Rich exchange of ideas despite bigwigs missing

Yavatmal: Notwithstanding the absence of many participants, the events on the second day of the ongoing 92nd Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan went as per schedule. However, the felicitation programme of Vidya Bal and BM Paraswale could not be held as both had withdrawn from the meet.
The morning session had a musical presentation to mark the centenary of celebrated Marathi writer GD Madgulkar who had presided over the last sahitya sammelan which was held in Yavatmal 45 years back. The compositions were presented by Aparna Kelkar. Akshay Watawe and Gauri Deshpande read out poetry penned by Madgulkar.

The symposium on ‘Satvasheel samaj dhadni sathi aaj mahanubhav Varkari ani Basveshvar vicharanchi garaj’ had Martand Kulkarni, Mahesh Gaikwad, Vijayraj Bodhankar, Guruprasad Pakhmode and Ashok Rana as participants. Tolerance and humaneness were termed as the most important requisites for creating a morally sound society.

Kulkarni felt that egos and self-centeredness had created an increasingly selfish society. “Values are being eroded and truth is being taken over by mischievous thought processes. We will have to revive teachings of saints to bring back the society on rails,” he felt.

Quoting from what Gautam Buddha told his disciple Anand, Mahesh Gaikwad advocated bringing saintly thoughts out of the confines of text books to be practised in real life. Making a call for practising what the saints preached, Vijayraj Bodhankar said instead of sticking to rituals we should believe in our actions and improve our karma, while Rana and Pakhmode agreed that giving due respect to women was also an essential for improving the society.

As the moderator Ashutosh Javdekar and participant Dr Shrikant Tidke had pulled out of a panel discussion on light reading and writing, the session was held in the presence of chairperson of the sammelan Aruna Dhere and vice president of the mahamandal Vidya Deodhar. The others who took part were Madhukar Dharmapurikar, Bharat Sasane and Varsha Gajendragadkar.

Sharing his observations, Sasane said, “It was only when Marathi writers freed themselves from the influence of English literature by 1960, that literature grew stronger.”

Saying that nothing rich or of eminence had emerged from the pens of Marathi writers over the past decade, Sasane attributed this to changes in lifestyles. “Today politics and social issues are dominating and literary writings are taking a back seat,” he said.

Terming short stories, profiles and travelogues as various forms of light reading, Gajendragadkar said, “These kinds of writings require a vision and sensitivity. But these genres are getting mixed up today as writers are experimenting with styles and readers are responding too.” The discussion was moderated by Vivek Vishwarupe.

The talk show based on freedom of media had much of its thunder stolen as three of the participants, Girish Kuber, Gyanesh Maharao and Jaidev Dole did not attend the meet. The sole remaining participant Nitin Kelkar alone carried the session through.