A literature festival no matter where it’s held in the city is a matter of pride for the residents and readers. When every TV soap, film or business strategy relies on writing, it’s but natural to showcase the power of writing to the world and encourage the habit of reading. It is with this objective that we are highlighting this event eventhough it’s being held in the centre of Bangalore.
Held once a year, the 7th edition of Bangalore Literature Festival is two day event at Lalit Ashok hotel on Kumarakrupa Road near Bangalore Golf Course from October 27 to October 28. The HSR extension residents who are part of this festival include author Bhaskar Chattopadhyay (who stays in Suncity Apt in Iblur) who will hold the fort on crime and detection. And then, there’s bestselling romance author Preeti Shenoy, a resident of Bellandur, and romance author Nandita Bose from Harlur Road. Three members of the Litt Fest team are residents of this area including Subodh Shankar (Bellandur), Shrabonti Bagchi (Harlur Road), and Festival Director Shinie Anthony (Mantri Sarovar in Sector 1).
“It’s a community funded festival by individual contributors from the citizens of Bangalore,” says Subodh Shankar who is also the co-founder of Atta Galatta, the exhibition space in Koramangala. “It belongs to the people of Bangalore. In its seventh year, we have close to 200 authors, around 150 sessions of programming in five stages parallelly. Two are dedicated exclusively for children. There are grand musical concerts to close the festivities for each day.”
Some of the most recognised names on the literary circuit will be there including Vijay Seshadri, the first person to win a Pulitzer for poetry. And then, there are Aatish Taseer, Ashwin Sanghi, Appupen, Chitra Subramanian, Barkha Dutt, Kiran Manral, N Ponnappa, Nandan Nilekani, Naina Lal Kidwai, Saba Naqvi, Rhea Saran, Samit Basu, Sarika, Shashi Tharoor, Shoba Narayan, Shoma Chaudhury (Tehelka), Srinivasan Jain, Vinta Nanda, Tushita Patel, Vivek Shanbagh, Girish Karnad, VK Karthika, and Ramachandra Guha, among many more.
From panels on #metoo to fake news to the upcoming general elections, there are several topics being discussed under one roof. Importantly, one stage is dedicated to children below 10 years and another for those above that age limit. The timings are between 10am and 7pm and it’s free for all.