Literature fest a treat to Mysureans, with discussions ranging from AI to environment conservation

Mysuru: Over thousand people of all age groups from all cross sections of society, pulled out time and made their ways to the two day Mysuru Literature Festival which began at Hotel Southern Star in Mysuru on Saturday.

The fest is packed with over 30 sessions, with participation of about 90 luminaries from various fields. On the first day, people enjoyed discussion on varied topics from tips to write, publish books to discussions on topics which ranged from food, taste, culture, movie to environment conservation and more.

Rajesh Ramachander and Dr Navin Patel spoke on 'AI Ecosystem'. They discussed if Super intelligence would replace humans. They felt that AI is a set of patterns. It cannot replace humans as it lacks will or soul or conscience, emotional, social, environmental intelligence. One has to embrace and adopt it as a craft and exploit the technology to do better. They discussed 'AI in the creative world' and felt that it will help structure sentences of a story better, make its flow better, tell history as a story. They spoke on the challenge of protecting intellectual property rights, and the need to keep it updated with the latest regulations. They discussed if AI would rob jobs, and felt that it might create more jobs. AI is playing a significant role in proactive accurate diagnosis in understanding reports. Applications of AI are immense, they help assess anomalies, prevent frauds; assess demand forecasts in the market in business. But they cannot resolve unseen problems like humans, they felt.

Actor, Director, Environmentalist Suresh Heblikar felt that, at a time when the world is facing the crisis of global warming, climate change, the Cinema and Literature must be used to develop love for the environment and towards conserving them. Shashidhara Haaladi felt that it is not about conserving the environment only in Western Ghats or Sahyadri but conserving it everywhere around us, he said.

During a conversation between Aroon Raman, writer Ashwin Sanghi gave tips on writing and publishing books. He said, one should write every day, maintain an idea bank. One can succeed with hard work, efficiency and talent. His books focused on 70% entertainment, 20% education, 10% on enlightenment. They shouldn't quit their jobs to take up writing unless they are established. Once they are recognised, they should keep their feet on ground, be grateful and humble, he suggested.

Meanwhile, Shanthanu Ray Chaudhuri, Maithili Rao and Balaji Vital, sat back and recalled Hindi movies, songs and stars of 1970s and felt, multiplexs and OTT platforms are only a process of development, but cinemas and the element of family in cinemas will always be there.

Shoba Narayan, Zac O' Yeah, Monika Monalisa discussed about food culture, dwelt on Masala dosa to Aloo Bonda. They highlighted how Prasada (be it Rasam of Dharmasthala or Payasa of temples in Kerala) is an indicator of different culture and authentic taste as they use indigenous vegetables. Zac also explained the challenge of tasting food as a travel writer, over his health. Khader Valli highlighted the importance of millets for sustainable healthy living.

After all the sessions, at the end of the day they enjoyed the play 'Kannada Kavya Kanaja', presented by actor and founder of 'Natana' Mandya Ramesh and his team.

People posed for pics with Authors and took their autographs at the Authors' corner. They even shopped books, desi board games, and enjoyed muffins, rolls and other food items.