I recall a couplet by poet Dushyant Kumar :
Sirf hungama khada karna mera maqsad nahin/
Meri koshish hai ki yeh soorat badalani chahiye//
( I have no intention to raise a ruckus
All I desire is a change for betterment )
MISSING young faces, no crowds and thin attendance are the highlights of the just concluded longest literary event in Jammu.
Merely going by the low number of the attendees on each day, organisers of the first-ever short story festival in the city must be disheartened. On an average there were no more than 25 to 30 heads in the audience on each day of the seven day long multi-lingual short story festival held by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture, and Languages. It was held in K L Saigal Hall, in the premises of the Academy, from 17 to 23 August.
As you read this column, the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art Culture and Languages ( Academy ) is 65 years old. This is quite a long journey for a cultural institution, accentuated with laurels as well as brickbats. First of all, my greetings to Secretary Bharat Singh Manhas and his team. Holding a week-long literay festival is a laudable effort, indeed.
During her six decades long existence, this is the first time, the Academy has held such a long literary festival. Each day of the festival brought us nine to ten short stories of a single language, read by their authors, before the invited audience.
Diverse styles of reading and different music of the words of each language presented an interesting ensemble. The languages featured are Dogri, Gojri, Hindi, Kashmiri, Pahari, Punjabi and Urdu. The audience was entertained to about 70 short stories during the week-long festival.
Why do we hold such literary festivals ? To my mind, such festivals are held for three primary reasons. One reason is to celebrate the languages themselves, underlining their history, journey, importance, glory, literary and social contributions. The other reason is to celebrate the genre or the form selected ; in this case short stories. The third reason is to ignite the young minds with the illumination of wisdom and bring them to the folds of literature.
The targeted audience of such a festival should be the youth, the GenNext, as we popularly call it, as a cliche. In all the sessions, the chiefly missing element was the youth itself. There were no young faces to be seen. Infact, the festival turned out to be a festival for the senior citizens. Most of the audiences were of age 50 years and beyond. Young minds of 15 to 35 years of age were sadly missing, even when there are two colleges just across the road from the premises of the Academy. I expected the 200 seat auditoria filled to the brim.
About five kilometres apart, there is Jammu University, which has departments of the languages like Dogri, Punjabi, Urdu, and English. Each department has an average enrollment of 80 students. Add to this about seven to eight teachers in each department. Yet, there was no representation from these departments.
Facing the University, we have Maulana Azad Memorial College which teaches all the major languages. For that matter, there were no students or teachers from the two Government Women’s Colleges in the city. Yet, sadly, on an average, there were no more than 30 heads in the audience, for any session on any day.
Students were nowhere to be seen during this important literary event in the city. Personal communications to the heads of the educational institutions, followed by visits of the secretary of the Academy to the vice chancelors and the principals should have made a much needed boost to the number of attendees at the festival.
There are several literary societies in the city, in the name of Dogri, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and so on. Most of them are registered with the Academy for the purpose of receiving financial assistance and other benefits. Two of these societies, namely, Hindi Sahitya Mandal and Dogri Sanstha, long ago crossed their diamond jubilee years and are nearly 80 years old.
Each literary society claims that it exists to protect and promote the interests of the language it represents. However, none of them lived upto the ideals with which they were formed. Members of these literary societies are expected to participate in the deliberations of such a praiseworthy literary event. Their active participation could have brought the much needed cheer and vibrancy to this LitFest. Apparently, more coordination, understanding and goodwill is needed between the Academy and the literary bodies.
I wonder if the Academy would like to analyse why these societies failed to participate, before releasing further financial assistance or granting concessions to them. Both must sit together to iron out the wrinkles in their relationship.
It may be worth telling readers of this column that the states of Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir, are the only states of India where Urdu is recognised as an official language. Therefore, it was heart breaking to find that an entire session of Urdu story reading had to be cancelled because the writers failed to turn up.
