Two famed poets and lyricists in company taking centre stage, the august audience could not have asked for more.
With Sampooran Singh Kalra, better known by his pen name Gulzar, in concert with Prasoon Joshi, conversing on Aao Phir Nazam Kahein (Come, Lets Speak Poetry), the distance and early morning weekend hour did not matter.
The fervid fans were there, listening in rapt attention, savouring every word the famed duo exchanged on the fine art of writing poetry and invoking the muse, giving truism to the fact that Bangalore was indeed a highly literary and cultural melting pot.
Soon after the launch of his much-awaited book — I Swallowed the Moon — a collection of short stories and poems, Gulzar and Joshi debated on what made true poetry and cultivating the verse form to a nicety. Needless to say, both Gulzar and Prasoon were besieged by admirers for autographs of their respective works.
The day also belonged to noted historian-author William Darlymple in attendance for a session on ‘The Anatomy of Literature Festivals’, given that he is the architect behind the famed Jaipur Literature Festival, with authors Anjum Katyal and Nirmala Lakshman moderated by Vikram Sampath. Besides adults, children too soaked in the spirit of literature, poetry, art in equal measure.
Exhibition of posters, pictures and books put up to mark 100 years of Indian Cinema were graced with equal enthusiasm.
The day also saw experts and authors deliberating on oral literary languages such as Tulu, Kodava, Konkani and Beary, while Kannada litterateur U R Ananthamurthy, in the company of Nabaneeta Dev Sen and K Satchidanandan, focused on Indian fiction and Indian reality in a session on The Novel and the People. The day drew to a close with the concert of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Subhshankar Banerjee.