Bhopal Literature & Art Festival To Begin From 25 March

 The fourth edition of Bhopal Literature & Art Festival (BLAF) would be held on 25, 26 and 27th March at the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal. This was informed in a press release issued here on Thursday by former IAS officer Raghav Chandra, who is the President of the Society for Culture and Environment that has been organizing the BLF.

He said that while the festival is aimed enhancing overall appreciation of good literature, especially among the city’s young population, it is the endeavour of the Society to build this event as a ‘Knowledge Festival’ in which independent thinkers, academicians, authors, society leaders and experienced bureaucrats meet to discuss and present their ideas, experience and their new literary creations.

Chandra said this year again the BLF, which is already a prominent event in the capital’s cultural and literary calendar, is being organised in partnership with the MP Government’s Department of Culture and Tourism. ‘Along with established writers, we have also invited new thought-leaders this time round’, he said.

Chandra said that the authors and speakers cover a wide range of areas. Education historian Ms Sahana Singh, woman flight lead Manisha Mohan, Brussels terror attack survivor Nidhi Chaphekar, former central Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, former Ambassador to EU and Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri, leading art curator Alka Pande, former chief election commissioner and Muslim population researcher SY Quraishi, former Ambassador to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin, celebrity columnist Shobhaa De,  former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, authors Parthasarathy Sen Sharma, Anukriti Upadhyay, Ami Ganatra, Kiran Manral, RN Bhaskar, diplomat Soumya Gupta, acclaimed French novelist Pascal Bruckner, historian Vikram Sampath, corporate coach Bharat Whaklu, civil servant and Mt Everest conqueror Ravindra Kumar, ornithologist Dr Satish Pande, authors Harshali  Singh and Sadhana Shankar, environmentalists Krupa Ge, Aparna Karthikeyan, Suruchi Pande, Sanjay Kumar and Viju B, and many others have already confirmed their participation.

There will be special sessions on gallantry and heroism at the special request of the Union Defence Ministry which will include participation of General Milan Naidu, General RS Bhadauria, Ambreen Zaidi, Nitin Gokhale, Colonel Rohit Agarwal, UP Thapliyal and others. Authors from Madhya Pradesh — Dr Pradeep Kapoor, Abhilash Khandekar, Tarun Pithode, Pravir Krishna, HS Pabla, Anurag Pathak, OP Shrivastava, Dr Ritu Sharma and others are also being given a platform to present their scholarly works. The First Lady of Iceland Eliza Reid will also be a speaker through virtual mode.

Chandra said the Festival will commence on 25th March afternoon. The venue will be Bharat Bhawan. He appealed to Bhopal’s book-lovers and creative people to come forward in a big way to absorb various streams of knowledge and participate in this rich and intellectually vibrant event to help make it a grand success.

Literature quiz questions for the audience will be interspersed between sessions across the event with attractive prizes. He said BLF is Bhopal’s own event and it will further help position Bhopal as a culturally-oriented city of intellectuals and literary people.

This event is being organized with the close support of MPT, Culture Department, SISTeC, Bhopal, Tata Education, Coal India, and Vardhaman, India Oil and other charitable Groups.