Sisters in storytelling: Women Wide Awake explores folklore from Pakistan

From women and witches, to sea monsters and mystical saints, a book by two sisters explores the rich folklore of the region of Sindh, Pakistan.

Women Wide Awake is a collection of stories, poems and visual art by Nimra and Manahil Bandukwala, sisters who grew up in the area and longed to explore themes of stories many might have grown up with in the region.

The sisters joined CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris to speak more about their inspirations and hopes for their work. Nimralives in Cambridge and Manahil lives in Ottawa,

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of the article. 

Craig Norris: What is the meaning behind the title Women Wide Awake?

Manahil Bandukwala: The title came about after we researched our folklore and realized that a lot of the stories we were finding focused on women. The opening seven stories are of the seven queens: the seven women whose stories are still influential in Sindh today. 

And we just loved the idea that women were so central to the narratives of folklore. That kind of became, unintentionally when we started our research, a focal point of the book. 

Craig Norris: Contextualize this for us. Are these stories that you grew up with? 

Nimra Bandukwala: Actually, no, because our family was from the Gujarat region. During the partition of India and Pakistan, they moved to Sindh. So there's a dire lack of an understanding of narratives in Sindh, so that's why we started this project.

We realized we grew up there, lived most of our lives there, and yet had no knowledge, or very limited knowledge, of the local stories, traditions and folklore. 

Craig Norris: What was it that introduced you to these stories? 

Nimra Bandukwala: Initially, we had connections because of growing up there. Our aunt connected us with a local musician who incorporates some of the stories in his music.

And then, I mean honestly, it was the hospitality of the people. We went to interview him. He connected us to someone there and then they connected us to someone else. And, you know, people were so open and interested in sharing these stories that just going there and talking to people led us on this beautiful journey.

Craig Norris: Tell us about how you approached doing the art for this book. 

Nimra Bandukwala: The art was actually done collaboratively. Manahil is an artist as well. We both grew up creating art, just playing together and doing a lot of crafting. So it was very natural for us. And our grandmother would save all kinds of materials from saree fabrics to wedding invitations, so we had a lot of the materials. 

Part of it was that these materials that held so much memory and story informed the making, and then the story itself informed the making. 

Craig Norris: Were there any sisterly or sibling arguments over the book? 

Manahil Bandukwala: Well, we worked on a lot of the book during the 2020 lockdown. We were living together and creating together. Our living room was kind of transformed into a studio. I think there were arguments, but there were also a lot of moments where, because we were in the same space together, we could really just go big with our ideas. 

We were talking about it all the time outside of our work hours. I think that just lead to really fun and interesting and 'out there' visuals and stories and poems. 

Craig Norris: What did you personally take away from working on this book and telling these folk tales this way?

Manahil Bandukwala: So much, but the big one was just how folklore is still alive today. It still influences our habits, our behaviours, the way we think of and how we view the world and the people around us. It's something that is always changing and that fluidity just allows it to continue to hold this importance. 

Telling it in the mediums that we did was just part of folklore's natural tradition, that's often shared through song. For us, telling it through mediums that are meaningful to us personally allowed us to connect with the stories and where we come from in a very different way. 

Craig Norris: Nimra, what do you hope people take away from this book? 

Nimra Bandukwala: One is that we really hope that the Pakistani community, the South Asian community here, there's many cities who, you know, moved to India during partition and then didn't have access to these stories. There's many people that grew up there and didn't have a way to learn these stories. So we hope that they're able to connect with them. 

We also really hope that it inspires people to just ask their elders and their grandparents about the stories from their culture and traditions because it's gold and it's being lost and erased forcefully in so many places around the world. 

Craig Norris: What's next for you now? 

Nimra Bandukwala: I facilitate a lot of arts workshops. I'm also a therapist, but I have shifted my focus on educating people using the arts around what's happening in Palestine and now Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. That's really been where my focus is. 

Manahil Bandukwala: I just published my second solo poetry collection, Heliotropia, so I'm touring and promoting that, and I am shifting toward writing short fiction, so just building my writing practice. 

Listen | Nimra and Manahil Bandukwala, authors of Women Wide Awake:

The Morning Edition - K-W7:49Tales of sea monsters and mystical saints: Sisters collaborate for book Women Wide Awake

Sisters Nimra and Manahil Bandukwala came together to create the book Women Wide Awake. It’s a collection of stories, poems, and visual art exploring folklore from the region of Sindh, Pakistan. Manahil, from Ottawa, wrote the book while Nimra, of Cambridge, created the artwork.