After extremists derailed a similar event in 2011, J&K keeps its fingers crossed for Sounth
Forget Harud (autumn), it is Sounth (spring) in paradise.
Leaving behind the bitterness over the Harud literature festival, militancy plagued Kashmir is making a new beginning by using Sounth (spring) to showcase the literary taste of its forgotten people.
The three day festival, which kicked off on Saturday, would see the who-is-who of the literary world converging at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) on the banks of the famed Dal Lake to create a unique mélange of thoughts and ideas.
The festival is being held four years after zealots allegedly forced the cancellation of the first ever Harud (autumn) literary festival in Srinagar. Harud festival was scheduled to be held in September 2011 in which around 30 authors from Jammu and Kashmir and 20 from other parts of India were to participate.
"We are culturally very rich at least in north India but not much has been done to promote and preserve our ethos. This (Sounth) is the beginning. I approached many people including esteemed writers from here and others who have written on Kashmir. Many people have come and are sharing their ideas", Bashir Asad, the organiser of Sounth, told dna.
More than 250 writers and litterateurs are participating in the three-day festival which will have two technical sessions and a daily cultural event in the evenings.
"Actually 25 writers from across the country, who are somehow connected to Kashmir, will participate in the festival. Notable among them are Prem Shankar Jha, Sadia Dehlvi, Tarannum Riyaz, Beena Sarkar Ellias, Asha Khosa, and Ashok Vajpayee. Besides, we have local writers from J&K who will be participating", said Asad.
The highlight of the festival is the cultural evenings and the exhibition of rare manuscripts and handicrafts at the venue. "We have also organised the exhibition of some precious old historical manuscripts. There will also be a demonstration of handicrafts and handlooms. To top it all, we will be having fantastic cultural evenings of sufiyana music", said Asad.
The organisers are planning to make the festival an annual feature to promote the literary taste of Jammu and Kashmir. "Unfortunately even in our own homes we are not allowing our children to speak Kashmiri. What must lie in store for a nation in which the mother tongue is not loved? This year there might be some shortcomings. But we are expecting Sounth to become an annual feature so that our writers and artists from across the world come forward to showcase their talent", said Asad.
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