New Delhi: The stage glows in shades of blue and red, musicians poised to one side, and at the centre hangs a massive spider’s web—gothic, ominous, impossibly delicate. It looks like the prelude to a horror show, but what unfolds at Vidya Devi Jindal School’s auditorium during the first Jindal Literary Fest is something far more haunting: Kasturi Mrig , a Kathak recital steeped in allegory, illusion and desire.

Shinjini Kulkarni, ninth-generation Kathak dancer and granddaughter of Pandit Birju Maharaj, steps into the light as the first notes rise. Ghungroos chime, vocals unfurl, and poetry weaves itself through the air. On stage with her are vocalists and musicians—Janaab Zakir Hussain Warsi, Shri Aryav Anand, Shri Shambhuvan Debnath and Janaab Waris Khan—creating a soundscape that

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