Bangalore Literature Festival: All you need to know!

It's that time of the year again where bibliophiles across the city (and across the country too) come together to share and soak in their love for books and authors.
The seventh edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) will be held at The Lalit Ashok Lawns on October 27 and October 28, 10 am onwards. Entry to the event is free.

Like every year, speakers will reflect on new realities and topics which have struck a chord with the literati recently. This year, subjects of discussion will include the upcoming elections, fake news, #MeToo, the area of sex work and Section 377.

With the theme this year being 'Young Voices, Relevant Noises', the audience can expect many young speakers like Roanna Gonsalves, Snigdha Poonam, Aatish Taseer, Manu Pillai and Rajith Savanadasa. There will also be veterans like Shashi Tharoor, Sophie Hannah, Ramachandra Guha and Vijay Seshadri speaking during the two-day festival.

V Ravichandar from the organising team of BLF spoke to Deccan Herald about some of the highlights of this year's literature fest. He says, "It's a completely community funded event. Most of the authors tend to stay at the hotel which gives them more time to interact with each other and with the audience."
Out of the 160 programmes scheduled, there are 50 sessions just for children. The sessions have been divided between 5 to 10 years old and 11 to 15 years old in order to make the topics age appropriate.

On Saturday evening, 'Alchemy of Sounds and Strings' -- a duet of sitar and Indian cello by Pandit Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas, along with Sapan Anjaria on tabla -- will take place.
On Sunday, 'An Odyssey of Seven Notes' by saxophonist Lavanya with Rageshri Dhumal (keyboard), Shalini Mohan (bass guitar), Siddhi Shah (drums) and Soumya Sanathanan (percussion) will take place.

For the complete schedule, log on to: http://bangaloreliteraturefestival.org/year-2018/schedule/