Hyd Lit Fest to focus on science & climate

Hyderabad: The 14th edition of the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) is all set to kick off – this time in the heart of ‘hi-tech’ Hyderabad. Between January 26 and 28, a host of speakers including Shashi Tharoor, Gurcharan Das, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Mukund Padmanabhan, and Amish Tripathi among others will gather at the Sattva Knowledge City. “We are excited to use this space — located within corporate Hyderabad — to bring new people to the discussion on environment and other such issues that are in focus this year,” said Urvi Desai, one of the festival coordinators. The three-day annual event will see Tharoor deliver the Ajay Gandhi Memorial Valedictory Session. Gandhi, a prominent resident of the city, was a key member of the HLF team who tragically passed away in 2021. Apart from usual fixtures, the festival this year will have three new elements — climate conversations, a focus on indigenous and endangered languages, and science and the city.“We felt like there was a synergy between the three new fields that we have introduced and we were already hosting events along these themes. There exists a certain lacuna in science communication with the public and we felt need for dialogue there. The same was felt for endangered languages. We think platforms like ours are important vehicles to facilitate conversations between the professionals and the public,” said Amita Desai, festival director.Odia is the language in focus for this edition which will showcase Odia authors and filmmakers like Lipika Singh Darai. Aligning with the UN’s declaration of the current decade as the ‘International Decade of Indigenous Languages,’ HLF will feature indigenous artists and authors of minority languages, such as Gond artists Durgabhai Vyam and Subhas Vyam and Santhali writer Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar.The festival will also witness a grand coming together of science and literature. STEM booths, mobile science exhibitions, workshops, and talks by scientists, science journalists, and science fiction authors are on the agenda. There will also be a generous helping of performing arts with folk dancers, indie music bands, and exhibitions showcasing various visual artworks trooping into the venue for three days.