City celebrates Premchand’s works on 143rd birth anniv

Varanasi: The two-day ‘Lamahi Mahotsav’ commenced on Sunday with a painting competition held for school students at Saint Atulanand Convent School, Koirajpur to mark the 143rd birth anniversary of the legendary Hindi author Munshi Premchand. The two-day fest is being held by the regional cultural centre of the department of culture in association with the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Premchand Jayanti Ayojan Samiti, India Tourism and UP Tourism. As a part of the fest, events including seminars and cultural activities will be organised to celebrate the occasion. A march, led by the VBS president Rajeev Shriguruji and president of Muslim Mahila Foundation, Nazneen Ansari, was taken out by the Vishal Bharat Sansthan from Subhash Bhawan to Premchand’s ancestral house in Lamahi village. A seminar on ‘Premchand’s Lamhi-Literary Path’ was also organised at Subhash Bhawan on the occasion. Addressing the seminar, Kavindra Narayan said that the writing of Munshi Premchand is the mirror of the society. By giving a place to the women in his writing, Munshi Premchand made a revolutionary change in the literary world, he said, adding that he presented the events happening in the society through his writings.Presiding over the function, Gyan Prakash said that the literature of Munshi Premchand is a depiction of the society, the downtrodden class, women and the lower class. Young writers Maaz Ahmed and Shivam Pathak also expressed their views, and Shraddha Chaturvedi presented an inspirational story on the occasion.The girls of Uday Pratap Public School presented Chaiti and Kajri on the occasion. The students of 16 schools of Varanasi took part in the inter-school painting competition. The competition, based on the works of Premchand, was held in two categories of senior and junior classes. About 75 students of senior class (class 9-12) and junior class (class 5-8) participated. All the participants were awarded participation certificates.Regional cultural officer Subhash Chandra Yadav said that a function will be organised to felicitate scholars and authors at the Munshi Premchand Memorial at his ancestral Lamahi village on Monday. Later, a seminar on ‘Rasthriyata Ki Awdharana aur Premchand’ will be organised at the Bhagwan Das Library of MGKV.Besides, a series of cultural events featuring drama presentations and folk songs will also be held at Ramlila ground in Lamahi. Later in the evening, the Premchand memorial will be illuminated with decorative lights.