The second day of the 4th edition of the Dehradun Literature Festival was held at Doon International School, Riverside campus. The festival witnessed sessions from renowned panelists, including Imtiaz Ali, Prahlad Kakkar, Piyush Panday, and Jonathan Gill Harris, among many more.
The highlight of day two of the literature festival was an intriguing session by Imtiaz Ali. He was in conversation with Richa Anirudh.
Addressing the audience, Imtiaz said, “When I was in Jamshedpur, I yearned to have an international feel. But now that I am in Bombay and roam around places, I take pleasure in being a small-town guy. People like us who are from small towns are very lucky. We have much more needs, and thus we dream big. We get to meet people who are not familiar with us. And the more people you meet and the more places you visit, the richer you become.”
Adding further, Imtiaz shared, “I used to sit quietly in class, looking at the face of my teachers, but couldn’t grab a thing. I failed in class 9th. After failing, I used to be embarrassed while going to school and stood outside the school gate for four days. This failure opened my mind. I eventually mastered the subjects I used to fear earlier, like physics, chemistry, and maths. Another mantra that I live by is that I usually don’t get disappointed if something bad or negative happens to me. This is because I know that in the end, I’ll surely achieve something productive out of it.”
Another interesting session titled Changing Face of Advertising was held wherein Advertising Professional Piyush Panday was in conversation with Ad Film Director Prahlad Kakkar. The session was moderated by well-known publisher Milee Ashwarya.
Talking about his new book Open House, Piyush Panday said, “My book is an answer to thousands of questions that were asked to me at every place I used to visit, be it school, airports, etc. During those moments it was difficult for me to have an answer to those questions. I have tried to answer about careers, and how to run a business but never in a bookish style. This book is an attempt to inspire new generations in a way that is nothing is impossible if you keep your eyes and ear open and keep your heart in place.”
Commenting on the gender diversity in advertising, Prahlad Kakkar said, “Advertising has been the only profession where females used to be paid more than men. They are born with natural aesthetics and are good at multitasking. While the other hand, men have huge issues with ego.”
The second day commenced with a session titled Everyone Has A Myth To Tell, wherein Akshat Gupta and Mini Bhardwaj were in conversation with Mrigank Pandey. Akshat Gupta has written five film scripts and is the author of the forthcoming book The Hidden Hindu.
During the session, Akshat said, “I named my book The Hidden Hindu behind a Hindu who was hiding among us for thousands of years and has witnessed Ramayana and Mahabharata himself. Writing this book was a lifetime experience and nothing else ever will match it for me as I thought and started writing when the time of my life seemed to be ending. This book and the thought of this story have brought me out of the worst phase of my life finally saving me literally.”
Simultaneously a session on Stories are the bridge to Art & Culture was held between Arati Sunawala, Anjana Basu, and Nayanika Mahtani. The session was moderated by Chetan Vohra.
The second day of DLF witnessed several sessions on Hindi Literature. The first session titled Un Dino & Chand Mulakate par Charcha by the famous author Madan Sharma was held where he was in conversation with Dinesh Chandra Joshi. Later, a session on Chakri Chaturang was also held wherein Lalit Mohan Rayal was in conversation with Manoj Pandey. During the occasion, a book titled Kuch Kehna Tha Tumse by Ranvir Singh Chauhan was also launched.
A session was also held between Ranvir Singh Chauhan, Sanjay Abhigyan, and Dr. Krishan Avtar and was moderated by Atul Pundir. During the session, it was discussed that Poetry and Nazm are not written with any thought. Whatever is happening at a particular time, the feeling and the words automatically come, and the vision to see things is created.
Other sessions dedicated to Hindi Literature were held with authors Jiten Thakur, Sanjeev Jain, Srikant Sharma, Subhash Pant, and Dr. Rajesh Pal.
Later in the day, an interesting session for career enthusiasts titled Careers of the Future was held. The session was conducted by Richa Dwivedi, Vasu Eda, Ankit Gupta, and Rahul Narvekar. It was moderated by Swarleen Kaur. During the session, Ankit talked about the future trending career options. He said, ” The successful career will be one where one can find a unique talent, and understand how he/she can contribute to the society with this talent. Careers that are more technologically inclined such as Youtuber Influencers, etc. are some of the trending options in career.”
Another session On the trail of Budha & Land of Gods was conducted by Deepankar Aron and Arjun Kadian. The same was moderated by Anisha Gupta.
An intriguing session titled Masala Shakespeare was held wherein Jonathan Gill Harris was in conversation with Siddharth Jain. The session was moderated by Yogesh Kumar. During the session, Jonathan said, “To the Indian mind, Shakespeare might seem alien, but the bard shares several commonalities with mainstream Hindi cinema as it is commonly known. With a flair for drama, doomed love, tragic heroes, and a tendency to affirm dominant social narratives, Shakespeare’s works could even be seen as a precursor to our Hindi film industry. If Shakespeare was alive today, he would be writing for mixed cinema and not Hollywood or Bollywood.”
Later, sessions on Curiosity in the Classroom by Vishwas Parchure and Ashish Jaiswal and “Alternative Education’ by Shiv Kunal Verma, Anirudh Chakravarty, and Sana Durani were held. Speaking on the occasion, Vishwas said, “A child has around 106 questions per hour, and most of the time a student never asks any question the whole year. And there is when the curiosity gets killed.”
Addressing the audience, Shiva Kunal Verma said, “Students want to learn about the 1962 war, about their country, but we are not working on that audience. We are trying to break the classroom into a very wide spectrum of education. I believe we are not giving our children what they need to learn.”
A session by the first war-disabled officer of the Indian Army to command a battalion and a brigade, Major General Ian Cardozo, was held where he was in conversation with Rachna Bisht. The session was moderated by Gurveen Chadha.
Ian, during his session, said, “Taking up a job and going to and coming back from the same office daily didn’t look appealing to me. So I planned on joining the armed forces. In the army, we were told that fear very much exists but our job in the army is to conquer fear. As fear is contagious, if you are afraid, your men will be afraid.”
Ian Cardozo’s book is an anecdotal narration of stories by those who witnessed the unfolding events. The book is about his personal experiences and is based on the oral and written narratives of the contributors, as well as on the historical facts and recorded interviews of the officers and soldiers.
Science in India was another session that was conducted by Hitesh Shankar and Sabreesh. This was followed by a session on Sex, Desire, and Court which was held between Saurabh Kirpal and Madhavi Menon.
A session titled The Muslim Vanishes was held wherein Saeed Naqvi was in conversation with Abhimanyu Krishnan, a session on India @2047 was held wherein Kiran Karnik was in conversation with Subhash Garg. The session was moderated by Rakesh Nangia.
The DGP Uttarakhand Police Ashok Kumar IPS also conducted a session on Human in Khaki and Khaki Mein Insan. He was in conversation with Amit Lodha IPS. The session was moderated by Anupama Khanna.
Later in the day, a book titled The Millennial Yogi by Deepam Chatterjee was launched. An exciting session on Great Stories Happen To Those Who Can Tell Them was held wherein Actress & Poet Priya Malik was in conversation with Vishal Chaturvedi.
Towards the end of the second day of the Dehradun Literature Festival, sessions by Rachna Bisht, AVM (Retd) Arjun Subramaniam, Geeta Shri, Namita Singh, Siddharth Jain, and Dr. Ruby Gupta were held.
