A festival to celebrate south Indian literature will be held at Bangalore International Centre this weekend.
A one-day event, Aakhar Dakshin: A Festival of South Indian Languages festival is being organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation. The Kolkata-based nonprofit trust works towards socio-cultural welfare and humanitarian causes.
Though the foundation has organised many literature festivals, this is the first one dedicated to south Indian languages. It will bring many thinkers, writers, poets, artists, and cultural enthusiasts together. Some of them include Damodar Mauzo, KR Meera, K Satchidanandan, Perumal Murugan, Prathibha Nandakumar, Vasudhendra, and Kannan Sundaram.
Chandrashekara Kambara, former president of Sahitya Akademi, will inaugurate the festival.
Poetry reading sessions by Mamta Sagar, Prathibha Nandakumar, Ramesh Karthik Nayak and Syam Sudhakar are scheduled. Singer Karuna Sivasailam will perform a rendition of ‘Tiruppugazh & Tiruppavai’. Yamini Reddy and Shinjini Kulkarni will deliver a dance piece. Shilpa Mudbi and the troupe Urban Folk Project will put on a concert of folk songs.
Shinie Antony, curator of the festival, says, “Books in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Konkani will be discussed. Writers who have been widely translated are coming (to the festival). Most of the speakers are bilingual.”
South Indian languages are an integral part of the national fabric and merit a showcasing of their own. Shinie explains why, “There is a tendency to lump all languages of the south into one large category, which is unfair. This festival is an attempt to show the richness and depth of each language in this region and its literature.”
To RSVP for the event and look up details, visit bangaloreinternationalcentre. org/event/aakhar-dakshin
Aakhar Dakshin on April 22, 10 am to 7.30 pm, Bangalore International Centre, Domlur.