The Kumaon literary fest, the country's first destination and retreat festival, is going to be organised in a small village in Dhanachuli for its first edition. R Sharma speaks to its founder Sumant Batra at the curtain raiser
For a nature lover, heading to the mountains is not only an escape from the monotony of city life, rather, it is a visual and relaxing retreat with the cold breeze in the air, sipping a coffee while witnessing the serenity of the nature. The flicker of campfire in a distant village in Uttarakhand unravels the story of its own culture. Soon, the ancient temple leading to the solitary road and enchanting mountains of Dhanachuli, a serene village in the heart of the mountains, will play muse to the first edition of the Kumaon literary festival.
The five-day extravaganza which will commence from October 23 is slated to be the first of its kind. Unlike other literary fests, which are usually organised in a city, this one has chosen a village as its venue. The beautiful abode of Te Aroha in Dhanachuli will play a warm host to the first three days of the festival which will bring under one roof eminent authors, personalities from media and cinema, political commentators, thought leaders and opinion makers of the country. If one doesn’t wish to attend a particular session of the fest, the beautiful and enthralling valley has a lot to offer. One can take a solitary walk in the village, explore the rugged beauty of the mountains or sit under the open sky for as long as they want — the valley will not disappoint them.
At the curtain raiser of the festival at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, founder Sumant Batra said that in the last two days the festival will travel to Abbotsford, Nainital. “Something which has not been seen in any literary fest till date,” said Batra calling it India’s first “destination and retreat festival.” He added, “It would be as simple as moving from one venue to another, except that we will drive down and not walk. Arrangements are being made to ensure smooth transition. For those travelling, a hotel from Jim Corbett will be sending safari jeeps to create a travel experience. We will ensure a flawless movement.”
The festival is part of the larger initiative that the organisers have in mind. “KlF is a key component of Project Destination Dhanachuli. It is an initiative to develop the place into a smart village not using steel or bricks But with the help of theatre, art and culture. We aim to provide employment opportunities to the younger generation by involving them in the festival. It will create economic and other opportunities for locals while extending respect to the habitat and indigenous way of life of locals,” he informed.
With many literary festivals already making their way, we asked Batra how this one is going to be different. “It is entirely different. Unlike other festivals which take place in cities, we are organising it in a remote village. With the response that we have got, people are actually willing to travel. The fest is like going to be like an extravagant celebration — there would be trekking, stargazing with long walks in the market accompanied by food curated by chef Jalali,” he shared.
The festival aims to involve the local population in the festival with the objective of generating employment opportunities for them. Batra told us, “The local stakeholders have been involved from the start. We have held dialogue with locals and have a substantial part of agenda dedicated to them. We also have illustrious authors and speakers from the region and are inviting local school and college children to attend the festival.”
Not only this, the local hotel owners will also organise a music festival on one day and another day will witness performance by eminent Kumaoni ballad singer Basanto Devi. “We expect to create economic opportunities. For example, we will encourage opening of home stays in the village. The Uttarakhand Government has a project to promote home stays and we will bring their support to the village. The existing hotels around Dhanachuli will upgrade and increase capacity leading to more jobs,” the founder added.
The festival also has a strong prominence of women participation — right from the core team to the speakers and authors — at the fest. The festival is also in partnership with UN’s He for She programme which aims to bring gender equality in the society. Rebecca Reichmann Tavares, representative, UN Women’s Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri lanka said, “Indian women are the pioneers of literature in India. These are the stories of women and at this fest; we will provide a platform to their stories.”
“We all know, nature has always been the inspiration for a lot of writers but, there has been a steady decline by writers in taking nature as the central point of the their writing,” said Sujata Prashar, an author. Keeping this in mind, another project called Fellow for Nature was launched by director, French Institute in India, Parashar, and Siddhartha Gigoo, Asia winner of Commonwealth Short Story Award 2015. As part of the project, they will encourage the youth to write on nature and make it a focus of their writing. They will form a community of nature writers and ask for entries to submit their short stories on the topic, nature and the connection between nature and humans. An award would be also be given to the best short story.
To make the fest more convenient and user-friendly, a mobile application called K-lit app was also launched at the curtain raiser. The app will provide all the information one needs to know about the fest.