Two-day Mangaluru Literary Festival from February 18

The fifth edition of the Mangaluru Literary Festival will be held for two days at the T.M.A. Pai International Convention Centre from February 18.

Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Sunil Kulkarni, trustee of Bharath Foundation, the host of the event, said the new edition will continue to have literary, cultural, and fine art related discussions and other events that are all centered on the theme ‘Idea of Bharat’.

As many as 25 interactive sessions will be held in which speakers, namely actors Rishab Shetty and Prakash Belvadi, columnist R. Jagannathan, ANI Editor Smitha Prakash, writer Aravind Neelakandan, Indian Military historian Shiv Kunal Verma, BJP Leader Ram Madhav, Mysuru Rangayana director Addanda Cariappa, and journalists M.D. Nalapat, and Shiv Aroor will participate.

The inaugural session will be on ‘Idea of Bharath in Amrithkal: reclaiming the right path- the way forward’, in which Mr. Jangannathan and educationalist Vinaya Hegde will participate.

Among the interesting sessions, Mr. Kulkarni said, include the one involving nomadic tribal member Dakkala Muniswamy of Doddaballapur. He will tell “Dakkala Jambava Purana”, which is among the stories of the tribal men in Kandagannada. Mr. Muniswamy, who is an illiterate, will make use of instrument resembling “Ek Tara” while narrating the story..

To develop the art of storytelling among children and prompt parents to narrate stories to children, there will be “Harate Katte”, an informal discussion group with authors of children’s books.

There will be workshop to train people in writing their names in Tulu. There will be 18 book stalls at the venue.

Mr. Kulkarni said this year fest award will be given to Tukaram Poojary, who is managing a museum on ‘Rani Abbakka’ in Bantwal.

The details of Lit Fest programmes will be available on the website https://mlrlitfest.org/event-schedule-2023.