Renowned authors and litterateurs from country including Ruskin Bond would be in Ranchi for the Jharkhand Literary Meet (JLM) to be held at Audrey House on December 8 and 9, said vice president of Corporate Services TATA Steel Chankaya Choudhary on Thursday.

Addressing the media persons he said, “After the resounding success of first Tata Steel’s JLM in 2017, the coming event would see participation from eminent writers and personalities including Ruskin Bond, Uday Prakash, Mahadev Toppo, Alok Rai and Rekha Bhardwaj”.

He said that Ruskin Bond, the author practically every English-speaking child in India has grown up reading, will be present for two sessions – one of which will be on the Bollywood adaptations of his stories.

Speaking on the occasion, Chanakya Chaudhary said; “We initiated the first JLM with the belief that a culturally rich region such as Jharkhand must have its own festival celebrating literature and allied cultural pursuits including dance, music, recitation, cinema and theatrical performances. The focus has been to engage premier authors, speakers and performance artists from the region and across India.”

She added, “It was our privilege and pleasure to have hosted, in the very first year itself, eminent writers and personalities such as Ashok Vajpeyi, Mark Tully, and Sharmila Tagore, among others. We hope to make the JLM an integral part of Ranchi cultural canvas as well as the region’s premier literary event”; he added.

Festival Director Malavika Banerjee said; “We are privileged to have iconic author Ruskin Bond to inaugurate and be a part of JLM 2018, especially as this his first-ever visit to Ranchi. Uday Prakash, one of the stalwarts of modern Hindi literature, is another author we are privileged to bring to JLM 2018”

Banerjee also said authors from the region who are making a mark on the country’s literary scene, such as Mahadev Toppo, Mohua Maji and Anuj Lugun wouldalso be among the participants. “This is part of our continued, strong focus on making the meet a balance between writing from the region and elsewhere,” she added.

A curtain-raiser of the event has also been planned at Jamshedpur on December 7, featuring Bond, who would flag off the Tata Steel Literary Meet Season, which includes ‘Kalam’, the Kolkata Literary Meet, and the ‘Bhubaneswar Literary Meet’.

Rekha Bhardwaj’s performance will be another major highlight of the festival. The National Award winning singer would surely be a perfect fit for the Jharkhand Literary Meet, not only because of her reputation as a powerhouse performer but also because of her known interest in Hindi and Urdu literature. A session on S.D Burman’s music, as explored in an award-winning book, would be an added draw for music-lovers. For the millennials, a session on the advent and mass popularity of web-streamed content aided by platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime will be discussed with the cast of ‘Mirzapur’ (an Amazon Prime original).

A stand-up comedy performance by renowned comic and writer Sorabh Pant and a musical tribute to Begum Akhtar will round up the offerings at JLM 2018.