Minister for Culture Saji Cherian hoisted the festival flag for the fourth edition of ‘Ka,’ the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL 2023), here on Wednesday. Three literary classics which have turned 100 — Chandalabhikshuki by Kumaran Asan, The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran — were commemorated at the MBIFL curtainraiser event held at Kanakakkunnu. The MBIFL also coincides with the centenary of Mathrubhumi.
Mr. Cherian said the MBIFL was a major annual event that reflects the notable role played by Mathrubhumi in the country’s cultural and media domains.
Minister for Revenue K. Rajan, who launched the festival book, recalled the contributions of Mathrubhumi to the freedom struggle and Kerala’s political and social progress.
The sessions at MBIFL will begin on Thursday with a keynote address by Jnanpith laureate M. T. Vasudevan Nair at 10 a.m. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will formally inaugurate the festival at 6 p.m. The theme of the festival is ‘Shadows of History, Lights of the Future.’
Tanzanian-born British author and Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Booker Prize winner Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka, Jnanpith awardees Amitav Ghosh and Damodar Mauzo are also taking part in the fest.
M. V. Shreyams Kumar, Managing Director, Mathrubhumi, who is also the festival chairman, welcomed the gathering at Wednesday’s function. V.K. Prasanth, MLA, Booker Prize-winning Omani author Jokha Alharthi, poet K. G. Sankara Pillai and P. V. Chandran, Chairman and Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi, were present.
Poet V. Madhusoodanan Nair, B. Hariharan and M. A. Askar delivered commemoration speeches on Chandalabhikshuki, The Waste Land and The Prophet respectively.
