Bhubaneswar, June 19: A number of fests, which are under way in the city, are bringing together readers and writers from across the country through interactive forums.
The Kalinga Literary Festival that concluded today witnessed speakers discussing the connection between literature and democracy. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy batted for a certain degree of restriction or laxman rekha in the field of literature.
Delivering the keynote address on the inaugural day, Swamy said: "Constitution is the supreme law of the land that has provisions for reasonable restrictions on freedom so as to maintain national unity. Literature can be a great engaging platform to promote democracy and articulate the need, desire and aspiration of people. But, literature also needs to follow the constitutional guidelines on freedom of speech."
Former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar spoke on the journey of literature from the colonial times and how it has evolved from pessimistic tones to positive tunes.
The session on dialogue, development and democratic spirit in literature had speakers such as Arif Mohammad Khan, Rahul Pandita and Haraprasad Das, which witnessed difference of opinions emerging on whether democracy and development go hand in hand or whether a writer has any responsibility in creating and sustaining dialogue.
The special session, "Piyush Mishra in Conversation with Vineet Kumar", was one of highlights of the fest. Piyush was at his wittiest best and the interaction was filled with humour. There was also a poetry reading session.
Lyricist Sameer, Rituparna Sengupta, Seema Biswas, Yash Patnaik and Ileana Citaristi debated on a topic "Literature as performance: Scriptwriting for films and television."
"I got to meet so many writers and took tips to enhance my writing skills," said A. Aditya, who was at the fest.
In another event that was hosted yesterday, poets and writers came together on a single platform hosted by the Sahitya Akademi. While poet Dillip Das recited six poems, Rabi Swain read out portions from his short stories. Writers gathered for the event and debated on various topics related to poetry and fiction writing with focus on Odia literature.
An event for amateurs who actively blog on social networking sites such as Facebook was also organised today. The event, led by Nityananda Misra, a renowned Odia and Sanskrit scholar, saw around 100 young and veteran authors discussing on the pros and cons of writing on social sites. A number of writers such as Harihar Mohapatra and Basudev Samal interacted with youngsters. A book featuring a number of works posted on Facebook was also released.
