Dehradun, 13 Oct: The second edition of the two-day Literature and Arts Festival by The Literary Table was inaugurated yesterday in Fairfield by Marriot. This time TLT has partnered with the Oasis School, with each session being co-moderated by students of the school.
The second day of the festival began with the lighting of the lamp by the luminaries present, followed by a Kathak dance by the students of Kalavyakhya Institute. The compering was done by Manu Ahuja and Saswati Talukdar.
The first session was a thought-provoking panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence and its practical use. The panellists were educationists Dr Prem Kashyap and Dr Sanjeev Bathla, author Mona Verma, Juhi Khanna, a specialist in Artificial Intelligence, and a student, Siya Khandelwal. The discussants pointed out how AI is actually collective intelligence and is using affective empathy to draw people into its web.
Love for Apricots, the latest book by Madhulika Liddle, was the subject of the next discussion, moderated by Roopa Soni, Sanjeev Srivastav and Safaira Arora. A love story that’s set in Mukteshwar, a sleepy town in the Kumaon hills, the book was of special interest for the audience in Dehradun.
‘From India to Bharat: Reclaiming Civilizational Identity’ – the session in which Deepak Vohra, retired diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, spoke in an engaging and entertaining manner about the greatness of India and how we should be proud of what we have achieved so far, being the number one in the world in leadership and diplomacy and number three in military and economy. Students Deepsimar Kaur and Himesh Dhamiya had some interesting questions for him, which he answered with his characteristic humour.
Dr Aloka Niyogi, the founder of TLT, donned a new hat as an author this time as she discussed her first novel, ‘Inheritors of Silence’, with the moderator, Madhulika Liddle, and the discussants Jayashree Banerjee and Samara Phuntsog. Dr Niyogi gave interesting insights into why she decided to write this dual timeline novel based partly on her family’s political and social legacy.
Alka Pande, an academician, art historian, author and museum curator was in conversation with Mona Verma and Gauri Jutyal in a riveting session on the Goddess and why the Goddess is revered in Indian culture. According to her, Devi is not static, she transforms to take on many roles, sometimes benign and sometimes furious.
Robinder Sachdev, an international relations expert and President of ImageIndia Institute, was in conversation with former DGP Aloke Lal, with Aloka Niyogi and Sukanya as the moderators. The topic of the discussion was his book, Trumpotopia: A Guidebook to Decode Trump and the Culture and Politics of America. He said he wrote the book in order to understand American culture and also to lay down guidelines to counter Trump’s policies.
Operation Sindoor, a targeted attack on Pakistani terrorist camps, took place in May this year after the Pahalgam terror attack. Retired army officer and the author of several books, Major General GD Bakshi, spoke on this operation by the Indian military and threw light on several facets of the operation that are unknown to the civilians.
Moon Moon Sen released the cover of Maanas Lal and Aloke Lal’s latest book called Mission Saudi. Maanas engaged in a conversation with student Jigyasa Kukreti about how social responsibility is important while writing true crime.
Following it, Maanas, Juhi Khanna, Aayushi Tripathi and Amrita Tripathi took part in a conversation with journalist and author Rudraneil Sengupta. They discussed his latest book and his first novel, The Beast Within, a gritty and dark crime story set in Delhi. Rudraneil talked about how a city plays a very important role in crime fiction.
The showstopper of the evening was actor and former MP of the Trinamool Congress, Moon Moon Sen. She was in conversation with Aloka Niyogi, Priyakshi Rajguru Goswami and Manvi Chopra. The conversation touched upon several interesting facets of the actor’s life, right from her being the daughter of the famous actor Suchitra Sen, her unconventional entry into films, her filmography in several languages, her life as the daughter-in-law of the royal family of Tripura, her being a student of Jamini Roy, and her role as a Member of Parliament. Moon Moon Sen delighted the audience with her candid answers.
The two-day festival ended with a book-signing session by the authors.
