Dubai to host world Marathi Sammelan

The second Vishwa Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal, will be held in Dubai from March 4 to March 6 this year. The first edition of the Sammelan was mired in controversy after it was held in the United States last year.

Mangesh Padgaonkar, a popular Marathi writer and poet, will be heading the meet. Padgaonkar, who was born at Vengurla in the Sindhudurg district on March 10, 1929, and has forty publications to his credit, feels there is nothing wrong in having a Marathi literary meet abroad.

“There are many Marathis staying in Dubai, which actually came as a surprise to me.” Padgaonkar, who was an editor with the US Information Service in Mumbai, said. “The Sammelan is no tourist attraction. The Maharashtrians living abroad cannot always come down to attend literary events and there is nothing wrong in taking our events to their doorstep.”

Padgaonkar said that the basic objective of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal is to reach out to Maharastrians and Marathi-speaking people worldwide.

“Apart from story-telling, poets’ meet, symposiums, seminars and cultural programmes presented by locals of Dubai will be the major attraction,” said Kautikrao Thale Patil, president, Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal.

A whiff of a controversy is surrounding the Sammelan after Thale Patil said that the chairmanship of the meet could be taken over by someone else after Padgaonkar accepted the responsibility.