Telugu writer Volga to be a part of JLF 2017

With the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival just a week away, a special evening was hosted in Mumbai to mark the countdown to the world’s largest free literary gathering. The organisers of the Festival along with partners Avid Learning hosted a soiree dedicated to music and poetry in literature.

After a welcome speech by Asad Lalljee, SVP, CEO Avid Learning, the Essar Group, the evening featured a special panel that explored music and poetry within the context of literature.

Aptly named ‘Blowing in the Wind: Voice Music and Lyric Poetry, it addressed the public spaces for literature and brings together the voice and the word.

Following Bob Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, this session looked at eminent poets and their interactions with popular music with the panel comprising poet lyricist Gulzar along with lyricist, poet and playback singer Swanand Kirkire.

To mark a grand finale to the event, singer and songwriter Geetu Hinduja entranced the audience in a power packed musical performance.

With around 30 languages represented from India and across the world, the Festival will feature authors writing in Indian regional languages including the popular Sahitya Akademi Award-winning author in Telugu, Volga, SL Bhyrappa and Vivek Shanbhag in Kannada, Kaajal Oza Vaidya in Gujarati, CP Deval and Hari Ram Meena in Rajasthani, Kanak Mani Dixit and Binod Chaudhary in Nepali, Dhruba Jyoti Borah in Assamese, Gulzar and Javed Akhtar in Urdu, Jatindra K Nayak in Oriya, Naseem Shafaie and Neerja Mattoo in Kashmiri, Arunava Sinha and Radha Chakravarty in Bengali and Arshia Sattar, A.N.D. Haksar, and Roberto Calasso in Sanskrit.

Writers in Hindi include Ajay Navaria, Anu Singh Choudhary, Manav Kaul, Mrinal Pande, Narendra Kohli and Yatindra Mishra.

The programme for the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2017 will touch upon a multitude of ideas and themes including a look at the nation, Freedom to Dream – India at 70, which explores India today in the context of its history as well as its future, Translations and World Literature, Women and Marginalised Voices, Sanskrit, and Colonialism and the Legacy of the Raj.