Music, literature and cinema are my cherished passions. I have been attending literary events from my college days. I have also been attending national and international film festivals, for years in a row. After watching the films, I extensively wrote about them. Such was my passion that, each year, unless there be operational requirements of the Indian Air Force that I served, I would plan my leave during the film festivals.
I have seen celebration of cinematic form in great measures. The interest and passion of the delegates knew no bounds. The two week long festival was attended by students, teachers, professionals, writers, film makers, actors and the likes in a celebratory mood that surpassed the euphoria of a big fat Punjabi wedding. A few LitFests of the country also boast of huge participation.
Each film festival offers film shows, seminars, talks, book release ceremonies, interviews with the celebrities, and other allied activities. We found long queues of enthusiastic cinelovers outside the earmarked venues. There was cheer and bonhomie all around. Similar should be the fate and format of such literary events.
Surely, Jammu too can have all the fanfare, glitz and content that is associated with literary festivals around the country. All we need is a thoughtful and meticulous planning with a feverish enthusiasm.
I have no intentions to suggest that the current hierarchy of the Academy is not capable of holding a festival like this in a befitting manner. But, for sure, one man army is not sufficient to organise a great and successful LitFest.
Only two officers of the Academy ( Shahnawaz Khan, assisted by Rita Khadyal ) were seen on all the seven days, as the key persons available to run the lack lustre festival. They appeared to have made all out efforts to succeed. But, if you wish to run a successful festival for seven consecutive days, efforts of just two officers can not be considered sufficient. It is a team work, and they need a larger team, unless you are happy with a lukewarm response like we got this time.
The secretary of the Academy was either busy with the administrators of the union territory or shuttling between several locations where cultural activities were being held simultaneously, so we learnt. I wonder about the wisdom of holding simultaneous events at different locations. Why not to concentrate on one big event at a time with all your might and make it a grand success ? What we need is quality in our efforts, not quantity.
I invariably desist from criticism on a personal level. In the words of famed Urdu poet Bashir Badr :
Main khud bhi ehtiyaatan uss gali se Kam guzarta hoon /
Koi masoom kyun mere liye badnaam ho jaye //
( Very cautiously I tread the lane she lives in /
Why should an innocent get bad name ’cause of me )
But, nevertheless, we must react to the situations presented to us by the established public systems. I have been rather fortunate to associate with planning and execution of several large scale events like charity film shows and air shows, during my stay with the IAF.
With utmost caution and humility at my disposal, I would like to take the liberty of making a few unsolicited suggestions to the Academy. I am confident that these humble and well-intentioned suggestions, if accepted and followed, should do the magic and produce a literary festival Jammu would be proud of :
Preparations for the festival must start months in advance. Stop all events at other locations a month before. Pull out desired number of cultural officers from other locations and form a core team to be assisted by junior staff, to plan and execute.
At least a month in advance of the festival, the team should visit educational institutions to address and apprise the students and teachers about the festival and it’s importance, seek their presence and participation at various sessions and events. Remember these are your targets to be sanitised and coaxed. Also hold interactions with literary societies of the city, seeking their suggestions and active participation.
Let there be social awareness about the festival. Use electronic media, YouTube channels, Doordarshan, FM broadcasts. Hold a press conference, put up several, and repeated, notices through various modes of social media like Facebook, WhatsApp groups, Instagram, emails. Use your well prepared mailing list and address books to reach your patrons.
Let there be flexes put up at all the important locations and encatchment areas advertising the festival. As I visited the Academy, I was welcomed by a flex of Bajrang Dal prominently hanging at the entry gate of the Academy ! All employees of the Academy and the thin number of attendees must have noticed it.
Festival venue must be sprurced up and decorated to wear a festive look in an aesthetic manner. Seek help from the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, and other art practitioners of the city.
Invite renowned authors from each language to introduce the language itself as well as the short stories of the respective languages.
Hold various connected activities like seminars, talks, discussions, interviews with authors, book releases and book signing events by authors.
Hold music concerts and dance performances in the evenings, at the venue.
The list is rather long, but completely doable and achievable.
Let us put in all out efforts. Only then can we expect good results.
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