A gathering at the Writers’ meet at the Centre for Excellence. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Oct. 30: Giriraj Kishore spent months abroad to unravel facts of Gandhi’s life while Manisha Kulshreshtha is the editor of the first Hindi literary portal in the world. But the two, and several others like them, will get together in the steel city, bound by their valuable contribution to Hindi literature.

Though generations separate Kishore and Kulshreshtha, their work will get them under one roof, at the ongoing writers’ meet, Sangaman, at the Centre for Excellence.

Originally from Kanpur, Kishore is the former registrar and head of the department of creative writing in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, while Manisha originally from Jaipur, launched hindinest.com — the first literary portal in the language, eight years ago.

Though they have carved a niche for themselves they are not alone. The literary meet featured over three generations of writers from different genres.

“This is one of the most awaited literary meets in the country as it brings together writers of all generations,” said Jainandan, convenor of the programme.

Kishore has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for his works, among which the most outstanding is the novel Pehla Grimitia, based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi that also fetched him the K.K. Birla Vyas Award.

“It deals with the Gandhi’s life before he returned to India. I spent months in UK and South Africa to get the real facts,” said Kishore.

Over 10,000 copies of the novel have been sold and translations are also being made. “The book will be translated in Bengali, Urdu and English,” added Kishore, who has written 15 novels, six plays, three one-act plays and over 200 short stories.

Today Manisha’s portal, is a sister concern to boloji.com — one of the renowned portals in the US that receives over a lakh hits each day.

“We are soon going to tie up with Google and BBC to make their services available on our site,” said Kulsreshtha.

Amrik Singh Dev, an organiser, said: “It is the variety of imagination that makes, Sangaman a memorable literary event.”