With each passing year,
the D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas has garnered great response from like-minded
people, seeing frontrunners from various fields including governance, health,
education, social thought, culture, technology, administration etc come forward
to put forth their thoughts and interact with the pubic.
The festival, which is
organised by the Directorate of Art and Culture, commemorates the legendary
Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, an Indian mathematician, statistician, historian
and polymath. “Over the years, the festival has been
gaining popularity as great minds come here and share their ideas, which helps
people to broaden their perspectives about life. This year, we have invited
George Papandreou, who is the former Prime Minister of Greece; he will be
speaking on ‘Intercultural Dialogue for Humanizing Globalisation’,” says Prasad
Lolayekar, Director of Art and Culture, Government of Goa, adding, “We also
have Arwind Gupta, who will talk on ‘Nurturing Scientific Spirit in Children’.
We have also invited teachers from respective fields. Also, noted author and
theatre director Richard Schechner will deliver a talk on ‘How to perform the
21st Century.”
The event attracts not only Goans but
people from other states and other countries too. “We have regular attendees
for our festival. We also receive mails from people who are settled outside the
state, inquiring about the dates of the festival so that they can book the air
tickets accordingly. In fact, late Charles Correia used to attend this festival
regularly. We have plans on maintaining a database of the people who attend the
festival,” says Lolayekar.
Preparations for the festival start a
year before the actual day as the process involves shortlisting the dignitaries
and then contacting them as per their availability. “Though the festival is
open for all, we send invites to the colleges across the state so that students
attending the festival are inspired by the thoughts and viewpoints of the speakers.
In fact, speakers like Late A P J Abdul Kalam and Raghunath Mashelkar had
specifically asked us if we have students attending the festival. Speakers want
the youth to attend. We feel that our goal has been achieved even if two out of
the many students attending are inspired,” concludes Lolayekar.
