Literature bug bites Hyderabadis

Lovers of literature enjoyed their day witnessing various events at the 8th edition of Hyderabad Literary Festiva

The second day of the Hyderabad Literary Festival witnessed larger crowd than the inaugural day. Day-2 had more engaging events and started off on a secular note. The panel discussion ‘Being a Secular Muslim in India’ with Seema Mustafa and Ashhar Farhan, was centered around the evolution of secular Muslim and what it means to be one. The speakers kept the audience engaged with their personal experiences.

Another event, ‘Writing from the Gut, Busting Stereotypes and Rekindling the Oral Tradition: A Panorama of Children & Young Adult Writing from Spain’ moderated by Cristina Sánchez Andrad, the talk explored about the mental health in children and how writing can help. Breaking stereotypes in the literary world was another discussion along with the inspiration for contemporary literature.

Girish Kasaravalli in his session ‘Films and Literature’ talked about how he became successful by converting Kannada stories into films adding his own variations. He also talked about the power of pictorial representation in the world of digitalization and its impact on viewers. He ended his session stating, ‘The purpose of cinema is not just entertainment, but it is to keep the audience engaged’.

There are various stages organised with diffrent talks for the literature lovers. ‘Photography by Aquin Mathews’, Aquin took a journey back to the time of the inception of photography in India and traced it to how it has been evolving in the 21st century in the times of Instagram and Facebook. Arundhati Nag at the stage talk ‘The Stage is All The World’ spoke about the wonderful world of theatre. During the talk, she played snippets of plays representing the various genres of plays being performed in contemporary Indian theatre, and also enacted a small snippet from Girish Karnad’s play Bikhre Bimb (Broken Images).
Md Saaduddin is a Hyderabad-based artist who has been known for creating art from scrap. His passion for motorcycles is unmatchable. In HLF, Saaduddin is showcasing his works made from scrap. His father is a Vintage car restorer and he grew up around machines. He said, “I make things from scrap materials. I love to modify bikes.

Here in this exhibition was the Royal Enfield Bird Sculpture and it took two weeks for me to do. I have started doing these artworks three years back and till now i have showcased my works all over India,”

Photographer Sumanaspati Reddy displayed his photographs in an exhibition ‘After The Moment’. He said, “I am working in Akashavani Adilabad Chapter as Station Director. This is my first exhibition and I am very happy to participate in HLF. I take pictures when I can, which is not too often, during my occasional travels, or in the pauses amidst work when I am outdoors recording programmes for radio.

So, it is more like capturing something in the available situation rather than after extensive research, exploration and planning, or waiting for the right conditions. I do however seek an artful relationship and hope my pictures work like a soft indelible shade, the quality we seek in a friend or a partner, on the viewer,”Sumanaspati is a Radio broadcaster, writer, producer, translator and documentary activist.

Photography has been a deeply passionate activity on the sides for him for more than a decade now. He is a self-taught photographer though initially, it was a friend who nudged him into it.

“We are trying to expose the Adivasis with our various radio programmes. Previously, I have participated in the HLF to showcase the documentary films. Until today, I have done five documentaries on various issues,” said Sumanaspati Reddy.

A lot of enthusiastic folks participated in the ‘Tree Walk’ and ‘Heritage Walk’ around the magnificent heritage site, The Hyderabad Public School. A grand evening of interludes by Promote a Concept—'The Human Library’, ‘Ka se Kavita’, ‘Rise of Literati’, ‘Tale Tellers Troupe India’ entertained the audience.