The city is set to host the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF), which celebrates its landmark tenth edition this year. BLF will be held this weekend at the Bangalore International Centre, with a limited seating capacity like last year on account of COVID-19. ‘Multilingualism and endangered languages’ is a dominating theme of the festival.
“The BIC venue can accommodate upto 400 persons. We will allow entry to people on a first come first served basis. Those who are unable to enter the venue can catch the events on YouTube when the videos of all the sessions will be uploaded. The festival will not be live-streamed this year,” said V. Ravichandar, one of the organisers of BLF. At any given point four parallel sessions will be held at the venue. “Nearly 75% of the authors will be present at the venue, while the rest will join online live,” he added.
The highlight of this year’s festival will be a series of panel discussions around the theme, ‘The Many Language Worlds of Karnataka’. It includes writers and those fluent in languages such as Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, Koraga, Dakhani Urdu, Byari, Navyati, Kundapra Kannada, Halakki Kannada, Sanketi and Havyaka There are sessions on architecture of Kodagu and Tulunadu as well.
Damodar Mauzo, who was recently awarded Jnanpith Prashasti for his works in Konkani, is one of the participants. “Our programme on the many language worlds of Karnataka is a work of passion and our USP for the festival this year,” Mr. Ravichandar said.
There are other sessions on bhasha publishing and Kannada literature as well. The festival will also feature a session with Sugata Srinivasaraju on his recent biography of H.D. Deve Gowda.
The pandemic and the fallout features prominently with noted virologist Gagandeep Kang speaking about the country’s fight against COVID-19. Another session will discuss cinema during the pandemic. Apart from Mr. Mauzo, prominent writers and celebrities who will be participating at BLF are Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, David Baldacci, Ashwin Sanghi, Rutger Bergman, Jeet Thayil, Chetan Bhagat, Samanth Subramanian, Vivek Shanbhag, Preeti Shenoy, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, Sania Mirza and Josy Joseph among others. This year, BLF will have 90 sessions and 175 authors/speakers, of whom 50% are women.