Hyderabad: The 14th edition of the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) concluded with the lecture of Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday, January 28. He spoke on how the current government was ‘intolerant’ towards young artists and standup comedians, whose space for sharing their thoughts was shrinking.
“Government is strangling creative youth. It is controlling the expression of the current narrative, which is bad, not only for the nation but its youth who help evolve the culture,” he said while speaking at Ajay Gandhi Memorial Valedictory lecture in remembrance of the late Ajay Gandhi, a member of the HLF team who passed away in 2021.
Tharoor also discussed his book, ‘The Great Indian Novel’. He told the attendees how his fictional work is the story of the Mahabharata and how it relates to the context of today’s political scenario in India. He also brought up his other works, including ‘Ambedkar: A Life’, and was highlighted Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to drafting the Constitution of India.
“Writing is not hard. Keep reading. Let your children read anything they want fiction, non-fiction, comics, read anything one has to read to write better,” he advised when replying to a question about his vocabulary and writing tips.
Masala an evolutionary defence mechanism
The last day of the festival also saw Krish Ashok, the author of ‘Massala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking’ talk about the origins of masala on the Mitochondrial level. Tracing its origins back to millions of years ago, he said the ‘Masala’ that we savour today is a defence mechanisms with strong aroma and taste that pants and herbs have developed. He also persuaded Hyderabadi to purchase his book by saying: “The last chapter in my book talks about Biryani.”
On the first day of HLF, January 26, Aakar Patel spoke of his book ‘After Messiah’. However, Javed Akthar, who was supposed to visit on January 27, couldn’t make it.
Have you heard from the President?
The first day of HLF, audience heard the voice of the President of India under a tent ‘One Life in Two Languages’. Well, not exactly from the President of India herself. It was Padma Shri 2020 awardee Damayanti Beshra who translated Droupadi Murmu’s biography ‘Madam President’ into Santali.
Damayanti described President Murmu’s life as a teacher in Rairangpur in Odisha and the unheard struggle of her life, with the intonation and gesticulation that one would mistake her for the President of India.
Caged poetry
The festival had much more besides talks, it also had a poetry corner where poems are caged. One has to look into the cage to read what the poets say. It’s both in Urdu and English. “On this earth what makes my life worth,” one of the poems is titled.
The exhibition by Kapra Lake Revival Group had more to say than show pretty aves. They had charted out the chronology of changing lakes in the last 103 years, starting from 1919. “Home to several species of migratory birds, the lake provided a livelihood for fishermen and washerfolk too. The vast blue expansive lake also had NT Rama Rao starrer ‘Daana Veera Shura Karna’ and Hindi blockbuster ‘Utsav’, starring Rekha, shot here,” they said.
