The second day of Kerala Literature Festival, enlivened the beaches of Kozhikode brimming with sessions that gave insights on politics, history, culture and literature in connection to the theme and language in focus. The day featured sessions ranging from climate change, culture, new literary ventures, hosting book launches and conversations on history and politics.
Looking back on the lives and times of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta was the session that expounded his account on Kozhikode. The session, Ibn Batuta’s Calicut Trails gave a clear insight on the misconceptions that prevailed when it came to his travelogues. Mahamood Kooriya, stated that be panellist at the session stated that it was the cultural and religious aspects marked by Ibn Battuta is what that must be taken into consideration beyond all the misinterpretations and acquisitions.
A practical analysis of climate change and the efforts towards mitigating it was discussed through a conversation and panel discussion featuring Dr. Navroz K Dubash. “India needs to think about both climate change and development together. As a developing country India has more chance for change in the situation, with only 30-35% urbanization in India,” said Navroz while suggesting practical solutions for mitigating the climate change in the Indian context.
Book Talks on Early Indians by Tony Joseph and Accidental Magic by Keshava Guha traced the parallel journeys of writing non-fiction and fiction. Tony Joseph concluded that we are all the same stating evidences of migration and evolution. Tracing the journey of channeling magic and nostalgia through the universal favourite Harry Potter in his debut novel was the author of Accidental Magic, Keshava Guha at the session in conversation with Somak Ghoshal. All the four characters and the aspirations of the work were pondered upon and a deep insight of the book was previewed without letting out spoilers. When asked about what made him link Harry Potter to this work, Guha answered that he grew up with Harry Potter and though he was not a 'Potterhead', it was one of his favourites and also that he believes that Harry Potter is one of the factor that links the world unbiased.
Celebrating the literature of the guest nation, Spain were the Spanish writers Ruben Abella, Alejandro Cuevas and Ana Isabel Conejo discussing on the recent trends in reading and writing and their connection with Indian literary figures. They said that Rabindranath Tagore is a very popular Indian figure in Spain and contemporary writers like Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth also enjoyed a very huge fan following in Spain.
"I got many awards, but I didn't feel at home," said Taslima Nasrin talking about her journey as a writer and her upcoming book Shameless. She said about how she spoke for all the women through her writings and how she encouraged them to come out and fight for their rights. This being said she said how she was charged for hurting religious feelings of the people, which was her talking about human rights, and then she had to leave her country, Bangladesh. Throughout the session she reminisce how she had no country or home, she was banished from the cities and countries she wanted to be in.
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