Come Christmas, Bengalis from across the country will congregate in the City to interact with their kin on literature and cultural fiesta which spans for five days.

Close to 3,000 Bengalis are likely to attend Nikhil Bharat Bangla Sahitya Sammelan's 80th annual conference here, says Bangalore chapter's General Secretary Vishwanath Ray. “This is the third time Bangalore is hosting the meet. The idea is to enrich Bengali literature and culture by exchanging views and resources with the Indian counterparts".

"We have already done a lot of work here with Kannada literature, hence we thought it would be a wonderful occasion to showcase it," says Dr Meera Chakraborti, whose work has gained accolades by the Sahitya Akademi and the Kannada liteteurs. She will co-ordinate a session on 'Celebration of words, bridging Kannada and Bengali literature' which will be chaired by Jnanpeeth award winner U R Ananthamurthy .

The meet will be attended by Union Minster  of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee as president of the Samiti and another former Union minister Ajit Panja  producing  an epoch  play 'Nati Binodini' on the inaugural evening. He will perform the role of Ramkrishna Paramahansa, who in real life had graced  Binodini. She had  carved an immortal place in the history of Bengali theatre in the 19th century.

The five day session will be inaugurated on December 25 by the Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur at the SEA Education Trust at the Devesandra - Kodigehalli main road where several technical sessions will cover on Bengali poetry, short stories, folk literature cinema and music , children's literature, science and technology. Spiritualism will have a crucial role in the discussions, as "Bengal has led in several spiritual movements", says Ray. Stalwarts like Swami Bishwapremananda of  Bharat Sewashrama Sangh, Swami Jitatmananda of  Ramakrishna Mission among others will also discuss the works of Aurobindo, Chaitanya and their role in literature.

Salam Azad from Bangladesh, Dr Srabani Pal, are among the literary figures who will discuss the novel and short stories. Azad will chair  Culture assimilation in cinema, theatre and television . Reputed film maker Gautam Ghosh, Dilip Mitra, Pankaj Saha are among the discussants. Satyajit Ray's contribution to literature and film will be discussed.

Crisis in mother tongue will be addressed as it has become a universal problem in India. Children are forgetting their mother tongue as large numbers have taken to English education. A session has been devoted to conserving the mother tongue.

Cultural programme will form a major part of the sammelan, where Rabindranath Tagore's famed dance drama Chitrangada will be performed by Manisha Sen's troupe. Tarakadas Baul, Lakhandas Baul will perform the famed Baul music. A troupe from Bankura (homeland of Chhau and Baul) will perform the Baul and Chhau dance. Troupes from different parts of the country will perform music, dance, recitation of Bengali poetry and theatre. A play Kabir Ladai and Shonai Dighi — jatra (counterpart of Yakshagana) will be performed by troupes from Bangalore.

NBBSS has a glorious history. It was founded in New Delhi in 1922 and its first conference was held next year in Benaras and presided over by Rabindranath Tagore. It has had patronage of literary stalwarts like Kazi Nazrul Islam Atul Prasad Sen and others. Conferences have been held in different venues of the country every year. Bangalore has been the venue in 1959 and 1993. Historian Tapan Raychoudhary presided over the conference in Gwalior last year.

The previous conference held in Bangalore in 1993 was presided over by Shankar and also had stalwarts like Indranath Choudhury Sahitya Akademi  president, Arun Chakraborty of National Book trust among other famed literateurs. Meera charoborty recalled the rich literary discussions then. “Manisha Sen led the Prabhat Pheris then, which was very enjoyable” recall the Bengalies here.

Her musical  sessions are recalled by everyone here. Whether the conference will take up the issue of Taslima Nasreen is to be seen.