‘We have a great responsibility to shoulder country’s future as a secular republic’

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 20:

“Writers and their writings come in all shapes and sizes. While some can spin one novel a year, others take years of inspiration to pen a line. We have a great responsibility as writers to shoulder this country’s future as a secular republic,” eminent writer Nayantara Sehgal said during the second edition of Tata Steel Bhubaneswar Literary Meet (TSBLM) here today.

The event was inaugurated by Nayantara Sahgal in the presence of Anand Sen, President, TQM and Steel Business, Tata Steel, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Editor, Sambad and Ananta Mahapatra, renowned theatre personality. The two-day meet will witness participation from over 40 renowned writers and novelists. The Tata Steel Bhubaneswar Literary Meet is in alignment with Tata Steel’s corporate philosophy of encouraging and supporting initiatives that aim to foster and encourage intellectual and cultural pursuits in society.

The literary meet aims to further the literary pursuit of Odisha, a state that is globally renowned for its cultural heritage. The idea is to bring on board varied areas of interest such as theatre, dance, music, cinema, journalism, and politics, all of which directly or indirectly influences literature of a given period.

“The country is undergoing political and economic turmoil. The crisis is prevalent in literature too. Media has to play a pivotal role if we wish to overcome these crises. We would continue our support to Tata Steel’s initiative in this regard,” Soumya Ranjan Patnaik said on this occasion.

On the other hand, Anand Sen, said: “Tata Steel’s engagement with the state of Odisha spans more than a century. Besides, all our social engagements here, it is also our endeavour to partner literary pursuits such as this. We hope that this event will grow in stature and become a must- attend for the literature enthusiasts”.

Tata Steel Bhubaneswar Literary Meet will present two days of intellectual discussions, debates, sessions on the rich literary world of Odisha and India. On its first day, conversation revolved around defining a classic, in a realm of literature that informs, enlightens and endures while being periodically questioned, critiqued and survive multiple trials.

In the session on Test Match, panelists elaborated Test match as the pinnacle of cricket, the finer art while T20 was a miniature that perfectly defines, ‘living in the moment.’

The session also saw the launch of Susmita Bagchis’s book ‘Beneath a rougher sea’ by Sahgal.  The discussion took up the growing concern on mental illness that remain undiagnosed,  the challenges of caregivers and the attitude of society towards people with pyscho-somatic behaviour.