SOURCE: HT

A three-day second Shoolini Litfest witnessed a galaxy of authors and celebrated different streams of literature, including poetry, fiction, folklore and sports writing in multiple languages, including Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi

A three-day second Shoolini Litfest witnessed a galaxy of authors and celebrated different streams of literature, including poetry, fiction, folklore and sports writing in multiple languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Pahadi and English.

Well-known sports journalists Pradeep Magazine and Sandeep Dwivedi delved deep into the ins and outs of cricket and sports journalism spread over a period of 40 years. They came out with rare insights into the game and answered a volley of questions from the audience in a lively session anchored by Vipin Pubby.

“Spin-the-Tale,” a short storytelling competition open to the public and university students, was the opening session. The competition was won by Apoorva Mamgain of DAV College, Chandigarh. The competition’s consolation award went to Aviral Aswan of DAV College, Chandigarh, Ranjit Kumar of Shoolini University, and Vidushi Gupta of Punjab University.

“Kavya Ras,” a session on Hindi poetry with panelists Prasoon Prasad, Vibha Ray, and Roshan Sharma, covered a wide range of topics in Hindi poetry, including contemporary, romance, and women’s poetry. The session, titled “Punjab Diya Gallan,” included Paul Kaur, Manmohan Singh, and Des Raj Kali and centered on Punjabi literature.

The final day’s sessions comprised Muskesh Williams, Ed Levinson and Jari Jetsonen’s ‘A photograph tells a thousand words,’ Howard Wolf and Christopher Helvey’s ‘Writing: Experience and Imagination,’ and Jaishree Sethi’s play ‘Woh Afsaana.’

Shafqat Amanat Ali’s session ‘Poets whom I have sung’ brought the Festival to a well-deserving conclusion. On day two of the event, Sharad Jagtiani’s ‘Sing me a song’ session and Jiya Lal Thakur and his Himachali Troupe performed songs.