Day 1-Session: Poetry in social media era

Excitement reigned supreme on Day 1 of Kolkata Litfest session held at Oxford bookstore on the theme: ‘Poetry in social media era’. With the youthful voices of Karuna Ezra Parekh, TV Presenter, writer, poet; Sufia Khatoon, multilingual poet; Ayushman Jamwal, Sr Editor, CNN -News 18 and Somak Sinha, lead guitarist, Adbhutam Band, the session kicked off to an enthusiastic start. From ‘Does poetry still pack a punch?’, ‘role of social media in the spread of poetry’ to ‘social media backlash is real’ and ‘no matter what stand you take, you are crucified!”, the pros and cons of the social media landscape were discussed in great detail. The session came to a resounding culmination with a foot tapping musical rendition by Adbhutam band wherein they strung Kunwar Viyogi’s sonnets into lyrical melodies.

In a one of its kind futuristic session on comic con, Day 2 of Kolkata Litfest saw the panelists share unique insights on how spirituality can find its way into comics, at KVMT’s exclusive session on ‘Can comics be modern mythology’? The idea that, can characters like Batman and Superman infuse spirituality into today’s youth, ensued interesting conversations veering into countless possibilities. ‘Do we see a bit of ourselves in comic characters?’ was an insightful perspective discussed by the panelists that piqued everyone’s interest. Renowned panelists Pinaki De, Book cover designer; Rimi Chatterjee, Prof, Jadhavpur University and Ayushman Jamwal, Sr Editor, CNN-News 18 came to the unanimous consensus that people should be free to choose their spirituality; they should not be straight jacketed by commercial or religious interests.

‘Feminism – a dogma or democracy?’, ‘Either you are feminist or anti feminist’, ‘where does feminism come from’ ….innumerous viewpoints emerged out of the panel discussion during Kolkata Litfest on the theme ‘SheShines: Feminism – a force of change’ at KVMT’s exclusive session at Allen Park. Day 3 witnessed celebrated names viz. Anuradha Bhagwati, ex US Marine; Dr Garima Gupta, Associate Professor, University of Jammu and Ayushman Jamwal, Sr Editor, CNN -News 18 deliberate extensively on the conceptions and misconceptions surrounding feminism. In a session that saw the active participation of an enthusiastic audience, many myths were busted and many new theories established. A powerful discussion that threw light on novel notions of feminism stimulated the interest of the youth while reiterating that Kunwar Viyogi was indeed, ‘a feminist ahead of his time’!