Beacon of Marathi literature for 100 years, VSS still going strong

Nagpur: Established on the day of Makar Sankranti, on January 14, 1923, Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh (VSS), a patron organization of all Marathi literary groups across Vidarbha, is completing 100 years on Saturday. Apart from their annual anniversary celebration function, and felicitation of the various literary award winners, the VSS has organized many literary events to mark the occasion.
The VSS library, one of the finest collections of multilingual books in the city, has organized an exhibition of Marathi books on environment. “Environment conservation is in trend today, but the Marathi authors have written abundant content about this issue for years. You can find a series of books on environment and life, man-animal conflict, water conservation, and culture of nature worship in India,” said Dilip Mhaisalkar, who heads the VSS Library. Hundreds of books, some of them printed back in the 19th century, are on display at the exhibition. The aim is to attract the new generation towards the library, said Mhaisalkar.
The annual poster poetry project of the VSS featured English, Marathi and Hindi poems by Neha Bhandarkar. “I consider myself fortunate to have featured in this section where poems of great poets like Suresh Bhat, Aruna Dhere and Prafull Shiledar were on display earlier. I write in all three languages, and have won many international awards and recognitions. But the appreciation coming from people of my city, gives a new high,” said Bhandarkar.
During the centenary year, the Marathi commentary by Dr Archana Chowdhary, on English epic poem ‘Savitri’ written by Sri Aurobindo, has been the most popular event of the VSS. All 12 lectures delivered by Dr Chowdhary are now compiled in the form of a book and it was also released this week to mark the centenary year.
“After 100 years, the VSS library aims to connect with other languages too. We are already into Hindi and English. From here onwards, we will try to connect other regional languages to VSS through our library,” said Mhaisalkar. Many new projects, aiming to attract the younger generation towards libraries, are in the pipeline, he said.