Hyderabad Literary Festival 2018, Day 2

The second day of the HLF's 8th edition started off on a secular note. Being a Secular Muslim in India—Seema Mustafa—Chair: Ashhar Farhan, the discussion was centered around the evolution of secular muslim and what it means to be one. The speakers kept the audience engaged with their personal experiences.

Writing from the Gut, Busting Stereotypes and Rekindling the Oral Tradition: A Panorama of Children & Young Adult Writing from Spain—Alejandro Palomas, Ana Cristina Herreros, Harkaitz Cano, Maguma— moderated by Cristina Sánchez Andrad, these authors talked about the mental health in children and how writing can help. Breaking stereotypes in the literary world was another discussion along with the inspiration for contemporary literature.

Girish Kasaravalli in his session 'Films and Literature' talked about how he became successful by converting Kannada stories into films adding his own variations. He also talked about the power of pictorial representation in the world of digitalization and its impact on viewers. He ended his session stating, "The purpose of cinema is not just entertainment but it is to keep the audience engaged."

Stage Talks:

Photography by Aquin Mathews - Aquin took a journey back to the time of the inception of photography in India and traced it to how it has been evolving in the 21st century in the times of Instagram and Facebook.

The Stage is All The World by Arundhati Nag - Nag, spoke about the wonderful world of theatre that she belongs tp. During the talk, she played snippets of plays representing the various genres of plays being performed in contemporary Indian theatre, and also enacted a small snippet from Girish Karnad’s play Bikhre Bimb (Broken Images).

Introduction to Adaab-e-Paandaan—Haseeb Jafferi - A very interesting session on history - tehzeeb and keeping the culture alive. Haseeb also spoke about HPS as Paan Karcha and the role of the HPS society.

Mandeccula Katha—Kadem Sammaiah - The performers beautifully sang and danced the epic tales describing the origins and evolution of the hardy Gollas of the Deccan and the Telugu land. This was an extraordinarily vibrant and energetic form of performative story telling.

Workshops:

Story Telling Aarti Kodali (For 14 & Above) at the Tree of life was another interesting story about her great grandmother - one of the first widows to remarry. The session was very interactive and the audience took back some lessons from her original stories.

Travel Writing in the Age of Instagram - Shivaji Das was an activity based session to help participants understand travel writing. The entire session was interactive and informative.

Literature Socractic Dialogue by Tarun - the second edition of the annual inter-school Socratic Dialogue to celebrate India’s Republic Day. Students critically analyzed the philosophy of the Indian constitution.

The Shivfit Way - Being fit comes from being happy. Shivam and his team talked about the importance of mental well-being in staying fit. From kids to adults, a lot of motivated participants have taken up the quest for fitness, the Shivfit way.

Participants eagerly attended another day of Art & Music Konfluens by Keertana Bhoopal and Sahana Ramprakash where the participants were asked to draw or write anything about the 5 elements of nature and culminated into the art of making visual prints using objects and paint.

Panel: Echoes from the Hills: Writing from India's Northeast— Avner Pariat and Easterine Kire—Moderated by Vijay Kumar- Easterine spoke about the history and culture of Nagaland while Avner spoke about Shillong.

Panel: The Public Voice of Women— Kalpana Kannabiran, Laura Restrepo, Seema Mustafa— moderated by Amita Desai was a relevant and informative session talking about rape, assault and cultural differences. Real life examples were shared as a part of this panel.

Panel: When the Going Gets Tough: Stories of Valour and Courage—Nitin Sathe, Nitu Bhattacharya—Moderator: Kinnera Murthy - Nitin spoke about the steps taken to live the life of one he was writing about and real life stories about how his muse changed the lives of many people. "seeing life from airborne flying at 800 kms an hour to 8 kms an hour on a wheelchair. "Hope and resilience" says Nitu, is like half life that never extinguishes. This comes from a woman and hope still remains.

The Language Crisis in Karnataka: A Conversation—Basavaraja Kodagunti, Meti

Mallikarjun, Rajendra Chenni. The passionate speakers started the sessions with statistics, 65% of the population in Karnataka speak Kannada and 35% speak other dialects Tullu, Lambani, Konkani,etc. The talk proceeded the reasons for the language crisis in Karnataka.

True Stories of Modern Military Heroes— Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh- We have all heard stories of military heroes from 60's or earlier and no one knows of the modern heroes. Shiv and Rahul, on a mission to educate today's generation and tell them stories of modern military heroes struck the right chord with the audience of various age groups. The highlight of the session was the presence of a military hero's wife, a true modern hero.

The Journey of Cotton in India— Meena Menon, Uzramma—Moderator: Annapurna— "Even audiences who know nothing about the textile industry, found this session engaging and interesting", says Sita Pallachola. Meena and Uzramma spoke about the lack of technology in machinery in weaving domestic cotton.

Panel: Translations into English: Reason and Treason—Sherry Simon,Vanamala Viswanatha—Moderator: Chandan Gowd - The opening statement to Sherry - Is this a question-Reason or treason? Translations shouldn't end the magic with text instead, continue its journey. The speakers ended the session stating, "translating across cities is a kind of voyage of languages.

Readings (English)

Gopikrishnan Kottoor, Ravi Shankar, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Easterine Kire, Nia Davis and Rhys Trimble - Each of these writers read poems that they had written. Nia and Rhys adopted a performative way of reading their poem.

Women’s Writing and Magic Realism: Laura Restrepo, Mercedes Cebrian moderated by Uma Sridhar - "Magic realism" has fascinated many writers for decades. Laura says, "You don't have to believe in miracles, believe in reality where good things can happen."

At Nanha Nukkad, Astri Ghosh shared Stories From Across the World and Agnija Kazusa conducted a session on Meditation.

Khel Khel Mein had various competitions for the children - Debate, Poster Making Competition (topics provided) and Script Enacting Competition that had several children participating.

Sanjna Kapoor introduced Shakespeare Wallah, a movie played as a tribute to Shashi Kapoor. In her plenary, she shared anecdotes, talked about her life in the theatre in an informal and humourous manner. The audience could connect with Sanjna and many specially came to the festival to listen to this session.

Gulabi Talkies, a movie by Girish Kasaravall was played. An award-winning film, based on a short story by Vaidehi, beautifully depicts the Indian passion for cinema and the changes it brings about in a village with the arrival of the first colour TV.

A lot of enthusiastic folks participated in the Tree Walk and Heritage Walk around the magnificent heritage site, The Hyderabad Public School.

A grand evening of interludes by Promote a Concept—The Human Library, Ka se Kavita, Rise of Literati,TaleTellers Troupe India entertained the audience.

Day 2 ended with a melodic performance by Bombay Bairag Feat. Chintoo Singh Wasir, a band that swears by "music as their true passion".