Bhopal: Colourful start to 4th chapter of Bhopal Literature, Art Fest

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The fourth edition of Bhopal Literature Festival, Knowledge Kumbh, began at Ravindra Bhawan in Bhopal on Friday.

The inaugural session saw the launching of four new books of different authors and the unveiling of a painting by Padma Shri Bhuri Bai. Former chief election commissioner SY Qureshi, senior journalist Uday Mahurkar, director culture Aditi Tripathi, senior journalist Abhilash Khandekar, art historian Meera Das and former IAS officer and director of BLF Raghav Chandra were present at the inaugural function.

The guests of honour felicitated those writers whose books were launched with the painting of Bhuri Bai.

Those feted were Ambreen Zaidi (The Warrior Widow), Dr HS Pabla (Laws at War), Abhilash Khandekar (The Scindia Legacy) and Pradeep Kapoor (The Honeymoon).

Chandra said, “Bhopal is emerging as Knowledge City and events like Bhopal Literature Festival provide a platform to scale not only Bhopal but also Madhya Pradesh at international heights.”

Youth are more engaged with social media and refrain from reading books, he said.

An event like BLF inculcates reading and writing habits among the youth. Sessions were being organised simultaneously at two galleries of Bharat Bhawan: Antarang and Vagarth.

The first session held at Vagarth gallery was titled ‘To Be or Not to Be, Disappearing Livelihoods, Aparna Karthikeyan in conversation with Dr Madhu Verma’.

Aparna Karthikeyan, who wrote ‘Rs 9 an hour’, discussed with the audience about how she came up with the title of the book.

The first session held in Vagarth gallery was on Wildlife Conservation: Success or Failure. HS Pabla was in conversation with Abhilash Khandekar and Yogesh Dube.

Pabla said that in 2007 he thought of writing a book but could complete it in 2015. This book named Laws at War is the third book in the trilogy series penned by Pabla.

In the second session, held at Antarang Hetal Sonpal, author of the book 'Against All Odds', discussed about his book.

The third session held at Antarang gallery was based on Kargil martyr Lt Capt Manoj Pandey, PVC, a human story. Martyr’s classmate and chronicler Pawan Mishra was in conversation with Brig Sanjay Aggrawal.

In the fourth session, Ritu Pandey Sharma and Brijesh Rajput discussed 'Parde Ke saamne: The Art of Film Criticism. The book was based on the writings and experiences of film critic Jaiprakash Chouksey.