Buskers, photo novelist, performing artistes enliven literary fest

A group of students gathered around the buskers who were the major attraction at this year's Krithi literary fest organised by the government of Kerala. The fest had more on offer, other than the large line-up of books displayed, and the interesting discourses by writers and experts.
K V Sreeram from Tripunithura who is a poet busker with a typewriter says, "It is exciting to be part of the fest as the visitors here have an inclination towards literature and busking here provides creative satisfaction.Our group includes calligrapher Aju, an illustrator, poet and artists.” The instant poet impresses a bunch of students from Muvattupuzha when he spins a small beautiful poem in just 10 minutes from the words they uttered while standing around him.

"Since it was a huge crowd, I asked them for a few words. One said, daughter, another sun and someone said moon and I began the poem which is a conversation between a father and a daughter. It begins, 'Wake up my little daughter’,” he narrates. Calligrapher Aju, in turn, picks the words that strike him and creates calligraphy out of it. “Last day, someone say the word Pachapulparrappu. I was happy creating art out of it. This is my first experience at such an event and I am really enjoying it,” he says.

A photo adaptation of a novel
Another interesting highlight of the event is the photo exhibition by Manoj Vaikom. He had adapted writer C Radhakrishnan’s novel Theekadal Kadanja Thirumadhuram through 51 photographs. The artiste who took two years to convert the book into a series of pictures, “The images displayed are based on the places and context in the book.”

Cultural programmes
On the side-lines of these, many cultural programmes are also conducted as part of the 11-day -long fest which include yakshagana performance by K Ravichandra, fusion music by Lovely Janardhanan, sufi music by Ashraf, play mudiyanaya puthran by KPAC and so on. We share you some of the glimpse