Literature festival in Belagavi – The Hindu

The Belagavi Sahityotsava, a literature fest, organised in Belagavi saw a large participation from writers and thinkers on Sunday.

A variety of cultural programmes were organised in the day-long festival at the KLS Institute of Management Education and Research (IMER).

Veteran writer Raghavendra Patil inaugurated the literature festival by releasing a work by Gurudevi Huleppanavaramath. He called upon youth to use social media wisely. He said that the human spirit should remain independent and not be a slave to technological tools. “It seems modern technology is developing demonic tendencies in humans. Music and literature have the power to eliminate this. Therefore, we need to develop a taste for music and literature in children,” he said.

Writer and translator Chandrakant Pokale, who presided over the event, spoke in favour of independent literature festivals. “Several Marathi organisations hold Marathi literary festivals in many villages. We could the same,” he said.

Convenor Shirish Joshi said this event was the first such literary festival organised by Parimala Publications and Parimala Cultural Channel. We have tried to bring together various art forms like music, literature, drama. It will be an annual affair, he said.

Writer P.G. Kempannavar spoke about “Poetic Heritage of Belagavi District”. Journalists Devu Pattar and M.K. Hegde participated in a panel discussion on “Cultural Responsibilities of the Media”.

N.S. Sridharamurthy of Bengaluru gave a lecture on Da Ra Bendre’s work ‘Nakuthanti’ in the context of the golden jubilee of Jnanpith award to Dr. Bendre.

Basavaraja Jagajampi, L.S. Shastri, Gundenatti Madhukar, Sridhar Hukkeri, and others participated in the session on wit and humour.

Prakash Garud, Raghu Kammara, Ramakrishna Marathe, Aravind Kulkarni, Ravi Kotaragasti, and others spoke on contemporary theatre. Sangeetha Patil and H.B. Rajashekar spoke on “Me and my book”. Gurupada Mariguddi gave a lecture on Kuvempu novels.

Shyamasundara Bidarakundi delivered the valedictory lecture. Writer Sarjoo Katkar, B.S. Gavimath, and Sharanaya Mathapati compered, and others were present. The event was supported by the District Sahitya Pratishthan, Rangasrishti, Bijapure Harmonium Pratishthan, and IMER.