MYSURU: Rajamatha Pramodadevi Wadiyar of Mysuru royal family will inaugurate the Mysuru Literature Festival here on Saturday.
During the two-day festival, hosted by Mysuru literary forum charitable trust and Mysuru book clubs, well known literary personalities and experts from other fields will take part. The festival will be held at Southern Star hotel.
Shubha Sanjay Urs, Chairperson, Mysuru literary forum charitable trust and Mysuru book clubs, said on the inaugural day noted mythologist and writer Dr Devdutt Pattanaik will deliver a keynote address on “Ramayana vs Mahabharatha”.
The highlights of the first day include the release of Manu S. Pillai’s book “The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History” followed by the author holding a discussion with journalist Preethi Maroli.
There will also be a panel discussion on noted litterateur and actor Girish Karnad, who died recently. Titled “Girisha Mandalada Sutha Ondu Suthu”, the participants will include Aravind Malagatti, Chaitanya Karehalli, Venkatesh Prasad and Rangayana Director Bhagirathi Bai Kadam.
On the same day there will be discussion on the state of the media - “Is the fourth pillar of democracy still strong?”, in which television news anchor Sreenivasan Jain, Shanth Kumar and Vikram Muththanna will take part.
On the second day Mahesh Rao will converse with veteran columnist Shobhaa De on “Shobha at 70 – a selective memory”. Former US ambassador and foreign secretary Nirupama Menon Rao will speak on the topic, “From diplomacy to peace-building in South Asia through music.”
Chandan Gowda will converse with former chief election commissioner Navin Chawla on “Every vote counts”. Air Marshal Nanda Cariappa will converse with Raghu Karnad on his book Farthest field: An Indian story of the Second World War.
To mark centenary celebrations of 25th Maharaja of erstwhile Mysuru royal family Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, there will be panel discussion, ‘Mysuru Wadeyara Pari Loka Paalakara Maadari’ by Eechanur Kumar, Gouri Satya, Dharmendra Kumar Arenalli and Prof C Naganna.
In order to inculcate reading habit among the younger generation, there will be two exclusive panels for children. Devika Cariappa will speak on “Finding clues of the past: Digging deep” to introduce them to Indian history through archaeology and well know conservationist Romulus Whitaker will speak on “The world of crocodiles”.
