Literature – The real Common Wealth

(Paul Zachariya speaks at the concluding session of the 'Writers meet')

It is our tradition to enjoy every festival, be it sports, games, art or culture.On the (silent)side-lines of the second largest multi-disciplinary sports and games festival, ie., the Commonwealth games, Delhi had been witnessing many programmes including the ‘Writers’ Meet’, with literary personalities from Commonwealth countries.The apex body of Indian literature identity, ie., Kendra Sahithya Academy, was the host for this literary exercise.On the concluding day of the event, 13 October, there were five writers on the stage, with the absence of Rana Dasgupta who was down with the talk of the day disease, dengue.Of the five, four were Indian writers and one from Malawi.Indian writers included, Geetha Hariharan who have a Tamil-Kerala-US link in her built, Paul Zacharia from Kerala who is known for his ‘Bhaskara Patteler and My Life’(English translation of his own famous Malayalam novel), Surjit Patar who is a famous Punjabi poet and a retired professor of his language, and Tamizhachi Thangapandian(P.Sumati) a Tamil poetess and an active politician.The only foreign representative was Chisomo Mdalla, a young Malawian who have a variety of interests in creative thinking.He, is a poet, writes prose, is a theatre activist and he is good at fine art forms of expressions too.Every writer caught the attention of the audience in different ways, all had some of their works to present before the few who gathered in the hall.Surjit Patar, the oldest among the attending writers, was to start the presentation with his ‘Mago’(a Spanish word for magician) which arouse the curiosity inside a child for his magical touch on words to make it a poem.It was really catching for its simplicity and he was simple and straight in putting ideas into words with the remaining items he had.All praise should go to him for making the evening meaningful with his attendance and presenting his works.Sumati was very strong in her words and was taking some critical assessment on what happens around the world, particularly against the attack on a girl, who was in her pubescence, by US soldiers, which happened a few years ago in Bagdad, the capital city of Iraq.Mdalla was also very strong in his words, trying to put all his energy to express.Geetha chose herself to remain in the chair, the duty she had in the session.Finally, it was Zacharia to address the audience.But there was nothing new from his side.He was presenting a few chapters, from the beginning and end portions, of the novel ‘Bhaskara Patteler and My Life’(in its translated form) which was the story behind a Malayalam film ‘Vidheyan’.The efforts put in by Sahithya Academy should be praised for presenting an alternate side of Commonwealth which is the only Common Wealth in its real sense, ie., literature.