Promoting village tourism, this festival has been curated to help villagers grow economically and provide city dwellers a literary retreat in the lap of nature.
Dhanachuli in Uttarakhand is a small village located a few miles from Mukteshwar. The village life is arduous, but the simple and hardworking villagers carry out their daily duties with great reverence towards nature. For about 200 families dwelling here, the sources of livelihood are limited but man and nature co-exist.
Cut to city life, the daily grind to beat long traffic snarls and lives surrounding around laptops and smartphones are keeping city-dwellers away from experiencing nature’s gifts.
In the backdrop of Kumaon’s lush green hills, an annual not-for-profit literary festival is planned to partner the two to get the best from each other.
About Kumaon Literary Festival
From October 23-25, the who’s who of literature, media, education, art, cinema and music field will be in Dhanachuli to be a part of a village literary retreat at the first ever Kumaon Literary Festival (KLF).
KLF is India’s first travelling literary festival that, after soaking in the rural milieu and hospitality at Te Aroha, will then move to Nainital. Here, Abbotsford, a vintage summer house converted into a home stay will play host for the last two days of the festival on October 26-27.
The thought behind KLF
Lawyer-author-curator Sumant Batra, along with his small team, has put together a thoughtful event that will not just give city-goers a reason to break away from the monotony, but villagers an opportunity to explore new vistas and better their current economic state.
“It is the warmth of Dhanachuli, its beautiful people who inspired me to host it here. I am certain that the people who choose to come all the way to the hills will be engulfed in the powerful energy that the place inspires,” Batra says.
Talking about the registration fee for the event, he makes clear, “The fee has been thoughtfully kept, so that only the really keen ones make it to the event. Since it is the first-of-its kind event to be hosted in a village, we did not want to intimidate the villagers with a huge crowd; we want to be mindful and respect their space and have thus kept a limited gathering only.”
Sumant Batra, Founder of Kumaon Literary Festival
Adapting to the mountain way of life
“Local authors, artisans, food suppliers, volunteers, workers will participate in the festival too. Home stays have been facilitated; talented villagers will also be awarded at the event. We are not going to play loud music; we’ll keep the decibel levels low. The idea is to help them and not encroach their space with a glitterati event,” he says.
Here's what the festival has in the offing for you:
An eclectic blend of speakers and moderators: Over the span of five days, around 120 speakers from India and abroad, will share the dais and engage the audience on topics of history, humour, heritage, nature, politics, poetry, roles of women, food, folktales, black magic, theatre et al.
Three time National Award winning actor Rajat Kapoor, best-selling author Tuhin Sinha, renowned name in Hindi crime fiction Surendra Mohan Pathak, best known journalist, Padam Shri award winner Barkha Dutt, eminent historian Vikram Sampath, India’s leading puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee, co-founder and director of the Jaipur Literature Festival Namita Gokhale, anchor-chef Aditya Bal, acclaimed Pakistani writer Kanza Javed and Israel-based Jewish writer Sarah Blau are some of the illustrious speakers who will be at the festival.
The speakers at Kumaon Literary Festival
Curious sessions: A wide range of topics will be discussed during the festival. The ones which incite instant curiosity are sessions on witchcraft and black magic, ballads of Basanti Devi, the role of women in ancient India, bloggers' space in digital world, young writers in publishing world, re-emergence of graphic novels, Slogan war: The changing phase of political campaigning, Hindustani poetry and legends of Indian cinema amidst others. The strong and impressive line-up seems to promise interaction on a range of issues.
A look at some interesting events: Apart from sessions, book releases, readings, narrations, there are some really out-of-the box events lined up that are experiential in nature and blend very well with the hosting places. They include an evening of sufi songs, a star gazing session, an astrophotography workshop, wine and tea tasting sessions and heritage walk among the woods and valleys.
More details of the festival are available here. The festival website will also have a live webcast of the sessions.
Here’s a preview of the event:
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 "Uttarakhand’s village Dhanachuli")
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