The mood inside the Indian Medical Association hall was alternately relaxed and happy, and tense and fearful, as the participants soaked in thrilling moments of an emotional roller-coaster ride.
A mix of writers of children’s literature in different languages who have enriched the literary fabric of the country flocked the place for a three-day event that started on Tuesday with presentation of the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2017 to outstanding writers and poets from every nook and cranny of the country.
On Wednesday, the session began with a seminar-cum-reading session on “The Evolution of Children’s Literature”.
President of the Sahitya Adademi Viswanath Prasad Tiwari, in his presidential address, said the current smart phone-addicted generation posed a major challenge to writers, especially children’s writers, as they demanded a different fare, making it mandatory for writers to keep pace with their changing tastes.
‘Traditional values intact’
He, however, expressed relief that despite inundation of western influence, the traditional values of family system were still intact.
Convener of the Akademi’s Telugu Advisory Board N. Gopi said children’s literature was culturally enriching and one must try all possible ways to inculcate the habit of reading among children.
In the poetry-reading session that followed, P. Mohan read his poem in Telugu, M. Murugesh in Tamil, Ano Brahma (Bodo), Kaushalendra Pandey (Hindi), Uday Kumar Sarma (Assamese), Aba Govinda Mahajan (Marathi) and Phool Chand Jha Praveen (Maithili).
Though the languages were diverse, the mood created an emotional response among the audience and allowed for greater understanding of what the author was saying. Making the right choice of words, they set the tone and theme of the series of subtle and surreal stories that unfolded engulfing every soul in the vicinity.
In Thursday’s programme, former Director of All-India Radio, Vijayawada, Munjuluri Krishna Kumari will preside over a session where papers will be presented by Tapan Bandopadhyay in Bengali, D. Ramakrishna (Sanskrit), Datta Naik (Konkani) and Jodhachandra Sanasam (Manipuri). Post-lunch session will comprise paper presentation in Telugu, Kannada, Rajasthani and Punjabi and reading session in Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and Hindi, presided over by K. Sreekumar and Mini Shrinivasan.
