Pen Drive: Samanvay Indian Languages Festival to put regional languages in spotlight

Swanand Kirkire, Khushwant Singh, Ashok Vajpeyi

In tune with its theme of “Translations Transnations”, the 2014 edition of Samanvay Indian Languages Festival will put a slew of regional languages in the spotlight. These will include Bangla, Bhojpuri, Chhattisgarhi, Hindi, Konkani, Malayalam, Punjabi and Sanskrit.

This is the fourth edition of the annual event held at India Habitat Centre, and is tipped to be bigger than before. To be held from November 6-9, it features more than 90 speakers and performers representing 20 languages and dialects across 21 sessions, four evening performances and workshops for children. For the first time, the festival will also host writers from other South Asian countries.

The likes of Altaf Tyrewala, Anvar Ali, Arunava Sinha, Asad Zaidi, Badri Narayan, CS Lakshmi, Gillian Wright, Jerry Pinto, Melvyn Rodrigues, Swanand Kirkire and Syed Samsul Haq will represent an Indian language each. The idea is to bring together authors and translators across languages and nations, to discuss how languages travel and get translated. Festival Director Rakesh Kacker says, “In the last three years, we have been able to make Samanvay a platform of diverse and unique voices from Indian languages and dialects. We hope to bring voices of dissent and agreement, hope and despair, anger and calm together to forge dialogues and partnerships.”