Curtain falls on Brahmaputra Literary Festival

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Jan 30: The Brahmaputra Literary Festival drew a huge crowd on the concluding day today at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra premises here. As soon as the gate opened at 10 am, people from all walks of life were seen thronging the mega event.

Altogether 11 sessions on various subjects of literature have been conducted today at six venues in the Kalakshetra premises, mely, Tagore Hall, Pandita Ramabai Hall, Premchand Hall, Subramania Bharathi Hall, linibala Devi Hall and Bezbarua Hall. The other attraction of the day was screening of ‘Mirzya’ and conversation with the Director Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra which was conducted by Dipa Chaudhury.

At Tagore Hall the panellists of the first session on the topic ‘A Picture of India: Foreign Perspective’ were Nicolas Ider, Alessandra Bertini, Carlo Pizzati, Rajiva Wijesinha and Seli Hussain and Makarand Paranjape was the Moderator. In the Second Session Damodar Mauzo, Bhagirath Mishra, Amar Mitra, Binod Ghosal and Anga Choudhury were the panelists while Maini Mahanta was the moderator.

At Pandita Ramabai Hall the topic for discussions were ‘Poetry, Art and Theatre: Search for common Grounds’ and East and the North East of India: Dymics of Neighbourhood Contemporary Literature.’

The topic of discussion at Subramania Bharati Hall were ‘Discussing Modern Identity: In contemporary Assamese Fiction’ and Poetic Imagition in contemporary Short Fiction: Readings and Conversations’

At linibala Devi Hall the panellists discussed on ‘Demystifying Publishing’ and participated in the Readings in Poetry.  

Author Prabuddhasundar Kar from Tripura, Bengali writer Debi Prasad Sinha, Chitra Kumar Bey from Karbi Anglong and others took part in an interaction.   

The writers applauded the efforts of the organizers.

“This kind of literary festival which is happening first time in Assam is exhilarating to witness. There is scope for both adults and children to engage themselves in interactive sessions for amusements,” a visitor said.

“Brahmaputra Literary Festival unlike Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) is also a platform for new authors. New authors from Northeast have also joined the event,” author Pallavi Rebbapragada said

People were enthralled when they had an interactive session with film director Rakesh Omprakash Mehra. Mehra spoke to the attentive crowd about his inspirations.

“The young people taught me a lot. I have seen the world enough through the eyes of others. I try to see the world through the eyes of youth,” Mehra said.

A unique feature of reading poetry in Cruize Alfrasco on River Brhamaputra was organized on the concluding day today. Poet Neal Hall and other poets were present on the occasion to enthrall the literature lovers.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit was present at the closing ceremony. He hailed the efforts of the government and NBT Director Rita Choudhury. He said that BLF turned out to be successful in its venture. The Governor in his speech recited some poems and ghazals. It may be noted the first Brahmaputra Literary Festival was iugurated on January 28 at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra premises.