Bhopal : Following the exhilarating opening ceremony on Day 1, the second day of the Tagore International Literature & Arts Festival ‘Vishwarang 2020’ witnessed 13 interactive virtual sessions. The second edition of the National Tagore Arts Seminar was also held on this day, which put Rabindranath Tagore’s art creations and women in Indian arts in the limelight.
Speaking about the current situation of women in Indian arts, Supriya Amber said, “Just like any other country in the world, India too witnessed arguments on the subject of feminism, but there are strong voices everywhere to terminate such differences of opinion. If we try to understand this topic bit by bit, then one can state that “kitchen”, which is popularly known as a woman’s department, even there the contentment of work depends upon the male satisfaction. Similar incidents are discussed in every other topic in art as well, therefore a debate on this is very important. Art, culture and films frame the mindset of the society.”
The ‘Meet the Author’ sessions with Hector Gracia and Francesc Miralles of the bestselling book ‘Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life’ and with Sahitya Akademi and Vyas Samman awardee author Chitra Mudgal were the other major highlights of the day.
Applying the ideas of his book in the Indian context, author Hector Gracia said, “It is all about awareness and in India you are the experts of having awareness in life as there are a lot of ancient techniques. It can be types of moving meditation, for example yoga, which is a moving meditation and it helps you become aware of what’s going on and bring everything together. Once you are aware of something, then the next step, when you realize you are not in a good place, is to take action which is always the most important thing in life to really start changing things in life.”
Another major session that engaged the audience was ‘Poetry by Third Gender Poets’, which provided a global platform to the emerging third gender poets of India to showcase their work. Mx. Dhananjay Chauhan, who was one of the speakers at this session, said, “We are born the way everyone is. We are not aliens. We are a little different, which isn’t wrong. That is what diversity is all about. Your own body parts are different from each other, even your right arm is not the same as your left arm. So, why do other people have to be the same as you?” Touching on this theme in her session, Ms Chitra Mudgal, who is one of the leading literary figures of modern Hindi literature, said, “Do not deprive a child of their parents if they are gender impaired. Never make them question their existence on Earth.”
A critical discussion on ‘The Post-COVID World-Future of Education’ was held in one of the sessions, where the speakers brought into focus the need to transform the present day education delivery system to shape the future of the children in the post-COVID world. In this session, Mr S S Mantha, who is the Former Chairman of AICTE, said, “As the pedagogies are different, unfortunately there was no training for the teachers and they have been pushed into the activity of continuing teaching in a particular way. Online education itself needs a lot of other technology such as the Learning Management System (LMS), which puts together several things and creates data analytics from the students’ and teachers’ perspective.”
Day 2 of Vishwarang 2020 started with a dynamic performance on Odissi Dance by renowned dancer Bindu Juneja. As the day progressed, the audience got the opportunity to witness a session on translations of world poetry followed by poetry recitals, book discussions and a session showcasing the highlights of Vishwarang USA and Singapore editions.
Focusing on the essence of the Festival, which aims to popularize Hindi and other regional languages globally, a film by Jawahar Karnavat called ‘Hindi Magazines Around the World’ was showcased. It presented a rare collection of Hindi magazines and newspapers published from the past 20 years in various parts of the world.
The second day of the literary and cultural extravaganza ended with a mesmerizing poetry and shayari session with Indian lyricist, poet and screenwriter Manoj Muntashir and a ‘Dastangoi’, which presented the mystical journey of Amir Khusro by the Delhi Gharana.
Organized by Bhopal-based Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), in collaboration with the Tagore International Centre for Arts and Culture Bhopal and the AISECT Group of Universities, Vishwarang 2020 aims to promote Indian literature, art and culture on a global scale via discussions, discourse and more. The inaugural session of the event, which was held in Bhopal in November 2019, was a grand success and witnessed participation from over 100 artists from more than 30 countries.
Vishwarang 2020 will include 72 online sessions over 10 days on various topics of current relevance, including ‘The Post-COVID World: Future of Arts & Culture’, ‘The Post-COVID World: Future of Entrepreneurship’, ‘The Post-COVID World: Future of Healthcare’,‘Hindi Around the World: Teaching of Hindi in countries outside India’, ‘Contemporary Concerns in World Literature’, ‘Challenges in Literary Evaluation of Emigrant Indian Literature’ and many more. There will also be a number of ‘Meet the Author’ sessions with bestselling authors like Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Mamta Kaliya, Sudha Menon, Priyamvad, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and more.
