By Ramesh K. Dhiman,Chandigarh, January 5 : Chandigarh is fast-emerging as the perfect Mecca for literature, art and culture lovers from across the city and elsewhere, if a surfeit of activity in this regard is any pointer. A regular doze of literary energy, soaked in soul-stirring musical soirees, offer the city aficionados a welcome departure from the dull and drab city hustle and bustle.
Buoyed by the success of the first edition of the Chandigarh Children’s Literature Festival (CCLF), held last year, Dikshant International School, in tandem with the Adab Foundation, is all poised to go for its second edition at Kalagram, Chandigarh, here from January 30. The two-day festival would feature the who’s who of the world of children literature, including top authors, illustrators and animators, etal.
Briefing media, Festival Director Anita Roy, herself a prolific author of children’s literature and one of the founder directors of the Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival, said “We aim at inculcating the habit of reading quality books among children to broaden their cerebral horizons and add to their creativity quotient. The second edition of the CCLF would attract children and award-winning authors from across the country. The Fest will, besides offerings a platform for authors to share their varied literary experiences, afford an opportunity for the children to interact with the doyens of literature”
Elaborating further on the CCLF-15, Roy said the event would feature a pre-festival competition, titled: ‘The Budding Writers’ specially designed for the school kids. The competition would be held under two age groups, precisely for the students in the 10-13 years and 14-16 years age categories. The participating students would be free to pen stories in the five given categories, including short story, humour, poetry, science fiction / fantasy and personal essay / memoirs. The best-writings would be compiled and published later. Two best-in-grade writers in each category would be chosen for the special award”
The Fest would feature not only theme talks and book-reading sessions by famous children’s writers, but also provide the participating children an opportunity to attend brain-storming sessions on creative writing, book-making, book-reviewing, promoting and popularizing the mother tongue, theatrics, pottery making, etal.
Listing the activity to feature in the event, Adab Foundation Chiarman Mitul Dikshit, said “There will be a host of events, apparently designed to push young audience’s participation in such quality literary programmes. This time around we are laying more emphasis on comic books and graphic novels. We have a special ‘Bonding-with-your-ward’ for the parents through story-telling’ session, which remains an unique feature of the event”
Among those celeb authors who are making it to the literary fest are Anushka Ravishankar, author of several books to her credit, would talk about her book ‘Tiger on a Tree’. Paro Anand, a noted author with 18 books to kitty on children other books, would share precious nuggets on her book ‘No Guns at my son’s funeral’. Payal Kapadia would offer insight into her book ‘Horrid High’. Samit Basu, a screenplay writer, would discuss about his book ‘Terror of the Titanic’ Natasha Sharma, an author of several books, including ‘Akbar and the Tricky Traitor’ would show up and speak about her latest work. Priya Kuriyan, a film maker and illustrator would present excerpts from her novel ‘When Ali became Bajrang Bali’. Himanjali Shankar, Payal Dhar, Sayoni Basu, Animator Soumya Menon, Nina Sabnani, Sawmya Rajendra are the other authors who would be a part of the literary extravaganza.