The setting is academic. Five people sit on a stage with sheets of papers in front of them, impassive faces looking out to the audience. They start talking, and the mood shifts. They aren't reading ordinary academic notes or giving a lecture. Instead, using their voices, they are bringing alive the stories of some of Urdu's finest writers — Munshi Premchand, Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto.

An earlier performance. Pics/Atul Kamble