One of the biggest Hindi literary festival of the eastern region – Literaria 2023 – held at the B C Roy Auditorium in Kolkata was a grand success. The seventh edition of the annual three-day festival paid rich tributes to Harishankar Parsai, one of the prominent and satirists and humorists of Hindi literature, marking his birth centenary year.
Literaria 2023 was organized by cultural and literary organization Nilambar and attended by poets, writers, critics, playwrights and artists from across the country.
“This year the whole Literaria 2023 Fest was planned around the central theme of `satire’ as our tribute to the birth centenary of Harishankar Parsai, a noted satirist and humorist of modern Hindi literature,” said Sri Yatish Kumar.
Patron of Nilambar, Sri Mrityunjay Kumar Singh said, “Every member in his own role represents Nilambar. There is a need to introspect where we were at the ideological level and where we are going. Nilambar has given space to the youth with a view to ideologically enrich our future.”
Panel discussions on various literary topics were held along with musical soiree, poetry reading sessions, film screenings and live cultural performances.
Eminent critic Sudhish Pachauri while underlining the importance of satire through his presidential address said that Parsai exists within all of us who express resistance through satire against the powerful, exploitative class. Satire is a part of democracy in which disagreement is expressed.
Well-known poet and critic, Priyankar Paliwal said that Parsai’s satires are a subject matter of research. He further remarked that due to lack of conscience, we clap instead of protesting; satire fills this gap.
Eminent critic Mohan Shrotriya considered it more appropriate to call today’s era the era of disabled Shraddha. He asserted that Parsai had a deep understanding of world literature and world politics and Muktibodh’ is the example. Presiding over this session, famous storyteller and poet Uday Prakash said that at present the concern which is limited to health only, needs to be focused on thoughts also. He further said that the politics of modernity no longer exists.
The ‘Ravi Dave Samman’ and ‘Ninad Samman’ announced by Nilambar were awarded to Vinay Sharma and Ajay Rai respectively.