Assam & Pakistani writers to be highlight of 4th Goa Lit Fest
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 02 December 2013 21:01 IST
Damodar Mauzo and Nandini Sahay addressing the media
Groups of artists and writers from Assam and Pakistan is going to be a major highlight of the fourth Goa Art and Literary Festival, beginning from 5 November at International Centre Goa.
“North East is the main focus of our Festival this year”, said Nandini Sahay, director of the ICG.
Almost 25 artists and writers from Assam, including a performing troupe of 12 monks, are attending the GALF this year.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi may also attend the inaugural ceremony, said Sahay.
The Assam delegation includes senior writers Sanjoy Hazarika and Mitra Phukan as well as the dynamic artists of Desire Machine Collective, who represented Indian at Venice Biennale.
The troupe of 12 monks from Uttar Kamalabari Satari in Majuli Island is expected to perform its newly innovated cultural performance.
A special session on “Assam’s multiple dilemmas” will be held on 7 November at 10 am, to be chaired by senior writer Hazarika.
Janhavi Barua, Dhurba Hazarika, Neelam Dutta and Sri Sri Janardhan Dev Goswami will participate in this panel discussion, throwing light on Assam’s literary and cultural traditions.
Damodar Mauzo, whose Goa Writers’ Group has collaborated with the ICG to hold the GALF, said the Pakistani delegation of young writers would also be another major attraction of the festival.
The delegation is led by Cyril Almeida, a Pakistani of Goan origin and senior editor of Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn, will be visiting his ancestral home for the first time.
The GALF plans to rekindle the state’s centuries-old ties to Karachi and its literary culture.
Gulzar, another Pak-born great Indian poet and filmmaker, as well as K Satchitanand, the veteran Malayalam poet, will be among the literary luminaries attending the Lit Fest this year.
Equally prominent who are attending the Lit Fest this year are Eunice de Souza, Keki Daruwalla, Gieve Patel, A K Mehrotra as well as young exemplars like Meena Kandasamy and Ranjit Hoskote.
The inaugural ceremony, to be held at Kala Academy in Panaji on 5 November, will have three key note addresses this year, by A K Mehrotra, Mitra Phukan and Meera Kosambi.
Kosambi’s new book ‘Unsettling the Past: D D Kosambi’, on her father, will be released at the inaugural ceremony, besides Mauzo’s English translation of ‘Tsunami Simon’ by Gulzar.
The Lit Fest will be inaugurated by Goa governor Bharat Vir Wanchoo, who will also host a sunset poetry session at Raj Bhavan on 7 November, at the Cabo beach.
