Pondy Lit Fest 2018 to start from August 17: Smriti Irani, Kiran Bedi as key speakers
puducherry : Literature lovers, Puducherry invites you to attend the upcoming Pondy Lit Fest 2018 to take place from August 17 to 19. Dubbed as Bharat Shakti, it is the first of its kind in region. The festival will throw light on diverse theme of literature, cultural, social, artistic and political importance. The event gets its name from philosopher Sri Aurobindo’s quote that reads thus: “India is a Bharat Shakti the living energy of a great spiritual conception and fidelity to it is very principle of her existence.”
The event will hold valuable words from key speakers like Union Cabinet Minister of Textiles Smriti Z Irani, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi and Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy as chief guests. The festival is being curated by Professor Makrand Paranspe and Lalit Varma of Aurodhan Puducherry.
Sources informed that people slammed @PondyLitFest’s post on Twitter for including either those are from the BJP or supporters of the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the guest list revealed.
Amish Tripathi, the author of the Shiva trilogy, Aravind Neelakanthan, the co-author of Breaking India, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM, Bibek Debroy, Swarajya editor R Jagannathan, founder of Tapovan Open University of Yoga and Ayurveda, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, national award-winning actor Pallavi Joshi and Dr Sampadananda Mishra, the director of SARC are some of the attendees.
Offering a clarification in a tweet, Paraspe wrote: “Wish to thank everyone for their support and suggestions. The festival is small, with limited resources. Next year we hope to do better with goodwill and additional help.”
He apologised for not inviting many other scholars and said he would “love to invite” the likes of Pavan K Varma, Shekhar Gupta, Vir Sanghvi, Suhel Seth and Raveena Tandon “if they were willing to come”.
The Pondy Lit Fest 2018 will be jointly organised by Indologue Events and Ideas and Alliance Francaise at different venues including Maison Colombani, Coramandel Cafe, Alliance Francaise and Aurobindo Society.
