Though the literati is divided on this one, but journalist and writer Rahul Singh does not feel literary festivals sprouting in every nook and corners of the country in any way dilute the significance of literature or books in any manner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe more the merrier. That only means more and more books are being promoted, literature is being celebrated and that is a good thing,\u201d he shares, also a trustee of the Khushwant Singh Foundation, while filling us in on the upcoming eighth edition of the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be held, like each year at Kasauli, the festival last year, apart from being held in Kasauli, also tested waters outside the country, at the prestigious King\u2019s College, London, the response to which was good. Which is why, \u201cThis year also we\u2019ll have a two-day festival there on the last two days of March. My father passed out from there, hence the venue.\u201d Among several things that the late author was renowned and continues to be venerated for, is his sincerity towards Indo-Pak peace process. While that may be a far-fetched thought under the changed circumstances, the festival this year is dedicated to the Indian soldier. \u201cAnd education of the girl child, which is why the theme is Of Saints and Sinners,\u201d adds Rahul Singh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more number of editions, however, does not make things easier with each passing year. \u201cIn fact, it becomes difficult to maintain things, but more than that, to raise funds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the session Punjab at the time of Jallianwala Bagh, author and Editor, The Tribune, Rajesh Ramachandran will talk about his book, Martyrdom to Freedom: 100 Years of Jallianwala Bagh. Joining him will be author Navtej Sarna, who\u2019ll also give a Jallianwala Bagh backgrounder based on his forthcoming book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meanwhile, Sharmila Tagore is scheduled to talk about her life in Bollywood, while a day later Manisha Koirala will talk of her battle with cancer, among other things, Shabana Azmi will reminisce on her late father Kaifi Azmi, while Javed Akhtar will take on \u2018Godmen\u2019. \u201cWe have Guru Nanak Dev Ji\u2019s 550th Parkash Utsav coming up, then we\u2019ve had 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, 100 years since Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place, 100th birth anniversary of Kaifi Azmi,\u201d Rahul Singh takes us through the several milestone occasions of national significance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though the literati is divided on this one, but journalist and writer Rahul Singh does not feel literary festivals sprouting in every nook and corners of the country in any way dilute the significance of literature or books in any manner. \u201cThe more the merrier. That only means more and more books are being promoted, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72154,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72152\/revisions\/72154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}