Curtains down on 3-day Literati

The last day of Literati-2020 saw interesting tapestry of love, life, history, music, romance, crime, opening with London-based editorial director of SCALA, Oliver Craske, who has authored a number of non-fiction books on music, art and photography. He spoke about his relationship with celebrated Indian music maestro Pt Ravi Shankar. Since their first meeting in 1994, when he worked with him on writing his autobiography, “Raga Mala”, Pt Ravi Shankar wanted him to do his biography after his death. The ‘Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar’, he said, brings to fore little known facets of multi-dimensional personality of Pt Ravi Shankar, unknown to many Indians.

Nandita Puri, a journalist, author and wife of late Bollywood artiste Om Puri, spoke about the grim realities of intercontinental child adoption that a majority of the time is a cover for international child trafficking. She shared the sad story of Jennifer, from her recent book, who was adopted from Mumbai at the age of eight, taken to the US, abused, exploited and ultimately deported to India.

In its third session, the literature festival explored romance writing with copywriter, author and screenwriter Anuja Chauhan. Writer of taglines such as “Yeh Dil Mange More”, “Nothing Official About it”, and author of some best-selling romcoms, Anuja said writing requires one to innovate, improve and excel from the first book to the next one.

Then it was time for “Holy Grail of Success from Vedanta to Modern Chanakaya” with Dr Janki Santoke, a Vedanta scholar, along with researcher of “Kautilaya Arthshastra” and author of “Corporate Chanakaya”, Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai. Dr Janki Santoke reiterated that Vedanta is a system of life and continues to guide people who care to learn from it. Dr Pillai pointed out the perennial relevance of Chanakya in current times and the need for it to become a part of management and leadership studies.

In the next session, Arun Maira, chairman of HelpAge International, and Kaninika Mishra, author of “The Indic Quotient”, got talking about corporate growth and social responsibility.

Karnal Singh, a 1984-batch IPS officer and IIT-Kanpur pass out, and author of “Batla House”, along with criminal lawyer Vishvajeet Chaudhary, looked at the humane aspects of policing and what legal reformation is required to enable the police to carry out their investigations effectively to deal with terrorism.

Indian mythology and historic fiction writer Anuja Chandramouli and Koral Das Gupta, an author, painter and entrepreneur explored the narrative of women in Indian mythology.

National award-winning actor and writer Ashish Vidyarthi, who wears many other hats, unfolded his concept of life, providing a new perspective on life, its purpose and the magic one can create in others’ lives. He talked about frailty of life that this pandemic has brought to the fore. He said it could also be looked at as an extreme privilege if one learns to celebrate and liberate oneself at every step of the way.

Punjabi film writer-director with movies such as “Jatt James Bond”, “Farar”, “Bambukat”, “Rabb Da Radio”, “Saab Bahadur” and “Ik Sandhu Hunda Si”, Jass Grewal spoke about his work and his belief in the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda.

The concluding session was with Chandigarh Literary Society chairperson Dr Sumita Misra in conversation with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a bestselling author, poet, activist and teacher, who joined in from Houston, USA. Her last novel “The Forest of Enchantments” was a retelling of the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. Recalling her starting days in the USA, back in 70s, she said she would wear a sari to work since there weren’t many Indian women in Ohio back then. She started writing to analyse herself and soon began to capture the travails of the Diaspora. Chita said: “Men should open their minds to strong and creative women who handle their lives much better.”

— Gurnaaz Kaur

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