That
is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are
universal longing, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”~F.Scott.Fitzgerald
Being a bibliophile and an ardent literature lover, I
wait for the #TataSteelKalam Kolkata Literary Meet every year to listen to my
favorite authors, discover new books and attend interesting sessions. This
year, the Kolkata Literary Meet was a 5 day literary festival from 25th
January to 29th January at the Victoria Memorial Hall. The festival
was inaugurated by acclaimed novelist, Anita Desai.
The literary sessions were hosted at the two venues
of Victoria Memorial Hall – Son-et-Lumiere and Western Quadrangle. Some of the
sessions of Tata Steel Kalam also took place at the Calcutta Club. Over 130
celebrated authors, filmmakers and thinkers from various countries assembled at
the literary festival to share their thoughts and views.
I went to the Kolkata Literary Meet three days and
attended some enriching sessions. On January 26th, I was fortunate to attend
one of my favorite authors, Ruskin Bond’s session “Thrills and Spills” where
Ruskin Bond discussed why hills are the perfect setting for murders and
mystery. It was a great experience when Ruskin Bond read one of the stories from his latest book “Death under the
deodars”.
It was an amazing session, especially when the
audience was given the chance to ask him questions. I asked him about one of
his short stories, “The Night train at Deoli” and was overjoyed when he
answered me. After his session, the audience was told that Ruskin Bond would be
signing books at the author’s lounge. Finally, I got the opportunity to have a
signed copy and meet my favorite author personally.
On January 27th, I attended the session “Acts of
Faith” where Javed Akhtar, Tabish Khair, Mudar Patherya and Shazia Omar discussed about the challenges of Islamophobia, stereotypes and
radicalization. It was a very
enriching session and I especially loved hearing Javed Akhtar whose views were
refined and powerful.
Then, I attended the next session “Pink and the
power of No” where Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Andrea Tariang and Ritesh Shah
spoke about the importance of the movie “Pink”. They were in conversation with
author, Kunal Basu. It was a very engaging session where the audience asked
plenty of questions to the director about the movie and the change it brought
in the mindset of people.
I also went to the festival on the final day, 29th
January. I attended the Children’s Literary Meet Special with Indian sports’
golden boy, Abhinav Bindra and Joybeer Dutta Gupta. The Olympic gold medalist in shooting talked about
his journey, his failures and success. It was very motivating when he spoke about the importance of
dreams in the life of every person. He said that hard work and persistence are
the only way to success. When someone from the audience asked him about the role of his parents, he said that his parents supported and encouraged him whenever he had failures and felt like giving up.
I enjoyed the session “Make up your mind” where
Nandana Sen and Nabaneeta Dev Sen read poetry from their latest book “Make up
your mind”. The award winning poet, Nabaneeta Dev Sen spoke about Nandana’s
translations of her poetry. It was a sheer treat to see the mother and daughter
bond on poetry. Overall, I had a great time at the #TataSteelKalam Kolkata Literary
Festival. At the end of the festival, my literary appetite is well satiated with
new books to read.
It is wonderful to see that Tata recognizes the role
of literature and is contributing so much to secure the literature culture in
Kolkata. The Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet brings the literary stalwarts
from all corners of the world. It gives people a forum to speak their mind and
interact with the authors. It encourages the lovers of literature to explore
the world of ideas and words without any hesitation. The people of Kolkata look
forward to the Kolkata Literary Meet every winter as it gives them the chance
to rediscover or rather “readiscover” books.
