KOCHI: At a time when debates are under threat of vanishing, there is a need to bring them back to our social life, said poet, critic and former secretary of Sahitya Akademi K Satchidanandan. “It is an age where the space for open cultural debates is shrinking and freedom of expression is facing challenges. Even writers are afraid of writing stories and poems with freedom. In such difficult times, literary festivals like Krithi offer space for fearless and free ideological debates,” he said while speaking at the inaugural session of Krithi Literary Festival at the Marine Drive here on Tuesday.
He said the most important aim of literary festivals is to facilitate discussions on contemporary literary and social situations. Such discussions will strengthen democratic values. Literary festivals provide opportunity to reduce the distance between books and readers. It also offers a space for the readers to meet the writers and interact with them, said Satchidanandan.
Writer and film director C Radhakrishnan urged the lovers of literature to enjoy the literary festival as the last literary feast. “I am afraid the social atmosphere to conduct such literary festival may be lost in near future. Considering the circumstances in contemporary India, there is a fear that people who think such debates are unnecessary may assume power in near future. So we should enjoy this literary fest as the last feast,” he said.
Congratulating the organisers, Radhakrishnan said it is the first time he has come across such a neatly organised book festival. “I don’t usually attend literary festivals as they are said to be organised to promote the interests of sponsors. Keralites spend the biggest share of their income to purchase books. People in no other part of the country purchase English books like Keralites.
It is an example of the literary taste of Malayalees,” said Radhakrishnan. Writer and critic M Leelavathi, who released the festival book stressed on the need to promote literary criticism and informative literature among the book lovers.
The government should initiate steps to promote literary criticism. He remembered the contributions of former Cooperation Minister G Sudhakaran in reviving the Sahitya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society at a time when the society was in financial crisis.
Lauding the organisers for making crow the logo of the festival she said the bird that announces the arrival of dawn and rouse people from sleep is the right symbol that can awaken people from the darkness of ignorance to the light of wisdom.
Word is God: Kiran Nagarkar
I came here to remind you of the Biblical verse ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,’ said Marathi and English writer Kiran Nagarkar, who inaugurated Krithi Literary Festival.
“For the writer word is the God. I am a person who studied my mother tongue only till Class IV and continued my studies in English. Though my links with my mother tongue was cut when I was a child, I wrote my first novel in my mother tongue. India is blessed with a wealth of languages and each one of us should learn at least four languages,” he said.
Literature Across Frontiers director and editor Alexandra Buchler, historian and writer Rajan Gurukal and others spoke on the occasion. SPCS president Ezhacheri Ramachandran presided over the function. Kerala Sahitya Akademi president Vaisakhan welcomed the gathering.
Satchidanandan visits Express stall
Writer and former secretary of Sahitya Akademi K Satchidanandan visited The New Indian Express stall at Krithi International Book Festival on Tuesday. He appreciated the Express Group’s endeavour to promote the culture of reading and wished all success.