The 12th edition of the city’s annual landmark event, Hyderabad Literary Festival, was off to a subdued start this year too, owing to the pandemic protocol.
Being held online, the festival was launched on Friday, with inaugural addresses from the Principal Secretary, Industry, Commerce and IT Jayesh Ranjan, and Director, Arts, India, British Council, Jonathan Kennedy, telecasted on online platform.
An indisposed Mr.Jayesh Ranjan, speaking live online, appreciated the efforts of the organisers in ensuring that the online event is nothing short of the physical one, in terms of the array of authors and speakers.
Hyderabad Literary Festival has become a very important national event in a short period, as vouched by the number of footfalls each year, he noted, and said the intimate character of the festival with shared moments between the speakers, authors and audience without barriers attracted literary buffs from outside the city too.
This year, the festival is partnered by the British Council and has Punjabi as the ‘regional language of focus’. Mr .Jayesh Ranjan acknowledged the ties between United Kingdom and Hyderabad dating back to before colonial period, and also sizeable presence of Punjabi diaspora in parts of Hyderabad and Karimnagar.
He paid tributes to Ajay Gandhi, one of the founding members of the HLF, who passed away recently and to whom the festival is dedicated this year.
Mr. Kennedy, who could not be present for the event online, sent a recorded message in which he expressed delight to partner the event, and said love for literature and avid curiosity to write stories have joined generations of people across India and UK. More than 10 writers from UK are participating in the event this year, he noted and appreciated the inclusion of under-represented communities such as LGBTQI.
He also urged people to subscribe to the platform ‘Festivals from India’ to be launched by the British Council in March this year, which is aimed to build bridges between festivals across India and UK.
Organisers of the festival informed that literary sessions - including poetry and storytelling, various workshops, children’s corners, films and exhibitions have been organised as part of the festival.
Musician T.M. Krishna, photographer Raghu Roy, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee are a few of the illuminati to grace the festival which will also feature an audience interactive play which will be available only live. Workshops will be available on the Zoom for those registered, while films are open to view while the festival is on.
Mr. Jayesh Ranjan inaugurated the film section, while noted writer and journalist C. Rammanohar Reddy launched the exhibition section.
