After a gap of more than two years, Goans will finally be able to attend a literary festival, as the travelling literature festival, Kumaon Literary Festival (KLF) will be held from May 14, 2022 to May 15, 2022, at the Old GMC Heritage Percint, Panjim. It will be inaugurated by the Governor, PS Sreedharan Pillai on May 14, 2022 at 10 am and will feature various sessions on art, cinema and literature, highlighting many aspects of art and culture.
GOA AS A VENUE
The Kumaon Literary Festival was first held in the year 2014 at different locations in Uttarakhand, such as Dhanachuli, and also at Nainital, Jim Corbett National Park.
This is the first time that this festival will be held in Goa, as the KLF is produced by the Indian Cinema Heritage Foundation, a public charitable trust, which is now registered, here, in Divar village, with Sumant Batra as its managing trustee. This Foundation’s office will be formally inaugurated on May 15, 2022 at Divar.
“The reason why we thought of having this festival in Goa is because of its culture and people. The way they respect their culture, take time out for family and friends, and also so many creative activities take place in Goa. This is similar to many small cities. In big cities, people don’t have time to attend a literary festival due to distance, traffic, etc,” says Batra.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMMES
This year, the speakers at the festival will include Amrit Gangar, film historian and writer; Anant Vijay, senior journalist and author; Rahul Rawail, film director and writer; Milee Ashwarya, publisher, Ebury Publishing and Vintage Publishing at Penguin Random House India; His Grace Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa; Senior Vice-President of ISKCON, Bangalore and Vice-Chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation among many others.
Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, will give the keynote address on ‘Translating the Ancient Text: The Place of Mythology in the Popular Consciousness’ on the inaugural day.
This event will bring together writers, historians, artists, literary pioneers and prodigies from around the world. Authors like Kiran Manrali, Jerry Pinto and Gautam Chintamani to name a few will participate in this festival.
There will be book launches such as Tijara Mystery Codes by Hemma Myers Sood, Song, Dance and Pray – The Inspirational Story of Srila Prabhupada by Hindol Sengupta, My Name is Gauhar Jaan!: The Life and Times of a Musician by Vikram Sampath and many more.
During this two-day literary event, there will be also many sessions on cinema.
SCHEDULE: May 14, 2022
12.40 pm: Hindi writer Vikas Kumar Jha will release his book, Raja Momo Aur Pili Bulbul which is centred around life in Goa. Published by Rajkamal Publishers, the book will be launched at the festival. The writer will be in conversation with Naz Farha.
1.15 pm: There will be a discussion on musician and singer Remo Fernandes’ new book, Remo: The Autobiography of Remo Fernandes.
Here, Remo Fernandes will be in conversation with Sajla Chawla.
2.30 pm: At a session titled ‘The Stories from Goa,’ there will be a discussion on ‘The Influence of Literary Stories in Promoting Tourism’ by Vikas Kumar Jha, Suhail Mathur, Dilip Puri and Vinesh Pikle. It will be moderated by Sumant Batra.
4 pm: In a session titled, ‘Ek Chatur Naar’ there will be discussion on Humour in Writing by Indian Women where writers like Kiran Manral, Venita Coelho, Jerry Pinto and Savia Viegas will speak on this topic. It will be moderated by Koral Dasgupta.
Artist and writer Savia Viegas, while speaking on this topic elaborates that when she started writing fiction, she wanted to focus on simple rural stories from Goa, which were mainly told by women, and was peppered with humour. “When you are talking about patriarchy, gender discrimination, sexual violence and other forms of abuse, how can you get funny and humorous? You can use black humour, parody, irony, subversion and genre appropriation to break out of the frame. ‘In Tales from The Attic’, ‘Let me tell you about Quinta’ and ‘Song Sung Blue’, I have try to use these devices to tell the stories and look forward to sharing some of these anecdotes,” says Savia Viegas.
5 pm: A session titled, ‘Jaane Kahan Gaye Woh Din’ will reminisce the journey of Hindi film music through the decades by Gautam Chintamani, Manoj Rajan and Pradip Routray. It will be moderated by Shankar Iyer and Balaji, co-founders, Nostalgiaana.
SCHEDULE: May 15, 2022
10.45 am: A session titled ‘Please don’t slam the door in my face’— Hidden Vaults of Archives and Information: Challenges for Film Historians, will be held with speakers — Rahul Rawail, Amrit Gangar, Vinod Anupam and Asha Batra. It will be moderated by Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri.
3.30 pm: A session titled, ‘The Shrinking Screen — Digital and Streaming as the New Theatre of Cinema will be held with speakers Dhritiman Chaterji, Rahul Rawail, Gajra Kottary, Sachin Chatte and Priti Vinay Sinha. It will be moderated by Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri.
4.45 pm: The concluding event of the festival, where there will be a book launch, Satyajit Ray: The Man Who Knew Too Much by Barun Chanda, who starred in Satyajit Ray’s movie Seemabaddha (1971).
WHERE: Old GMC Heritage Percint, Panjim
WHEN: May 14, 2022 & May 15, 2022
For more details about the Kumaon Literary Festival, and also to register free, log on to www.kumaonliteraryfestival.org