Something that is obvious, but not seen, presented to the society in a way mirror reflects an image is literature. Chandigarh literature Festival, commencing in November, is going to celebrate such books sans bias says Altaf Tyrewala, noted writer and critic.
The three-day Chandigarh literature Festival, 2013, will be held from November 8 to November 10. This year, it is the aim of ClF to put Chandigarh on the national literary map. This will be done by adopting a unique format for the festival. Great literature requires great criticism, to paraphrase Terry Eagleton. ClF 2013 intends to be an exercise in great criticism.
The literature festival will critic 13 books keeping in mind 2013, selected by 13 noted critic to celebrate the obvious, that Chandigarh don’t have sector-13, said Altaf. “We want ClF to have a genre of its own. Generally the attraction of any literature festival is its author, but we are going to focus on books,” he added.
The list of critics and writers are quite intriguing, and to keep it a notch apart from the stereotype, the festival will celebrate Indian writing. In an attempt to do so, Indian literature written in different languages has been accommodated, to bring forth the literary enthusiast, a treat seldom served.
To name a few, the festival will have Kiran Nagarkar’s The Extras, Siddharth Chowdhury’s Patna Rough Cut, SR Faruqui’s The Mirror of Beauty and Manohar Shyam Joshi’s The Professor. Hand picked by critiques namely Manjula Padmnabhan, Jerry Pinto, Ashok Vajpei and Giriraj Kiradoo; in serial order as the books are mentioned.
This is an attempt to celebrate Indian literature, by peeping into the kaleidoscope, celebrating life and idiosyncrasies of the post-colonial society –through the eyes of people who have lived it and observed it to that extent, when they were able to reproduce it in black and white words, said Mitul Dixit, Chairman of ADAB Foundation.
At the festival, 13 individual books, which has been nominated by 13 different critics will be dissected, analysed and read out.
A Chandigarh-based theatre group will enact passages from some of these books. In other words, these chosen books will be celebrated the way excellent books truly should.
Each literary critic will also serve as an ambassador of the book s/he nominates. Critics will present their analysis of the books and help audience members gain insight on the literary merits and demerits of the books. The critics will also engage with the books’ authors, giving readers a glimpse at the mechanics of planning and writing a book.
Madhav Kaushik, Vice-Chairman of Adab Foundation, said that the festival will include panel discussions touching upon literature, politics and society. There will be a variety of events aimed at increasing audience participation.
These will include Guess-the-Book reading sessions, art and writing competitions, and other interactive exercises.