Chandigarh Literary Society holds Spring edition of Literati

Chandigarh: The spring edition of Literati, a trilingual literature and arts festival, got off to a grand start on Saturday, at Beant Singh Memorial Library, Sector 42, Chandigarh.

The programme was inaugurated by Sumita Misra, Chairperson, Chandigarh Literary Society, Director of Literati. Misra is an administrative officer as well as a renowned contemporary poet. She has published six books in Hindi and English.

In her inaugural address, Misra said that CLS continues to organise many such activities in order to encourage budding poets, writers and artists of the region and also to provide them a platform to showcase their talent. “Shades of Love’’, an anthology of poetry was also released in the inaugural session and the contributing poets presented their poems.

A painting competition ‘Indradhanush ke Rang’ was also organised for 11 to 18-year-old schoolchildren of tricity showcasing the confluence of literature and art.

The spring edition of Literati hosted around 15 writers, poets and artists across the country.

The festival started with the keynote address by renowned writer and entrepreneur Sankrat Sanu. Sanu is the author of “The English Medium Myth: Dismantling Barriers to India’s Growth” and talked about Indian culture and its reach. The keynote address was followed by an interaction with Chandra Trikha, Director, Haryana Sahitya Akademi who spoke about his creative journey in the session “Zindaginama.”

The session was moderated by Seema Gupta. Puneet Girdhar discussed the nuances of theater and the life of an artist with theater personalities Neelam Man Singh and Rani Balbir Kaur in the session ‘All the World’s a Stage’.

Sonika Sethi talked to authors Khushwant Singh and Neelkamal Puri about their novels “Opium Toffee” and “The Patiala Quartet” respectively.

In parallel sessions, Rita Rana talked to Ankita Khattry about her book “Meri Nadaniyan” and Rekha Mittal talked to poet Divya Abira about her new book “Manzarkashi”. Divya Abira, Ankita Khattry, Alka Kansara and Annurani Sharma’s books were released in the second half of the litfest. Senior journalist Nirupama Dutt interacted with Priya Hajela, author of the bestseller novel Ladies Tailor published by HarperCollins.

Harpreet Baweja was in conversation with Punjabi writer Manmohan Singh who is also the Vice Chairman of Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi.

The last session witnessed Bollywood actor Ashwath Bhatt in conversation with Rajinder Kaur.