The Chennai chapter of The Hindu Lit for Life might be over, but for those craving another round of sessions, there’s some good news. The festival comes to New Delhi on February 8; a full day packed with interesting and invigorating sessions that explore and examine different topics, issues and agendas.
The day starts with an off-venue heritage walk at Humayun’s Tomb conducted by Ratish Nanda, the man who’s become the toast of the town after spearheading the monument’s restoration. “Essentially we, at the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, have been engaged with the Humayun’s tomb for 17 years. What I hope to do at the walk is explain the development of the site for over the last seven centuries, with a special emphasis on the rationale behind the conversation work we have undertaken. This is the first-of-its-kind conservation work undertaken by a private agency and, through the project, what we have tried to do is go back to the craft- based approach to conservation. We have gone back to the traditional craftsmanship that our craftsmen have followed for the last millennia. I’ll be explaining all this in detail at the walk,” says Nanda.
The actual festival takes place at Siri Fort Auditorium II with the first session dedicated to understanding and questioning the state of Indian democracy. Titled “Has there been a paradigm shift in Indian democracy?” the discussion between Manish Tewari, Prakash Javadekar, Ashutosh, Shazia Ilmi will be moderated by Praveen Swami. The hour-long conversation will be followed by a session on Documentary Cinema and then, a panel to mark the 30th anniversary of the anti-Sikh riots. “I think it is one of India’s greatest human tragedies along with Gujarat riots of 2002. All our panellists have written and spoken extensively on the issue and they will be discussing the same,” says Rachna Singh- Davidar, Festival Director.
The post-lunch sessions will see renowned names discussing and exploring writings on Mythology (K. Satchidanandan, Samik Bandyopadhyay and Paul Zacharia) and theatre (Maya Krishna Rao, Sudhanva Deshpande and Anuradha Kapur). Of his session on mythology, K. Satchidanandan says, “I would like the Delhi chapter to be as stimulating and substantial as the recently- concluded Chennai event, packing into a single day all the punch and flavour that three-day event had. We hope to discuss the social, aesthetic and ideological implications of the reinvention and subversive deployment of myths and legends associated with religions in the contemporary literary context.”
The last few sessions promise to end the day on a high note, with conversations on the changing face of Delhi by Rana Dasgupta, Sam Miller and Ratish Nanda, who have been deeply and intrinsically involved with Delhi, through their books and work.
Magnificent Mary, a session with Mary Kom and Rahul Bhattacharya in conversation, promises to be another powerful session. The festival signs off with author and stand-up comic Anuvab Pal discussing “The Indian Sense of Humour”.
