Moderating, speaking, organizing, coordinating, volunteering…these were roles played by UoH faculty, alumni and students at the recently concluded Hyderabad Literary Festival, which was held at the Sattva Knowledge City Campus from 24th to 26th January.
Faculty members Vinod Pavarala, Usha Raman, Anjali Lal Gupta (from Communication), Aparna Rayaprol (Sociology), J S R Prasad (Sanskrit Studies), Manjari Katju (Political Science) and Nanda Kishore Kannuri (Anthropology) were in conversation with eminent writers and artists across the festival streams. This year the festival was organized into 13 separate streams, and faculty were involved in five of these: Literary, Science and the City, Climate Conversations, Indigenous and Endangered Languages, and Kaavya Dhaara (Poetry). Sessions moderated by faculty included such names as journalists Rahul Bhatia and Sreenivasan Jain, authors Anita Nair, Anuja Chandramouli, Vayu Naidu (herself a UoH alumna from the early years), Saaz Aggarwal, Moupia Basu, Aparajith Ramnath, and Dinesh Sharma., and poets Arundhati Subramanian and Sridala Swami. Usha Raman also presented her new novel, Polite Conversations, at the festival.
Photos Courtesy: Saranya Pavarala
UoH alumni were also present as both speakers and moderators: Giridhar Rao (English), Jhilam Chattaraj (English) Sumana Kasturi (Communication), and G Subbarao (Communication). Prof T Vijay Kumar, Festival Director and one of the founders of HLF, is himself an alumnus of the Department of English, UoH. Six students from the Department of Communication (Ritayan Das, Anuja D, Jahnavi Bandaru, Kevin Abraham, Namitha Paripally and Shreya Dubey) were part of the volunteer corps, helping with keeping the sessions going smoothly and assisting in various ways.
This year, as in the past, the Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize was presented in a special session of the HLF’s poetry stream, Kaavya Dhaara, chaired by Prof Aparna Rayaprol. The winner, Ajay Kumar, received the award and citation from eminent poet Menka Shivdasani, jury member, The Department of English, UoH, collaborates with the Rayaprol Poetry Trust in the selection process.
The Hyderabad Literary Festival, now in its 15th year, has been the city’s pre-eminent literary event, attracting over 75,000 visitors over the three-day event. For faculty and students, it is an important way to contribute to and participate in the cultural life of the city.