Shimla: Thirty-five writers participated in the fifth Bhalku Memorial Literary Voyage on a running train on the UNESCO World Heritage Shimla-Kalka Railway on Saturday.
The train with theatre artistes, journalists, folk singers and writers onboard was flagged off by Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Col (Retd) Dhani Ram Shandil, who honoured the artistes and writers and travelled up to Tara Devi station.
Poetry sessions were christened after Kaithalighat and Kanao station while storytelling session was named as Solan session. Folk songs of Jagdish Gautam stole the show.
Bhalku was a shepherd who guided the British engineers to lay the Shimla-Kalka railway track (1898 1903). A museum has been constructed at the Shimla Railway station in his memory.
The group of writers and artistes will on Sunday visit the native village of Baba Bhalku — Jhajha near Chail — said SR Harnot, the president of the Himalaya Sahitya, Sanskriti aur Paryawaran Manch, which organised the event.
The minister released ‘Pyali bhar Gujupsa’, a collection of stories written by Dipti Sarswat.
He also dedicated the novel ‘Jag Musafir’ scripted by Seem Aseem from Bareilly at the event organised by the manch.
