Bangalore Literature Festival - A feast

Shiv quoted at the end of the day; "Day starts with Gulzar saab and Prasoon Joshi and ends with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia".... What an epic day!! Last Saturday three friends(Manju, Shiv and me) enjoyed whole day like school kids! Yes, like school kids we discussed how many books we brought, how many got signed by authors and were amazed by the knowledge flew around us on a cloudy Saturday on lawns of Crown Plaza! Every discussion was unique. About poems, about writers, about writing performing arts, about current trends and about different languages what not. There were parallel sessions going on, it was so difficult to choose between one among two..:( Manju came to my help to make me understand gulzar's poems; I got a feeling that i should learn hindi to read and understand his poems. Right after this I rushed to hear from a kannada panel. The discussion was about the works of Kuvempu, Maasti, Kaaranta and Kambaara. I knew a little about them, but to get to hear from scholars was just blissful! I met Kambara and spoke to him for few mintues..yey!

I will just mention the variety of the events organized. If I start explain about each one of them, it may take many pages. I attended few discussions, I will try to mention some of the key topics discussed. There was a discussion about literature festival itself. Do you guys know where did this literature festival come from? any guesses? Yeah, you must be thinking, this might have come from the west could be the answer! William dalrymple explained it's origin! Basava Kalyana is the answer, we started literature festivals..Isn't it a wonderful feeling :) How many of you know Beary(ಬ್ಯಾರಿ) language? There 16 lakh people speak beary language all over the world and most of them in karnataka! Along with this, the panelists spoke about Konkani, Kodava and tulu languages and their culture :)

Discussion on "Oral literary languages of Karnataka – Tulu, Kodava, Konkani and Beary"

Right after this, the big debate started. Best sellers versus literary books! Is best sellers a trend? Shobha De, Aswin Sanghi, Shashi Deshpande and Ian Jack were the panelists. The discussion was so much fun with learning. How books become best sellers and at the same time how good books survive for generations was the take away from the discussion..and you know how fun it will be when Shoba De on stage(I meant in literary sense) ;)

Energy of the festival was increased like RCB score when Gayle is batting...Here the Gayle was replaced by our own Ramachandra Guha, his topic was; Is history a literature or social science. His lecture was amazing with clear facts! It was a history class but not a boring one like our old history classes during our school days. And the best is yet to come! That was  Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia's music concert. He was accompanied by Subhankar Banerjee with tabala. We were so high with the music, believe me; no drink would have taken me into that level... Not at all possible.. Music has such a power and we were blessed to be there and to witness such a wonderful evening.

Man with content!

Event happened from September 27th to 29th in Crown plaza, electronic city. There were many best known writers visited BLF. As I could attend only one day, have capture only Saturday's experience. I must thank the organizers and volunteers. Everything was perfect. A very good place, food was amazing, book stalls and sit out area was best suited for book lovers. Thank you Vikram Sampath, Nanditha, Friends of BLF and volunteers team. And with wonderful friends, happiness increases! Manju and Shiv increased my happiness. We created wonderful memories for lifetime :) Thanks BLF! 

Volunteers; I can just say thank you! I know how difficult it is to organize such a big event :)

Crowd for Pt Hariprasad Chawrasia's Music concert!

PS: All the pictures are not mine, downloaded from facebook account of BLF, I don't know who clicked it. My sincere thanks to them.