Keeping city’s literary scene abuzz
For the last six years, author, book lover and psychotherapist Nupur Sandhu has been striving to keep the city’s literary. Since 2019 when she started doing Yayavar Literary Festival, Nupur has been encouraging the younger generation to get into the habit of reading.
She is involved with reading clubs of different schools and colleges of Jalandhar by organising activities for them. In the events she organises, the students are made to read an array of books and hear podcasts of authors and motivational speakers. Her Yayavar group has also organised activities in collaboration with several literary fora in the city.
The group has done some activities in collaboration with the Lovely Professional University and IK Gujral Punjab Technical University in two of its editions. Of late, it has started engaging with the reading clubs and literary societies of Kanya Maha Vidyalaya, Hans Raj Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Doaba College, Doaba College, Government Sports College, Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Lyallpur Khalsa College and the Cantonment Board School.
The annual literary festivals that Nupur organises are highly anticipated events for she uses all her contacts for bringing in the best speakers and motivational experts to audiences. Being the wife of an Army officer, Nupur Sandhu is quite articulate and has been quick in striking a rapport with people around her.
“My aim is to impart the youth with a vision and give them wings to fly. Besides Jalandhar, I have been doing events in Jammu. Our activities had got somewhat stuck in Covid times, when we could only organise events online,” she shared.
The 8th edition of the festival is scheduled be held at KL Saigal Memorial Hall on April 5. About the event, Nupur shared, “There shall be a panel of experts from the Army, sports and people who shall have crime mysteries, relationship matters, inspirational stories, ghost stories and poetry to discuss. The dignitaries will include people from Mumbai, Dehradun, Jammu and parts of Punjab who will be addressing and discussing books.”
Poet and film-maker Vineet KKN Panchhi will be the keynote speaker. Kritika Khanna, the first woman para-rower, will be the opening speaker.
Brig Rajeev Mahana (retd), Vinit K Bansal, Jay Alani, Lt Gen JS Cheema, Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur, RAW agent Lucky Singh Bisht, Anita Krishan, Vandana Singla, Navdeep Gill, Vikram Singh, Kalpana Singla, Shefali Arora, Dr Jas Kohli, Chetan Batra, Ravi Sandhu and Sanjeev Bansal would be other speakers. There also will be dance drama by Vibhuti Jain and Shivom Chopra.
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