Earlier this month a large number of poets and fiction writers from South Asian countries, mainly from various parts of India, and also from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal and Sri Lanka enjoyed a five-day Literature exposure in India’s capital city, New Delhi. The South Asian Literature Festival was organised by FOSWAL (Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature), co-sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs of Government India. As we know there are eight countries in the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This writer did not see any delegate from either Maldives or Pakistan. The Gala event took place between October 3 and 8, although the Reading and Recitation was only from October 3 to October7.
The leading figure in the organising this literary function was Shrimathi Ajeet Core, a prominent Punjabi writer. She and her daughter Kalpana and her staff took all pains to make this festival an enjoyable one.
In the inaugural function, I was happy to see Chandrashekar Kambar from Karnataka State speak. (Incidentally the epic poet in Tamil was also known as Kamban or Kambar). Another intellectual who spoke was Prof Ashis Nandy. Famous Bengali film director Buddhadeb Dasgupta was billed to take part, but being indisposed he could not attend.
There were other distinguished people speaking in the caliber of Muchkund Dubey, Shaida Mohammad, Syed Muazzem Ali, Vetsop Namgyel, Bharat Kumar Regmi and Chitranganee Wagiswara – all Ambassadors and High commissioners for the respective countries participating. On behalf of the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Wagiswara, who is bound to wind up her duties shortly, the Cultural Affairs officer at the Sri Lankan High Commission, hosted a dinner at the High Commission, to the Lankan delegation. Two of the staff of FOSWAL also joined us.
The following from Lanka participated at the Literary Festival: Bertholameuse Nisansala Dharmasena, Kanchana Priyakantha, Kanthi Wijeratne, Kandiah Shriganesgan, Kapila M Gamage, Kaushalya Kumarasinghe, Nadie Wasalamudaliarachchi, Neil Wijeratne, Somasuntharampillai Pathmanathan, Sumudhu Niragie Seneviratne, Thameera Manju and this writer.
Two other Lankan names were found in the catalogue, but I failed to spot Wijayasiri Mihindakulasuriya at the function. Except for the other two Tamil writers and Neil Wijeratne and Kanchana Priyakantha (Whom I met for the first time at the BMICH International Book Fare), I saw all the others for the first-time and made friends with them. I have seen my dear friend Samaranayake at the film festivals locally but had not befriended him before.
Although it was stressed that participants should read their works only in English, most of them read or recited in their own mother tongue and thus made the other participants uneasy. Only a few of them gave the English translation also.
I noticed our Lankan writers conducted themselves very well and spoke out well. They were very clear in the enunciation and brought out interesting facets of Lankan history and culture. I particularly liked Nisansala. Kanchana, Kapila, Kaushalya, Nadie, Neil, Ranmuka, Sumudu and Thameera.
I was glad Kanchana, Shriganesghan, and Pathmanathan presided over some of the sessions. And Sumudu had the honour of thanking the organizers on behalf of the Lankan participants.
Some brief notes on some of the participants: Nisansala works as a lecturer in the government sector, Dr Sriganeshan is a lecturer in English Language teaching at the University of Yaalpaanam (Jaffna) Kapila is a visiting lecturer in state Universities and a TV presenter, Kaushalya is a PhD research scholar in a Delhi University, Nadie is a TV Presenter and former news anchor, Neil is a practicing lawyer, Ranmuka is a journalist and social activist. S. Pathmanathan is a visiting lecturer in the Translation Studies Unit, University of Yaalpaanam (Jaffna), Sumudu is a senior lecturer in Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya, Thameera is a Media secretary at the Petroleum Ministry, Wijayasiri was a Banker and a Magazine editor.
It was a pleasure meeting such personalities and interact with them.
Some of the Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal delegates impressed me with their performances. They are too many to be quoted. Some of them gave copies of their works for me to give my reactions which I felt was an honour for me.