails started at the time of Ramadan in 2015 and organised a special Ramadan walk in old-city. “Through Hyderabad Trails, we curate the stories and heritage of the city through organised walks and activities that explore the city’s natural, built and cultural heritage.

The walks will engage the participants through art forms like storytelling, sketching, music and help build an appreciation for and a sense of connection with the city,” said Gopala Krishna.

Explaining how it all started, Gopala Krishna shares, “In cities like Delhi and Bengaluru many activities are being organised to explore the culture. Hyderabad has great architecture, age-old monuments and no one has been organising any walks to explore it.

I decided to do a Ramadan walk in 2015 in the Old City on my own and posted on Facebook about it. The post went viral, and I got responses of more than 1,000 people within a week. This walk inspired me to create Hyderabad Trails.”

Till now, Hyderabad Trails organised more than 100 walks in and around the city. Some of the walks include ‘Monsieur Raymond’s Tomb’, ‘Music Trail in KBR Walkway’, ‘Ramadan Night Walks’, ‘Sketching Kacheguda Station’ and ‘Visit to Rail Museum’, ‘Jane Jacob’s Walks’, ‘The Shiva Festival’ at ‘Keesaragutta’, ‘Sketch Walk in ‘Qutub Shahi Tombs’, and more.

Gopala Krishna also said that his team does research about the area’s history and anecdotes before organising any walk. His team also recently organised the second edition of Nazariya International Women’s Film Festival-April, 2017 in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad Trails is also planning to organise 50 walks in August as part of their ‘Jashn-e-Hyderabad’ initiative. “A storyteller must have the desire to share and has to create an imagination in other people through his skills,” concludes Gopala Krishna.

By V Sateesh Reddy