NSoJ at BLF 2023

By Ada Khan and Kaustav Laskar

The morning of 2 nd December in Bangalore was eagerly anticipated by many literature enthusiasts of the city as the 12 th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival was taking place at The Lalit Ashok Hotel. Around 300 authors and speakers were present and 170 sessions were conducted over a 2-day span. This festival was brought to life with the help of Bangalore based author and columnist Shinie Antony and V. Ravichandar. The festival is the city’s own and celebrates the creative spirit and commemorates the literary diversity it offers, bringing it in conversation with the best minds in the world of literature within and outside India. As reported by the Hindustan Times, “The festival saw close to 30,000 people come together to discuss and delve into all things literature.” With some of the country’s renowned authors and most influential people like Shashi Tharoor, Sudha Murty, Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik, Ramchandra Guha, Sagarika Ghose, Kanan Gill, Huma Qureshi, Abraham Varghese, Suhasini Haidar and many more graced this occasion and delivered engaging talks. These prolific writers discussed several topics around gender, migration, human construction, etc.

The students of National School of Journalism attended the festival in order to interact with the eminent personalities present there. Utkarsha Gandhe and Siddhi Patil of Semester 1 and Animesh Kaushik of Semester 3 volunteered at the event and was hands on deck in helping the event run smoothly. Kaustav Laskar of Semester 1 was present at the launching of Huma Qureshi’s fantasy novel ‘Zeba: An Accidental Superhero’ and questioned her regarding her inspiration for the title of her novel and why she had chosen it to which she replied that Zeba is an Arabic name for a child who has fallen from heaven.

The students also thoroughly enjoyed talks by author and philanthropist Sudha Murty, stand-up comedian Kanan Gill, former English first class cricketer Mike Brearley and Indian businessman Mukesh Bansal. Siddhi Patil of Semester 1 conversed with Amish Tripathi who is famously known for his best-selling Shiva Trilogy and inquired about his writing process and his thoughts on Hinduism.

Sangshaptak Mahato of Semester 1 attended Devdutt Pattanaik’s session on his new book ‘Bahubali: 63 Insights into Jainism’ and spoke to him afterwards regarding the inspiration for his new book. Towards the end of the event Ada Khan of Semester 1 and Shraddha Rajeev Menon of Semester 3 attended The Tharoors fireside chat starring Member of Parliament, author and English aficionado Shashi Tharoor accompanied by his sister, Smita Tharoor. Ada further questioned him regarding his most preferred book to which he took the name of Salman Rushdie’s Victory City and explained to her how the book captivated him. Students of NSoJ thoroughly enjoyed the event and got the golden opportunity to report this spectacular occasion. This festival saw all colours of society from the youngest to the wisest who were captivated by the convergence of diverse voices, ideas and literary expressions.