“Confluence of Creativity” was the theme of this year’s spring edition of “Literati” that was organised at the UT State Guest House on Saturday.
The day-long festival got underway with lighting of lamp by Sumita Misra, chairperson, Chandigarh Literary Society and festival director.
Sakoon Singh, author of “In the Land of Lovers” and Gurpartap Khairah, author of “How Dinkar Lost His Job and Found a Life”, in a session moderated by Sunaina Jain, traced the trajectory of their creative journeys, and shared their thoughts on the craft and nuances of writing fiction.
A former Indian Foreign Service officer Lakshmi Murdeshwari Puri, who is wife of Union minister Hardip Singh Puri, engaged the audiences with an unfolding of layers enveloping her novel “Swallowing the Sun”.
Mukul Kumar, a senior bureaucrat and an author, who was in conversation with Aditya Rattan, explored the bylanes of love as the session centred on Mukul Kumar’s novel “Lost in the Love Maze (2023)”.
As the authors connected and conversed on diverse topics, the literary flavour of the fest regaled the audience. Priyam Gandhi, author of three best-selling political non-fiction books, and Gaurav Gala, author of “Awakening the Blue Tigers: India’s Quest for Football’s Holy Grail (2022)” led an interesting discussion on the nuances of sporting activities.
Jairam Menon, author of “Masala Chai for the Soul”, in conversation with Deviyani Singh, added spice and flavour to the fest with observations on the quirks of human nature.
Suhail Mathur and Affan Yesvi, in conversation with Vani Kaushal, deliberated on the quintessential elements required in turning a book into a bestseller.
Sonia Chauhan moderated a session with Deep Halder, who shared the hitherto less explored facet of what it meant to be a Hindu in Bangladesh as portrayed in his book “Being Hindu in Bangladesh: The Untold Story”.
For the poetry lovers, the fest hosted interactive discussions with Amitabha Bagchi, who has translated the ghazals of Muneer Niazi from Urdu to English under the title “Lost Paradise (Juggernaut 2022)”. To complement Bagchi, Nirupama Dutt, a poet, columnist and translator of Gulzar’s anthology of poetry, was on the panel, in conversation with another accomplished translator Shayda Bano.
The discussions also revolved around the personal journeys of authors as Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President of India Pranab Mukherjee and author of “My Father: A Daughter Remembers (2024)”, paid homage to her father, in a session moderated by Manraj Grewal Sharma, resident editor, Indian Express, Chandigarh.
The event also featured book releases. The French translation of Sumita Misra’s poetic gem “Lamhon ki Shabnam” was released as “La Rosee du Temps”. The audience also welcomed the release of Punjabi book “Hazir Ghairhazir”, written by Lakhvinder Singh Johal.
