Chandigarh
Sahitya Akademi Jubilations in January
It was a fully packed day for the
Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi. A full day chock-a-bloc with motley activities,
academic, creative, literary and artistic. No frills and fancies, no tamasha,
no pomp and show. Simply Sahitya. That seemed to be the slogan of the day. And sahitya was presented in its various
manifestations, beginning with an academic lecture that wove into its fabric
the art of story-telling, folk tales, the Panchatantra,
and much more. This was followed by an interlude of poetry recitation, and then
a face-to-face with another celebrated writer and a free-lance artist and
film-maker.
The speakers of the day were all
well-known in their fields: Manorama Jafa, Bulbul Sharma, and Sagari Chhabra.
The poets of the day were Sonnet Mandal a very young writer from Kolkata, Vinod
Bhalla from Jalandhar, and SL Dhawan from Chandigarh. While Mandal is an
engineer by profession, he is passionately devoted to writing and has received
awards from various organizations. He read some of his poems and spoke of the
inspiration behind his work. Vinod Bhalla is again a man with a science
background who pens poetry. Passing through the city he too participated into day’s
event and read poetry that has a powerful social message. SL Dhawan ‘Kamal’ is
one of the rare city poets who can sing his verses and he regaled the audience
with his shayari.
The main speaker of the day, Manorama
Jafa, has perhaps contributed the most to the field of children’s literature in
India. She is the author of nearly 100 children’s books, and over 600 stories,
articles and research papers on children’s literature. Some of her books have
also been published in Japan, Singapore, Holland and Italy. For almost four
decades she has been directing Writers’ Workshops on writing, for different age
groups and for children with special needs, in English and Hindi, in New Delhi
and several other cities in India. Her passion for her work and her exceptional
contribution has brought her several awards at the nationa
l and international level. She spoke at length on children’s literature and her own contribution to it, winding up with a discussion of the immortal nitishastra, the Panchatantra. If you wish to write good stories for children you need to go back to your childhood, she advised budding writers.
Anjana Sharma, who writes as Bulbul
Sharma, is a journalist, artist and writer who has been publishing for almost
three decades. She also works as an art teacher for children with special
needs. She has authored several novels, three collections of short stories, tales
of Fabled Beasts, Gods and Demons, and
retold the Ramayana for children.
In an active interaction with Prof Madhu Malik from Bucknell University (USA),
with whom she is now engaged in a translation project, she read a short story
from her recent collection On Turning
Fifty. The story, which revolved around a subject as unusual as a dressing
gown, grabbed the attention of the audience with its subtle blend of humour,
wit, nostalgia and compassion.
Sagari Chhabra is a writer,
film-director and social activist who writes poetry, short stories, film
scripts, plays and no-fiction. She has scripted and directed fifteen
documentary films and one fiction film, winning national and international
awards. Her work includes; ‘Global
Warming’ (on climate change), ‘Now I
Will Speak’ (on violence against women), ‘Tatva’ – a fiction film about a
woman in search for her identity in contemporary India, ‘Hunger In The Time Of
Plenty’ (starvation deaths at the time of food surplus). Sagari is responsible
for creating the region’s first multi-media archive of surviving freedom
fighters. After she read excerpts from her published works, there was a
screening of her latest documentary, “Asli Azadi” which comprises interviews
with women who were involved in the freedom struggle. The screening was
followed by an animated discussion with the audience.
This was the first CSA event of the
year. The Chairperson announced that on February 8-10 the CSA will organize its
Fourth Festival of Letters. Award-winning writers are being invited for the
event. Competitions will also be held in the coming weeks at the school, college
and university level, leading up to a grand finale on 10th February
2014. Information will be posted on the CSA blog and on Facebook.
Photographs of today’s event are being
posted on the Facebook page
Manju Jaidka
Chairperson, CSA
