Diverse themes encapsulate day 2 of AKLF

Kolkata : The second day's events at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF) began with the session, ‘Translating the Icons,’ with Lopamudra Maitra discussing Upendra Kishore Ray Chowdhury’s whimsical tales alongside Prasun Roy, who took to Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s horror stories.

Together, they shared their experiences of translating two iconic Bengali literary personalities. Jashodhara Chakraborti conducted the session.

The following session, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, had Sam Miller, author of Migrants, discuss the widespread phenomenon of migration and displacement. He was in conversation with Ruchir Joshi.

The third session of the day, ‘Green Earth,’ successfully saw environmental artist Louise Fowler-Smith and Tara Gandhi, environmentalist and ornithologist, discuss their work and its relation to climate change. The session was supported by the Australian Consulate-General, Kolkata and was conducted by Bittu Sahgal.

Keeping up with the theme of translation was the session ‘Show and Tell’, where translators Aruna Chakravarti, Vishes Kothari, Arshia Sattar, and Urvashi Butalia discussed their most significant challenges as translators.

Bijoya Sawian and Manish Gaekwad revisited their family memoirs while walking down memory lane at the ‘All in the Family’ session alongside Kavita Punjabi.

The next session, titled ‘Climate Fiction Moves’, had Gargi Rawat, Rajat Chaudhuri, Dia Mirza (Virtually), and Bittu Sahgal talk about how books, film and the arts can further the cause of climate. Neela Majumdar conducted this session.

‘Table Talk: On Building a Culture of Food’ had Sonal Ved, Maria Goretti, Shalini Modi, and Julia Roberts conversing with Shaun Kenworthy.

‘Crossroads’ was a session where Rahul Shivshankar and Chandan Gowda discussed the ideas in their respective books, raising awareness about the India we think we know. They were in conversation with Monideepa Banerjie.

The following session was also conducted by Monideepa Banerjie, which had veteran Indian Politician P. Chidambaram discuss his new book, ‘A Watershed Year.’

The final session at Allen Park titled, ‘In Graphic Detail’ saw the announcement of the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize shortlist. The jurors included Alka Pande, Kunal Basu & Anja Riedeberger (Virtually).

The day concluded with a conversation between Pinaki De, Debkumar Mitra and Harsho Mohan Chattoraj on an upcoming graphic translation of Saadat Hasan Manto’s work. Meanwhile, at the Oxford Junior Literary Festival, Day 2 continued with a ‘Meet the Author’ session followed by a ‘Words in Action’ Workshop. For Meet the Author, Jael Sillman of ‘Shalome Rides a Royal Elephant’ fame, interacted with children, followed by Anjana Basu, author of Grandfather’s Tiger Tales.

The storytelling workshop for Day 2 was conducted by The Creative Arts Academy and led by Ramanjit Kaur. The Poetry Cafe continued on the second day with Jerry Pinto reading and discussing his poems from ‘I Want a Poem and Other Poems’.

This was followed by Renu Roy, who read from the ‘Far Side and Other Poems’ and later discussed it with Supriya Newar. Mukul Kumar read from ‘The Rhythm of the Ruins’ and was in conversation with Sunil Bhandari.

The final two sessions included Maria Goretti reading from ‘To the Moon and Back’ and discussing pertinent themes with Ipsita Ganguli.

Finally, the Poet’s Circle convened with Sunil Bhandari, Supriya Newar, Iryna Vikyrchak, Basisali Chatterjee Dutt, Anjana Basu, and Debasish Lahiri reading recent poems.