Brahma Lit Fest brings south Indian literature to the fore

Bengaluru: The Brahma Literature Festival, which kicked off at the St. John’s Auditorium in Bengaluru on Friday, brings together the literary people of southern Indian states as a forum for multilingual discussions and insights. Popular names such as Banu Mushtaq, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Kasaravalli, TM Krishna and many more will be involved in events.

While the bulk of the programmes bring forward authors and poets talking about aspects of their works, there are also special stages. One is kept for children’s literature and the other for publishers. There is also a stage for audiences to meet authors called ‘Mukhamukhi’.

Kesavadas Achath of Repro Books said about the event, “It’s very good that it brings every one from the industry together. We have authors, publishers, readers and every aspect of it here. It helps the in dustry as it's all open and people are in a very approachable environment.”

The curtain raiser of the event in volved Booker Prize Winners for Heart Lamp Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bashti in a talk with Kanishka Gupta and Moutushi Mukherjee, and Swetha Yerram. While there was a wealth of talented literary figures at the event, the first day did not see a lot of the public attending.

Attendee Maya was surprised at the lack of visitors, “I am really surprised at the lack of crowd here, because the matter is interesting and there’s a focus on regional languages. With Bengaluru being a melting pot, I imagined there would be more people here.” She said.

Since the event is running during the weekend as well, there was an expectation that the crowd would swell further because there is still a lot more to come in the program. Athar, an attendee, said that he would like to see Manu Pillai, who would be coming on Saturday, as well as T.M Krishna.

The fest also has a large book seller section where Bookworm, DC Books and others have set up stalls. According to Apoorva, the section is well curated and has a diverse selection of books. “Initially, I thought they might be selling any good books. I saw that the National Book Trust had very well-illustrated children’s books, and at only 50 rupees, so it was a good price.

I got many of them for my nephew. They also had dedicated stalls for regional lan guages.” The event also has a large flea market and food court that has a large variety of stalls selling everything from chaats, sugarcane juice and biryani to dresses, jewellery and toys.