Mamta Nainy is a writer based in New Delhi. She has authored over thirty-five books for children, many of which have won national and international awards, including Neev Book Award 2025, Valley of Words Awards 2022, FICCI Publishing Awards 2022, Publishing Next Award 2022, The Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Award 2019 and Peek-a-Book Children’s Choice Award 2019. She also works as a literary translator, translating between Hindi and English. She is inspired by the boundless imagination of children and loves to travel but is often too lazy to do so, so she mostly makes do with reading.
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Unlocking India’s Folk and Art Heritage | Mamta Nainy on River Songs, Ancient Clues and Cultural Memory | OCLF
On 22nd Nov 2025 12.00 PM TO 12:40 PM
The session "From River Songs to Ancient Clues: Unlocking India’s Folk and Art Heritage" featured children’s writer and editor Mamta Nainy, who guided young audiences through India’s living traditions of song, rhythm, colour and storytelling. She explored how folk practices preserve cultural memory across generations, often more powerfully than written texts.
Through examples like Bengal’s Baul singers, Assam’s Bihu celebrations and the Patuas who paint stories on cloth scrolls, Mamta Nainy showed how everyday life, nature, festivals and emotions shape folk expression. She highlighted that these art forms are not created for entertainment alone; they hold identity, history and community values. The session encouraged children to see folk traditions as living, breathing heritage that connects the past to the present.
With enthusiastic audience participation, the conversation offered a joyful introduction to India’s artistic diversity and the power of oral storytelling. The session concluded with a reminder that stories sung, danced or painted often survive longer than those written, making folk traditions a bridge between generations.