Educate children in their mother tongue: Kiran Nagarkar

Kochi: "Children should be educated in their mother tongue and taught to love the language," according to   Marathi English novelist and playwright Kiran Nagarkar.

"Though my early education was in Marathi medium, later I changed to English. Every language is significant and I would like to learn more languages given a chance," he said inaugurating the Krithi international literary festival 2018 at Marine Drive on Tuesday.

The celebrated writer added that the people of Kerala were voracious readers and that he was envious of it.

Literary critic prof. M. Leelavathi, writers S. Ramesan, Vyshakhan, Ezhachery Ramachandran, C. Radhakrishnan, historian Rajan Gurukkal and Satchidanandan also spoke on the occasion.

The literary festival being held at Bolgatty Palace from Wednesday will be attended by 12 foreign writers, more than 60 writers from across the country and 250 Malayali writers. Entry is free for the general public. The festival is being organised at five main venues from Wednesday to March 11. There will be 130 different sessions which will begin by 9 a. with keynote address  by  eminent writers like Satchidanandan, N.S. Madhavan, M. Mukundan and C. Radhakrishnan. The sessions will conclude with open forum from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

There will be conversations and talks on different topics, including overseas literature and Indian literature after 1990, India's traditional knowledge, scientific thinking, gender justice, health, music, environment and agriculture.

The Krithi Book festival inaugurated on March 1 has attracted thousands of book lovers, including 10, 000 students.