Two-day Noida litfest ends with messages for women, environment

NOIDA: Giving strong messages on some contemporary issues like women empowerment, environment protection and right to education, the two-day Vibhor - Noida International

NOIDA: Giving strong messages on some contemporary issues like women empowerment, environment protection and right to education, the two-day Vibhor - Noida International Literature Festival 2019 came to an end on Sunday. The festival provided a series of interactive platforms for the readers, when they interacted with many award-winning personalities.

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There were over 40 artists, authors, politicians, illustrators, environmentalists, political commentators, and theatre personalities from India and abroad who made it to the event. Some prominent personalities who attended the event included Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Indigenous activist Emmanuela Shinta, Kathak danseuse Arushi Nishank, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) media co-incharge Neha Joshi and BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.

On the opening session on Saturday, while Sahasrabuddhe outlined India’s rising soft power, Sisodia laid stress on the need of taking right to education to the last left man in the society. The panelists also discussed several other issues like Kashmir, celluloid and environmental health. The first day of the fest also provided some informative platform catering sensitive issues like spotlight on initialism like lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ).

The second and conclusive day of the litfest began with a session on rise of Hindutva, followed by role of journalism in national news. Later, ‘political trend-watcher’ Tehseen Poonawalla outlined changing course of Indian politics, noted author Shunali K Shroff and her panel gave mantras for making bestsellers and BJP ideologue Anirban Ganguli described Amit Shah’s role in march of the BJP.

The final session began with Dogri poems that condemned caste system, followed by a session on women empowerment, in which the panelists claimed that sexism has become the part of political and academic discourse in India. The fest concluded with a lecture on celebrating life and work of Kaifi Azmi by poet Sudeep Sen.

“We are overwhelmed with the love, support and response from the people of Noida and other parts of Delhi-NCR. There was a huge footfall, more than we had anticipated. We are happy that people of Noida participated enthusiastically in all the sessions, be it storytelling or author interaction or panel discussions,” festival director Swati Sharma said.