The Valley of Words literary festival has become one of the iconic events people look forward to in Doon, just like the cultural festival, Virasat. Dehradun always had the potential for a rich cultural existence, but it required vision, organisational and leadership ability to make such events happen. Originally, it had a laidback culture suited to a city favoured by retired folk. It had numerous government organisations and local communities that had infrastructure and human resources, but these limited their activities to their own purposes and the general public’s involvement was only as guests. Its famous schools organised many functions through the years ranging from sports to debates, theatre, etc., but the potential developed was harvested by the universities the students went off to for higher studies. There were scholars, writers, artists, poets, theatre folk, but these were known mostly within their own circles and confined to ‘addas’ like Tiptop, Delite, Odeon Café and a couple of others. The then municipal ‘Town Hall’ was the most favoured venue for a small but thriving theatre tradition, even though auditoriums and other infrastructure were not lacking in the numerous government institutions.
With the emergence of Doon as Uttarakhand’s capital and of state-level government organisations, coming up of numerous universities that checked the outflow of youth, industrial growth and job opportunities, and the development of local identity, there is a cohesion of interests and proportionate growth in size.
What was greatly lacking in the past was the necessary sponsorship, which limited the expansion of such activity. Now, however, corporations have been persuaded to back these initiatives under CSR at the local level. Even so, it needed individuals to identify the opportunities, with the skill to put all the necessary elements together. Virasat emerged from the experience local activists obtained from the SPIC-MACAY initiative, with Lokesh Ohri and his team creating what may well prove to be a lasting institution.
Similarly, Valley of Words, envisaged by Dr Sanjeev Chopra and his cohorts, has been developed quite imaginatively, having added new dimensions during its brief seven years of existence. While mainstream languages like English and Hindi have been the focus, there is a gradual outreach to the regional ones. Maintaining a balance between the local and national will be a challenge, as the involvement of Dehradun’s literary stalwarts is not yet very visible, both in terms of the creators and the ‘rasiks’. However, whatever the direction the initiative takes in the future, it definitely augurs well for the city and the state.
