BANGALORE: Right after the Jaipur Literature Festival, it was the turn of ‘Lekhana-A Literary Weekend’ to lure poets, writers and lovers of literature. Day two of the event, organised by Sangam House in collaboration with Reading Hour, Desha Kaala and Toto Fund’s the Arts, saw many literary enthusiasts attending panel discussions and poetry readings. A three-part skit ‘Trivial Disasters’ was performed at the cafeteria of National Gallery of Modern Art.
The first panel discussion focused on ‘Translations as Conversions’ with Giriraj Kiradoo, from a bilingual journal Pratilipi, as moderator. Along with him were writers Lakshmi Holmstrom, Rahul Soni, Arshia Sattar and Vanamala Vishwanatha. The discussion focused on the need for and purpose of translated works. Lakshmi Holmstrom described the art of translating a literary work as: “A negotiation between two languages; the author and the reader, reader and the context and also between the translator
and the author.”
Madhavi Shivaprasad, a student of literature from Bangalore University, felt: “This festival fosters the rich literary culture of the city. I enjoyed the panel discussion on translations. The point they made about not having enough ‘good’ translators and the concerns of both writers and translators gave food for thought.”
The second panel discussion titled ‘Writing About Writing’ was hosted by writer Anjum Hasan. The authors mainly spoke about the art of writing book reviews. Noted writers Samhita Arni and Vivek Shanbhag, critic Sumana Mukherjee and Rahul Soni formed the panel. Vivek Shanbhag, who also works with Desha Kaala, lamented the lack of space for literary criticisms in the dailies. “Word count and space issues are the main constraints of a critic. That space must be nurtured, since many writers depend on it to further their writing skills,” he said.
‘New Writing in Kannada’ was the third panel discussion and was on contemporary literature scene in Karnataka. The session was humourous as lyricist Jayant Kaikini narrated hilarious anecdotes to get his points across. Critic S R Vijayshanakara and Raghunath from Prajavani were the other panelists for the evening. They spoke about modern Kannada literature and its liberal platform for entrants. While not many youngsters attended the discussion, even those present were not familiar with new writings in Kannada.
A discussion based on culture and the city, ‘The Culture Elephant’, was hosted by architect Naresh Narasimhan and writer S Diwakar. It gave a nostalgic, yet insightful perspective of the Garden City Bangalore.
Later, the performance ‘Trivial Disasters’ by Harami theatre saw some fine acting by Vinod Ravindran, Fizz and Rebecca Spurgeon. Written and directed by Ajay Krishnan, it possessed a strong script and entertained the audience. Among the many poetry readings, Joshua Muyiwa, Deepika Arwind, Mounesh Badiger, Indira Chandrashekhar and others participated.