Khushwant Singh Lit Fest from October 13

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Chandigarh, October 10

The 12th edition of the three-day Khushwant Singh Literary Festival (KSLF) will be held in Kasauli from October 13 to 15. This year’s festival will thematically focus on the extraordinary lives and achievements of one-man armies. This Lit Fest would be a celebration of the grit and determination of individuals who silently fought the odds stacked against them and emerged out of challenging situations with a smile on their faces.

The array of speakers leading the Lit Fest would come from different walks of life, including politics, cinema and bureaucracy, just to name a few. This year’s line-up includes authors Amrita Tripathi, Anjum Hasan and Bachi Karkaria, film and television personalities Anup Soni, Malavika Sangghvi and Kubbra Sait, journalist Sarah Jacob and theatre directors Anuradha Kapur and Juhi Babbar.

Ekjute’s With Love Aap Ki Saiyaara, a play enacted and directed by Juhi Babbar, will be presented in the three-day event. Furthermore, founder and former guitarist of the Indian Ocean, Susmit Sen, trained Hindustani and Western classical singer Sonam Kalra and folk artiste Veda Dogar will perform live.

The theme has resonance with Mahatma Gandhi’s message inspiring people to “Be the change that you want to be.” It connects directly with celebrated writer and thinker Khushwant Singh, who admired Gandhi. The festival, thus, is a meeting of minds to celebrate the power of ideas that can transform our lives. It will also be used as a platform to raise awareness about the causes Khushwant Singh cherished so much. Besides the preservation of Kasauli and its environs and the importance of educating the girl child, the discussions will range from topics such as women’s roles in society to Indo-Pak ties.