Valley of Words Lit Fest begins in Doon from 12 Nov
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 14 Oct: The Sixth Edition of Dehradun’s leading Literary Festival, Valley of Words, will be held here from 12 November onwards.
Director of the festival and retired IAS officer Sanjeev Chopra announced this at a joint press conference he held with senior IPS officer Abhinav Kumar at the Uttaranchal Press Club, here, today.
Chopra stated that the festival would be inaugurated by Governor Lt General Gurmit Singh (Retd) on 12 November.
One of the signature events at the festival would be the Keynote Conversation between Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammed Khan and noted journalist Shekhar Gupta. He added that the Valedictory Session would be addressed by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who would also hand over awards to the 8 winners at the festival in various categories.
Chopra also said that some new events have been added to the festival this year, including a book fair and, in all, 5 exhibitions would be held during the festival to be hosted at Hotel Madhuban. He said that although, it was among the leading literary festivals, the objective is to establish it as the topmost festival of the country and among the leading literary festivals of the world by the time holds its tenth annual edition.
Some of the interesting sessions planned for this year include VoW Mantrana, a debate for school children from government run schools like Oak Grove, Central Schools, BSF School and Navodaya schools. In addition, given the potential of Uttarakhand as a favoured filming destination, a talk session would also be held, titled “Film Industry as the Growth Driver of Uttarakhand’s Economy”. The session would be moderated by IPS officer Abhinav Kumar and would include actor and senior journalist Satish Sharma, actor and director Kunal Malla and Rupesh Tillu. Two dialogue sessions would also be held on Science Environment & Ecology curated by Dr Rajendra Dobhal. This time English and Hindi translations of some Russian and Hebrew books (from Israel) would also be discussed and the ambassadors of these countries were likely to attend.
Another interesting session would be held on Dehradun as the Centre of Arts and Literature and it would be moderated by Abhinav Kumar. Another interesting session also to be moderated by Abhinav Kumar would be discussions on two legendary figures of Dehradun, the late freedom fighter Ras Bihari Bose and Humanist, the late MN Roy. This session would be titled “Legends of Doon”.
A panel discussion will also be held on Contemporary Writings in Hindi which would be moderated by retired DGP Anil Raturi.
Chopra disclosed that, in all, 40 sessions would be held at the festival this year and 100 authors would be discussed and 10 books launched. A Bharat Natyam performance would also be held.
Abhinav Kumar added that, this time, the government would also be a partner in the holding of the Valley of Words festival. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had approved the proposal to this effect.
In response to another question, Kumar revealed that the Film Policy of the state would soon be finalised. Under the new policy, not only the shooting part but every aspect of film making including cinematography, editing and other pre and post production work like writing would also be included. He said that, soon, the land for the proposed Film City would be finalised and, due to factors like road and air access, it would be set up in Dehradun. He also said that the film policy would also be discussed at the Valley of Words Festival.
