The people struggling to get a seat at the main venue of the Kerala Literature Festival on Thursday evening shatter all claims that literature was out of fashion and that reading habit was dead. The third edition of the festival that kicked off in Kozhikode on Thursday saw enormous participation of people from all walks of life who thronged the three main venues right from the morning.
Much before writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair opened the festival, writers such as T. Padmanabhan, Anand and Balachandran Chullikkad had set the venues on fire. Mr. Padmanabhan spoke of the women in his stories while Anand spoke on his writings and the changing times. Writers K.P. Ramanunni, K.V. Mohan Kumar and Ambikasuthan Mangad discussed instances when stories intervened in history while the state of Malayalam as a language was the topic that V.Madhusoodhanan Nair and V. Karthikeyan Nair discussed.
A session attended by children of many well-known writers was a notable one. Anees and Shahina, children of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, N.P. Hafiz Mohammed, son of N.P. Muhammed, Sudhakaran Edakkandy, son of Uroob, Raj Nair, grandson of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Sumitra Jayaprakash, daughter of S.K. Pottekkat and Vineetha Nedungadi, daughter of P. Narendranath attended the session titled ‘Posterity remembers its writer-forerunner.
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“Is it a crime to recite a poem?” asked poet Murukan Kattakkada in a session on poetry and songs, explaining that a poem was supposed to be recited in a rhythm and that even Ramayana was recited by Lav and Kush. K.S. Bhagavan highlighted the need for freedom of expression in his conversation with K.R. Meera while Pattanam Rasheed and B.Arundhathi discussed the politics of costumes.
Sagarika Ghose spoke on her book on Indira Gandhi while there were many takers of Artist Namboodiri’s talks. Arundhati Roy made a convincing presentation of her latest novel ‘Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ in one of the most popular sessions.