The 10th edition of the GOA Arts and Literature festival 2019 will start today. It comes at an
interesting time in the country when the urge to censor or perhaps even
self-sensor grows stronger. Journalists being hauled up by the authorities for
writing reports critical of the powers that be or others being pressurised to
reverse public stances. The three-day literature festival has attracted
speakers from countries as diverse as Norway, the Commonwealth and is expected
to be a fiery one.
Arundhathi Subramaniam one of India’s
finest poet said it was important to have conversations with other writers and
more importantly it had to be done in a relaxed manner. It was only possible to
have such conversations in Goa and she was certainly looking forward to such
interactions.
For many of the speakers invited, it was
the prospect of meeting other intellectuals that excited them the most.
SaeeKoranneKhandekarwho will be the festival to launch her book is an author
and culinary consultant. She researches and writes primarily on food, where her
interests include indigenous cuisines, baking, and culinary literature. She is
the author of the widely reviewed Crumbs!: Bread Stories and Recipes for the
Indian Kitchen and writes extensively on baking and regional cuisines in their
historical and socio-cultural contexts, and has been awarded the Food
Chroniclers Award, 2019. Her second book, Pangat; A Feast, navigates the many
sub-cuisines of Maharashtra and attempts to break the myths that surround the
food of the land. An amateur poet she is looking forward to attending the
sessions of Arundhati Subramaniam. She will also talk about our relationship
with food. Earlier she said it was a function of nourishment. But now it was a statement
of philosophy, nourishment and a collection of experiences. 50 years ago there
was not much of a difference between the food of the grandmother and then the
mother but now it would be very different fare.
Another happy camper will be Mridula Gargwho will be in Goa on
her fourth festival. Mridula Garg has written in almost every genre in Hindi; 8
novels, 4 plays, 4 collections of essays, 1 memoir of fellow writers, 1 travel
account and 90 short stories. Her latest work is a novel in English called The
Last Email published in December 2017. Her work displays both a wry sense of
humor and self-reflection. She does not adhere to traditions, Marxist, feminist
or region specific. She said she did not really care about the views of the
government in power and felt she would go ahead and articulate her position
despite whatever people thought. MiniyaChatterji is CEO of Sustain Labs, a
company based out of India, France, and New Zealand and for this highflying
senior executive who now divides her time between Goa and Paris, these are
important questions that needs to be asked. She said “Freedom of expression has
always been a challenge. The first amendment in the constitution was for
freedom of expression. Literature, art have a strong role to play. Explore ideas
through these media in a nuanced way”.
From its inception in 2010, the unique, homegrown,
volunteer-driven and non-profit Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF) has
slowly emerged as one of the premier cultural showcases of India. GALF was
founded to celebrate the margins, taking inspiration from an idea developed by
the late Eunice de Souza, a renowned poet of Goan origin, that there are
‘different ways of belonging’. For GALF, this has translated into a consistent
emphasis on writers and artists from Goa, from India’s North-East and Kashmir,
as well as from countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. GALF has also
devoted substantial attention to themes such as Dalit writing, poetry, graphic
novels, and translations.
One
of the speakers who will not make it will be Chandrahas Choudhury the author of
the novels Days of My China Dragon, Clouds and Arzee the Dwarf. he has not
recovered from an illness and is still stuck in New Delhi.
