Eighth Edition of Valley of Words takes off
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 16 Nov: The eighth edition of Valley of Words Art & Literature Festival took off to a rousing start with Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Gurmit Singh’s keynote address today. The governor’s address was delivered on virtual mode as he could not make it personally to inaugurate the two-day literature and arts festival at Hotel Madhuban here today due to other engagements.
Addressing the gathering during the inaugural session, Lt Gen Singh stated that he is very much impressed by the words VoW and the way the Valley of Words Art and Literature Festival has evolved over the years. He also congratulated the VoW team on the launch of VoWels magazine. He reminded that VoWel is a word that rhymes with Jewel and has been polished with thoughts, words, and feelings. He said that this is the eighth edition of the festival and he has been following the sessions and the evolution of the festival. He added that the digit 8 itself is a divine letter by itself. Highlighting the evolution of the festival, he reminded the audience that 50 sessions are planned with 75 authors in the festival while 12 books are lined up for launch, besides 6 exhibitions. He liberally praised the organisers as well as the volunteers at the VoW and described the event as a beautiful initiative with a distinct vibration.
Singh also praised the lead taken by VoW to link up 12 leading institutions of Dehradun with 12 schools. While the schools include Doon International School, Jaswant Modern School, KV IMA, St Kabeer Academy, Him Jyoti School, and Mount Fort Academy, the institutions to which they have been linked up include The Survey of India, National Hydrographic Office, Forest Research Institute, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Swami Ram Himalayan University, Kala Kendra, and Wildlife Institute of India. Singh expressed hope that through this link up, the students of these schools will get exposure and gainful knowledge and a new perspective to life so that they can come up with new thoughts and make the dream of self-sufficient India at 2047 as is being visualised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Social activist and columnist Anoop Nautiyal compered the inaugural session. The welcome address was given by Dr Sanjeev Chopra, the founder of the festival while other speakers in the session were Lt Gen PJS Pannu and Jyoti Dhawan. Dr Rajendra Dobhal proposed the vote of thanks. The inaugural session also witnessed performance of the hearing impaired students of Bajaj Institute of Learning on the National Anthem which drew a lot of applause.
Leading Hindi poet and former Deputy Director General of AIR, Laxmi Shankar Bajpai also addressed the inaugural session. He felt that though the number of literature festivals in the country is growing and now has crossed 272, in majority of them, literature is missing whereas the Valley of Words focusses solely on literature and serious discussions on literary works and contemporary issues.
Sanjeev Chopra also remembered late author Bibek Debroy who had passed away recently and noted that in 2018, Debroy had delivered the keynote address at VoW, part of which was delivered in Sanskrit.
