Translations, feminism to be discussed at Bangalore Literature Festival

This weekend, around 300 Indian and international authors will make their way to Bengaluru for the city’s biggest literary event.

The Bangalore Literature Festival, currently in its 12th edition, kicks off on Saturday at The Lalit Ashok on Kumara Krupa Road. The festival will cover an eclectic mix of subjects, ranging from history and mythology to art, music, feminism, cinema, technology, food and sport. As with previous editions, emphasis is laid on translations, Indian languages and poetry. Discussions on the publishing industry, feminism, the media and economy will also be held. 

The two-day event begins with a Carnatic vocal recital by Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath who will be accompanied by Sandeep Ramachandran and B C Manjunath on Saturday at 9 am. This will be followed by a talk by Indian-American author Abraham Verghese, one of the headliners of the festival. Abraham, a physician by profession, will talk on the topic, ‘The pen and the stethoscope’. On the second day, he will discuss his latest book, ‘The Covenant of Water’, which gained popularity after being named in Oprah’s Book Club picks and in The New York Times’ list of 100 Notable Books of 2023. The session, titled ‘Arc of the covenant’, will see Abraham in conversation with journalist and author Ammu Joseph. 

“We want to make BLF a destination festival like others. Last year we had Pico Iyer, and people from all over the country came to meet him. This year we’re looking forward to hosting Abraham Verghese,” says Shinie Anthony, festival director. 

Other notable speakers to look forward to include novelist Amitava Kumar, poets Arundhathi Subramaniam, Ranjit Hoskote and Ruth Padel, Malayalam and Tamil writers Paul Zacharia and Perumal Murugan respectively and cricket writer Gideon Haigh. Popular Bengaluru-based poet, playwright and film director Chandrashekhara Kambara will also speak at the event.

This year, the event will have five stages, one up from four in previous editions. The children’s festival will also feature three stages instead of two. Children can look forward to sessions like ‘Making coding cool’ with Divya Anand, ‘The ultimate battle against garbage monsters’ with Shweta Taneja, and ‘Chasing the rain’ with David Yambem. 

December 2-3, at The Lalit Ashok, Kumara Krupa Road. Log on to bangaloreliteraturefestival.org for details

Sessions to look out for

Dec 2

*Ink and influence: The craft of political life narratives (Aakash Rathore, Sagarika Ghose, Sugata Srinivasaraju), 1.30 pm

*Changes in translation and translation for change (Madhav Ajjampur, Susan Daniel, Tariq Khan), 2.15 pm

*Bangalore through the centuries (Naresh Narasimhan, Ameena Shaheen), 6 pm

Dec 3

*I hate love stories (Prajwal Hegde, Rheea Mukherjee, Saumyaa Vohra), 11.30 am

*Mirch masala: On the Indian food trail (Sadaf Hussain, Tarana Husain Khan, Zac O’Yeah), 1.15 pm

*Listen, I will tell you (Chandrashekhara Kambara with Basavaraj Kalgudi), 2.45 pm