‘The New Indian Express’ Group is all set to host the Odisha Literary Festival (OLF) 2012 here on October 5 and 6. The two-day event, first of its kind in the State, will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The festival will see convergence of top writers, poets, film-makers, politicians and spiritual leaders to involve and engage themselves in furtherance and enrichment of literature in the country as well as the State.
The festival would feature talks, discussions, book readings and debates on a wide range of subjects from mythology, feminism and children’s writing, translation, poetry, religious writings, politics and films, etc.
Celebrated literary personalities like Ruskin Bond, Amish Tripathi of ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ fame, poet Sudeep Sen, feminist writer Jaishree Mishra, translator Arunava Sinha and Palash Mehrotra along with Odia litterateurs Sitakanta Mohapatra, Soubhagya Mishra, Paramita Satpathy, Yashodhara Mishra and Bikram Das would attend the festival.
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev will deliver a talk on religious writings in his inimitable style, while Ruskin Bond is all set to hold a special storytelling session for kids.
Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid will also take part in the festival engaging himself in a conversation on “Ideological Literature” with academic and international relations expert Prof Pushpesh Pant.
Eminent filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj will engage with Nirad Mohapatra on writing for films.
Translation would be a focus area, with a special session dedicated to the importance of translation of works for not only breaking language barriers and popularising regional literature beyond their realms but also encouraging writers in vernacular languages. Noted translators Arunava Sinha and Bikram Das will take part in the session.
The festival will have an added dash of colour and spice with a special live cookery demonstration ‘Cookout’ by celebrity chef, food stylist and author of the ‘East India Kitchen’ Michael Swami, while famous playback singer Rekha Bharadwaj will perform with her troupe.