From local lore to global narratives: Bangalore Literature Festival captivates thousands

Bengaluru: Celebrating all things Bengaluru and all things literature, the Bangalore Literature Festival’s 12th edition began with unboxing the city’s cultural and historical fabric to traversing through languages, experiences, realities and imaginations of the country and world, all neatly packed into over 75 sessions across five locations on Saturday. 

By the end of the day, an estimated 12,000-15,000 visitors had immersed themselves in the literary discussions and mountain-high piles of books on display. 

Author and physician Abraham Verghese, whose latest book ‘The Covenant of Water’ drew international acclaim, got the festival off to a strong start. He explained that a paper he had written earlier on infected patients prompted him to write his first book ‘My Own Country’ as the former fell short in capturing the depth of their emotions and lives. 

Author Ganesh Shivaswamy let the audience in on the work that went into his book ‘An Everlasting Imprint’. A massive undertaking of six volumes, he shared that he scoured archives, photographs, private collections and more. The democratisation of his art was a recurring theme in the conversation, something that is also discussed in the book. Illustrating his point, he shared that the artist’s rendering of Goddess Lakshmi can even be seen on calendars and auto rickshaws. 

Bookworms and bibliophiles attend the two-day Bangalore Literature Festival at Lalit Ashok in the city on Saturday December 03 2023.

A panel of experts dissected the lack of transparency that plagues several rungs of the judicial system, which is “unresponsive”. Journalist Manoj Mitta highlighted how this lack of transparency contributed to the denial of justice, especially to marginalised people, and pushed for greater accountability in courts. 

“We tend to personalise courts and make them about the people. Supreme Court analysis must be depersonalised; we must focus on constitutional outcomes instead,” said NLSIU vice-chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy. 

Historian author and activist Ramachandra Guha at Bangalore Literature Festival at Lalit Ashok in the city on Saturday December 03 2023.

Shoba Narayan, the author of, ‘Namma Bangalore: The Soul of a Metropolis’ had a chat with Ramjee Chandran, an author and journalist, about the accommodating nature of the city, which Chandran exclaimed drew a “whole new picture” of the city. 

A panel comprising bookstore owners discussed the topic ‘Literary Merchants: Tales from Bookstore Frontlines’. Krishna Gowda, who runs the Bookworm store on Church Street, stressed the importance of second-hand books in keeping the reading culture alive while Leonard Fernandes, who has a store in South Goa, advocated for bookstore crawls in cities like Bengaluru and Delhi.

Ganesh Shivaswamy.

Emphasising the sense of belonging offered by the city, she said, “Bengaluru is the most accepting metropolis in India. The people in the city with generational connections are very much part of the club culture here. But for someone like me moving into the city, it was places like Cubbon Park and Lalbagh that extended a sense of belongingness.”