HYDERABAD: Bringing the Hyderabad Literature Festival to a close, day three of the event saw the coming together of some scholarly minds, such as those of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Devdutt Patnaik, Amitava Nag and Anik Dutta.
In a session with political commentator Dr Parakala Prabhakar, economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia spoke about what pushed him to write his book - Backstage - and his time growing up in Secunderabad. “My late wife was the one who pushed me to write this book, and archive my experiences as an inside member of the government. She had told me to write it in such a way that any commoner would be able to grasp it.”
Talking about his childhood spent in Secunderabad, he said, “We used to live in a village called Karkhana and I went to a fairly middle class missionary school. I remember how vibrant Karkhana was, culturally as well as demographically, with almost equal number of Muslim and Hindu residents.”
Ahluwalia further reminisced, “I was lucky to be brought up and taught in a school where students walked to and back from school together. A minuscule percentage of students would be dropped off in cars. That is what is missing in today’s education system. The children of elite classes have never experienced what the life of an average Indian citizen feels like. They barely interact with anyone else, except for students from their own social class.”
In another session, the audience were in for a treat as Mudassir Ahmed and Syed Irshad of the city-based hip-hop group, Thugs Unit, spit bars and enthralled the audience with their first-of-a-kind Urdu rap music. Within the hip-hop community, Ahmed and Irshad are popular as ‘Mo Boucher’ and ‘Irish Boi’, respectively and pioneered the Urdu hip-hop genre in Hyderabad.
The day also showcased the rare indegenous folk art form Chekka Bommalata, a wooden-string puppetry with human-sized puppets made out of wood. This traditional art form of Telangana has a history of six generations. Mothe Shankar, 33, is trying to keep the art form alive and is part of one of the two troupes who are actively involved in Chekka Bommalata.