“Chapter XI of the Khushwant Singh Litfest is both exciting and challenging for us, as it is after two years, due to the pandemic, that KSLF will be held in a physical format once again at the idyllic Kasauli Club,” said Rahul Singh, the festival director. KSLF will be held over three days, from October 14 to 16, with the theme, The Climate of Change: Still sprightly at 75? The philosophy is to look at the changes in the country after 75 years of our freedom and of course, the burning issue of climate change. The keynote speaker, Amitav Ghosh, will set the tone for the Litfest on October 14 at 11 am, with his talk on climate of change. The master storyteller will convey where we stand after 75 years of freedom, and the planetary, near-existential crisis, that humanity faces. “The festival began in 2012 and is probably the first named after a person, my father Khushwant Singh, and it has had so much support from every one, with more than a thousand people attending KSLF on every single day. It has put Kasauli on the literary map of India, and it is a festival that has been held every year, without any interruptions, except for two years due to Covid, though on popular demand, we had the festival online. Apart from literature, the issues that were very close to my father’s heart – ecology, education of the girl child, the Indian soldier, and Indo-Pak relations - have been an integral part of the festival. We had invited eminent Pakistani authors in the first few editions of the festival, and they were overwhelmed with the response of the people here, and how we were allowed to host them in a cantonment. Now, because of the strained relations between the two countries, we don’t have guests from Pakistan, though we believe that people-to-people contacts can improve relations,” said Singh. The three-day Litfest will feature a distinguished panel of speakers including Booker winner Geetanjali Shree, Rajmohan Gandhi, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Tusshar Kapoor, Raj Mohan Gandhi, Sathya Saran, Shazia Illmi, Mahua Moitra, Pavan Varma, Gul Panag, Usha Uthup, Muzaffar Ali, Ramesh Inder Singh, and Mallika Sarabhai. The mornings and evenings of the festival are devoted to music, dance and Sufi poetry. Entry to the festival is free for all. Register on kslitfest.com Livestream will be available on the homepage of the website kslitfest.com and on KSLF YouTube channel https:\\www.youtube.com\kslitfest.
