By Arun Pratap Singh
Garhwal Post Bureau
DEHRADUN, 3 Aug: The Festival Director of Valley of Words International Literature & Arts Festival Dr Sanjeev Chopra disclosed today in an exclusive interview with the Garhwal Post that the Arunachal Chief Minister will inaugurate, Vandana Shiva will deliver the keynote and Arif Mohammad Khan will deliver the valedictory address at the tenth edition of VoW from November 27-29 this year at the Madhuban Hotel, Rajpur Road, Dehradun. The festival will also offer tribute sessions to Hugh and Colleen Gantzer and Satish Aikant, columnists for the Garhwal Post, who have actively engaged with past editions of VoW through their writings and suggestions regarding session curation.
This year’s edition is called DASHAM to mark the tenth year of this Dehradun based pan India festival of literature and the Arts. Garhwal Post readers will recall that the Dasham logo and website was launched by Union Minister for Petroleum Hardeep Singh Puri on 15th December last year, and as in previous editions ONGC has extended support to this iconic festival.
While the names of the eight award winning authors will be announced in the first week of September after the deliberations of the jury, other programme highlights include the Tri City exhibition on Dehradun, Haridwar and Rishikesh in collaboration with INTACH Dehradun and the Rotary International District 3080.
The theme for the Thanos session on intergenerational dialogues has been finalized. This will feature a conversation between travel writer Shivya Nath and Vicky Rawat, the head of the co-operatives for eco-friendly homestays. The second session of Thanos will look at Doon’s food entrepreneurs and will cover both street foods and cuisines in speciality dining spaces.
One interesting session, curated by Kulbhushan Kain is called ‘Across the Boards’. Dehradun is unique because schools in this district are affiliated with the widest possible range of boards: the CBSE, the ICSE, Uttarakhand Board, National Institute of Open School, the Madrasa (now Minority education Board), the International Baccalaureate (IB ) and the UK based General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). This will have educators from different streams looking at the alignment of syllabi and pedagogy with the recently announced NEP.
The militray history sessions have also been annoucned. These will include a conversation- Shooting Straight – between the Dehradun based Lt Gen Rostum Kaikhushru Nanavatty (Retd) and his biographer Arjun Subramanian. Another session will feature dialogues, or their absence between the military and political leadership in the country. This will be curated by Probol Dasguptam, the author of Brasstacks – the biograhy of Gen Krishnaswamy Sundarji. Lt Gen PJS Pannu will be discussing India’s preparedness for enagegments in the world of space.
The poetry session is a tribute to Shiv Batalvi on his 90th anniversary. Poets in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi will read his, and their own verses on the themes of unrequited love and longing. The Sahitya Akademi will support this session.
Dr Chopra also mentioned that the first knowledge vertical on Hindi – Sahitya Sprha – is being organized at Welham Girls’ School on the 22nd and 23rd of August which will feature all the shortlisted authors in Hindi. Students will get an opportunity to interact with some of the leading names in the genres of fiction, contemporary writings, translations and writings for young adults.
