Home Dehradun Day 2 of DLF enthralls literature lovers

Day 2 of DLF enthralls literature lovers

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By Our Staff Reporter

Dehradun, 2 Apr: The second day of the 4th edition of the Dehradun Literature Festival was held at Doon International School, Riverside Campus, here, today. The festival witnessed sessions from renowned panelists including Imtiaz Ali, Prahlad Kakkar, Piyush Panday, and Jonathan Gill Harris, among many more.
The highlight of day two of the literature festival was an intriguing session with the renowned Film Director, Imtiaz Ali. He was in conversation with Richa Anirudh. On the occasion the screening of the musical film, ‘Jeena Abhi Baki Hai’, by Imtiaz Ali, Samarant Virmani, Varun Gupta, Sudip Mukherjee also took place.
Addressing the audience, Imtiaz said, “When I was in Jamshedpur, I used to feel more international but now, when I am in Mumbai and when I roam around places, I feel more like belonging to a small town. People like us who are from small towns are very lucky. We have greater needs and thus we dream big. We get to meet people who are not familiar with us. And the more people you meet and the more places you visit, the richer you become.”
Imtiaz added, “I used to sit quietly in class, looking at the faces of my teachers, but couldn’t understand a thing. I failed in class 9. After failing, I used to be embarrassed while going to school and stood outside the school gate for 4 days. This failure opened my mind. I eventually mastered the subjects I used to fear earlier, like physics, chemistry, and maths. Another mantra that I live by is that I usually don’t get disappointed if something bad or negative happens to me. This is because I know that, in the end, I’ll surely achieve something productive out of it.”

‘Masala Shakespeare’.

Another interesting session, titled ‘Changing Face of Advertising’, was held wherein Advertising Professional Piyush Panday was in conversation with Ad Film Director Prahlad Kakkar. The session was moderated by well-known publisher Milee Ashwarya.
Commenting on the gender diversity in advertising, Prahlad Kakkar said, “Advertising has been the only profession where females used to be paid more than men. They are born with natural aesthetics and are good at multitasking. While the other hand, men have huge issues with ego.”

The second day commenced with a session titled ‘Everyone has a myth to tell’ wherein Akshat Gupta and Mini Bhardwaj were in conversation with Mrigank Pandey. Akshat Gupta has written five film scripts and is author of the forthcoming book, ‘The Hidden Hindu.’
During the session, Akshat said, “I named my book ‘The Hidden Hindu’ about a Hindu who was hiding among us for thousands of years and has witnessed Ramayana and Mahabharata, personally. Writing this book was a lifetime experience and nothing else ever will match it for me as I thought and started writing when the time of my life seemed to be ending. This book and the thought of this story have brought me out of the worst phase of my life, finally literally saving me.”
Simultaneously, a session on ‘Stories are the bridge to Art & Culture’ was held between Arati Sunawala, Anjana Basu and Nayanika Mahtani. The session was moderated by Chetan Vohra.
The second day of DLF witnessed several sessions on Hindi Literature. The first session titled ‘Un Dino & Chand Mulakate par Charcha’ by the famous author, Madan Sharma, was held in which he was in conversation with Dinesh Chandra Joshi. Later, a session on ‘Chakri Chaturang’ was also held wherein Lalit Mohan Rayal was in conversation with Manoj Pandey. On the occasion, a book titled ‘Kuch Kehna Tha Tumse’ by Ranvir Singh Chauhan was also launched.
A session was also held between Ranvir Singh Chauhan, Sanjay Abhigyan, and Dr Krishan Avtar and was moderated by Atul Pundir. During the session, it was discussed that Poetry and Nazm are not written with any thought. Whatever is happening at a particular time, the feeling and the words automatically come, and the vision to see things is created.
Other sessions dedicated to Hindi Literature were held with authors Jiten Thakur, Sanjeev Jain, Srikant Sharma, Subhash Pant, and Dr Rajesh Pal.
Later in the day, an interesting session for career enthusiasts titled ‘Careers of the Future’ was held. The session was conducted by Richa Dwivedi, Vasu Eda, Ankit Gupta, and Rahul Narvekar. It was moderated by Swarleen Kaur. During the session, Ankit talked about the future trending career options. He said, “The successful career will be one where one is able to find a unique talent, and understand how he/she can contribute to society with this talent. Technology has leveled the field for access to knowledge and gives all the tools to connect with knowledge. Careers that are more technologically inclined such as YouTube Influencers, etc., are some of the trending options in career.”
Another session ‘On the trail of Buddha & Land of Gods’ was conducted by Deepankar Aron and Arjun Kadian. The same was moderated by Anisha Gupta.
An intriguing session titled, ‘Masala Shakespeare’, was held in which Jonathan Gill Harris was in conversation with Siddharth Jain. The session was moderated by Yogesh Kumar. During the session, Jonathan said, “To the Indian mind, Shakespeare might seem alien, but the Bard shares several commonalities with mainstream Hindi cinema as it is commonly known. With a flair for drama, doomed love, tragic heroes, and a tendency to affirm dominant social narratives, Shakespeare’s works could even be seen as a precursor to our Hindi film industry. If Shakespeare was alive today, he would be writing for mixed cinema and not Hollywood or Bollywood.”
Later, sessions on ‘Curiosity in the Classroom’ by Vishwas Parchure and Ashish Jaiswal and “Alternative Education’ by Shiv Kunal Verma, Anirudh Chakravarty, and Sana Durani were held. On the occasion, Vishwas said, “A child has around 106 questions per hour, and most of the time a student never asks a question the entire year. And that is when curiosity gets killed.”
Addressing the audience, Shiva Kunal Verma said, “Students want to learn about the 1962 war, about their country, but we are not working on that audience. We are trying to break the classroom into a very wide spectrum of education. I believe we are not giving our children what they need to learn.”
A session by the first war-disabled officer of the Indian Army to command a battalion and a brigade, Major General Ian Cardozo was held, in which he was in conversation with Rachna Bisht. The session was moderated by Gurveen Chadha.
Ian during his session said, “Taking up a job and going to and coming back from the same office daily didn’t really look appealing to me. So I planned on joining the armed forces. In the army, we were told that fear very much exists but our job in the army is to conquer fear. As fear is contagious, if you are afraid, your men will be afraid.”
Ian Cardozo’s book is an anecdotal narration of stories by those who witnessed the unfolding events. The book is about his personal experiences and is based on the oral and written narratives of the contributors, as well as on the historical facts and recorded interviews of the officers and soldiers.
‘Science in India’ was another session that was conducted by Hitesh Shankar and Sabreesh which was followed by a session on ‘Sex, Desire, and Court’, which was held between Saurabh Kirpal and Madhavi Menon.
A session titled ‘The Muslim Vanishes’ was held wherein Saeed Naqvi was in conversation with Abhimanyu Krishnan, a session on India @2047 was held wherein Kiran Karnik was in conversation with Subhash Garg. The session was moderated by Rakesh Nangia.
The DGP Uttarakhand Police Ashok Kumar IPS also conducted a session on ‘Human in Khaki and Khaki Mein Insan’. He was in conversation with Amit Lodha IPS. The session was moderated by Anupama Khanna.
Later in the day, a book titled ‘The Millennial Yogi’ by Deepam Chatterjee was launched. An exciting session on ‘Great Stories happen to those who can tell them’ was held wherein Actress & Poet Priya Malik was in conversation with Vishal Chaturvedi.
Towards the end of the second day of the Dehradun Literature Festival, sessions by Rachna Bisht, AVM Arjun Subramaniam (Retd), Geeta Shri, Namita Singh, Siddharth Jain, and Dr Ruby Gupta were held.