Jammu Literary Fest to debut this year

Following the country-wide trend, Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, is set to hold its own Literary Festival this very year, in December.

“Jammu’s first literary festival, named Yayavar, is set to make its debut in December 2019. It will be a multilingual event, which will bring together the cultures and literatures of English, Hindi, Dogri and Urdu,” says Nupur Sandhu, Director, Jammu Literary Festival.

The event will host significant authors, poets and speakers, not only from Jammu, but across India and other countries as well. To name a few of them – Vandana Daji (Amora), Bippon Gupta alias James Brown (The Rochester confessions), Nilanjana (Vampire and Angel), Abhirup Dhar (Stories are magical), Minal Arora (Infinity), Ayushman Jamwal (Senior News Editor CNN-News 18), Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar (International Filmmaker, Philosopher and Painter), Meghna (Tsunami survivor) and Nalin Gupta (Entrepreneur who fought dyslexia).

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Nupur Sandhu, the brain behind literary event, is herself a renowned author, filmmaker, psychologist and therapist. With this event and a plan to hold it every year from now on, she wishes to change people’s not-so-positive perspective about Jammu and J&K as a whole.

“When I meet the youth of Jammu, I see that they do come out of their ‘emoji-land’ to read literature. Also, I have to realize they do not want to leave this peaceful place. So I rather propelled to provide them with a platform in Jammu, their hometown,” she states.

Describing the name for the event she says, “Suggested by Dr Amrish Sarup Kohli, ‘Yayavar’ is a Hindi word which translates to ‘wanderer’ in English. They are people travelling from one place to another, because they have no permanent destination. However, they travel in hope to find and learn something from their journeys. We have just tried to gather such wandering wordsmiths at one single place – our Jammu, while being optimistic that the event will give them another milestone to be touched.”

Yayavar, is a one-day and open themed event for its first edition, which can provide the much-needed platform to celebrate the rich literary tradition through book reading, poetry, debate and discussion sessions. The event can help in either reviving or advancing interest in reading, writing and listening among the people of Jammu.

Also: Read my article at THE DISPATCH