A boy sits yawning on the back bench of an engineering classroom. As the professor sketches circuit diagrams, the boy unearths his dog-eared copy of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. The line, “For you, a thousand times over,” rings in his ears as he pores over the pages, the class long forgotten. It’s a scene that Anand Bhatt, project manager of Chennai’s Under 25 Lit Fest, is all too familiar with.
“We started in 2016 with one initiative: to bring young literary enthusiasts together on one platform,” Bhatt tells us. The festival, which found footing amongst Bangalore youth a year ago, expands to both Chennai and Pune this year. It celebrates literature in all forms and propagates reading, while exploring what literature has come to mean. “We’re talking about so much more than just books now — microfiction, spoken word performances, song writing. They’re all included in the modern-day definition of literature and the festival is a representation of this change.”
Bhatt works alongside the Under 25 team, which was co-founded by Anto Philip and Shreyans Jain, to curate Chennai’s first innings of the festival. He caters to the change with an open mic session, multiple sessions with esteemed writers, and a musical act. “We’ve tried to keep the audience in mind for this festival, choosing topics that the youth can both relate to and learn from.” He says it’s a countrywide effort, attempting to educate and entertain with equal ease.
There’s another underlying effort as well, to bring the spotlight back to the literary world once more, and Bhatt says there’s no place more apt than Chennai for an initiative like this. “The city is renowned for its literature, steeped in history with many well-known authors and playwrights.” Some of them make appearances at the fest: author Timeri N Murari, editor Abhirami Sriram, children's author Anushka Ravishankar, novelist and playwright Shreekumar Varma and motivational speaker Avis Viswanathan, for starters. Sharing their stories and thoughts, the experts are meant to add depth to the proceedings.
We’re reminded of other literature festivals but, as Bhatt puts it, this one has a clear focus. The youth of Chennai take centre stage, made possible only by the strong student community that is often at the forefront of creative initiatives around the city. “We have a very strong collegiate and secondary-educated community. It’s time to give them the voice and the platform they deserve.”
The Under 25 Lit Fest takes place in collaboration with IIT Saarang
at IIT Madras, Taramani, on
August 6, from 9 am to 1 pm.
For tickets at ₹500 per head, visit https://insider.in. 8123471705