Bustling start to 13th edition of Hyderabad Lit Fest

After two years of online and mixed format events, Hyderabad Literary Festival got off to a bustling start with hundreds of people packing various venues at Vidyaranya School.

“The day is not far off when Hyderabad Lit Fest will be spoken on the same breath as Jaipur Literary Festival. There is so much variety here, the quality of participation and activities have improved. The calibre of authors is getting better by the day,” said Jayesh Ranjan, the Chair of the organising committee of the festival.

“The two-year break from in-person interaction showed us the possibilities of digital world. While the bonding and camaraderie was missed, digital proved to be useful interaction. We are turning this idea to help the digital library movement by collaborating with Digital Empowerment Foundation,” said Mr. Ranjan, also the IT Principal Secretary of Telangana.

“The three-day 13th edition of Hyderabad Literary Festival has 13 streams of activities, 150 events and 14 exhibitions. We are a consciously inclusive festival and want to amplify unheard voices through various events,” said Amita Desai, one of the organisers of the event.

German Deputy Chief of Mission Stephan Grabherr recalled International Day of Holocaust marked on January 27, the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. “Reading books helps us to better understand other people. We can learn different languages and different experiences. But literature and books do not make us immune from going into a dark zone. Books also promote hate speech. We know from history what it means as we fell on one of the darkest chapters of our history,” said Mr. Grabherr.

Germany is the guest nation at this year’s Lit Fest, while Konkani is the Indian language in focus.

“Translations are the key to unlock the repositories of Indian regional languages. While a language may have rich literature unless there are translations, people don’t become aware of it,” said Jnanpith Award winner Damodar Mauzo while speaking about Konkani language and its rich heritage.