Large crowds thronged the beach on the final day of the four-day-long literature festival which witnessed multiple sessions on gender, history, climate change and politics. Voices that addressed change in terms of climate, scientifically and politically, proved to be the crowd pullers of the festival over the days.
The final day of the festival was marked by the presence of writers such as William Dalrymple, Shashi Tharoor, Rajdeep Sardesai, Jairam Ramesh and Manu S Pillai to name a few. Stand-up comedians, Papa CJ and Anu Menon, were in a hearty conversation with Shashi Tharoor. Historians, Vikram Sampath, Manu S Pillai, Parvati Sharma, Prof. Arunima and AR Venkatachalapathy traced the echoes from the past and highlighted the need to craft narratives from the past.
Day four started on a calm note, featuring Madan Gopal Singh who took the audience through a journey of love and life. With a number of sessions chronicling narratives from the past, allowing one to trace the nuances of history, we learned to see history in a different light.
“My trip to Syria was a reality check on how alive the ideology is,” said journalist Anjana Sankar who gave a true account of her visit to a detention centre in Syria. Shashi Tharoor who featured in three sessions later in the day spoke about his latest book New World Disorder and Indian Imperative and the relevance of breaking away from the existing template of dealing with globalisation.
Popular writers of Malayalam were featured in various sessions that discussed the recent trends in the narratives and new books were discussed. Benyamin, Santhosh Echikkanam, Vinoy Thomas, TD Ramakrishnan were a few among the writers that spoke about politics and writings in Malayalam literature. The day also featured Sr. Lucy Kalappura who talked about her book ‘Karthavinte Naamathil.’
Concluding today, the festival will draw to a close today at 6:30 pm after the valedictory ceremony followed by a Sufi night featuring Ustad Madan Gopal Singh.