Tagore International Literature & Arts Festival hosted an interactive session of popular Indian author Amish Tripathi of Shiva Trilogy Fame as part of the curtain raiser of the 4th edition of Vishwarang International Literature & Arts Festival – 2022, at Jehan Numa Palace, Bhopal. The event was organized under the joint aegis of the Indore Literature Festival. The programme started with a memento being presented to Amish Tripathi by Shri Santosh Choubey, Chancellor of Rabindranath Tagore University, followed by the author being presented with a unique painting catalogue of Rabindranath Tagore by Co-Director of Vishwarang, Aditi Chaturvedi. As part of the curtain raiser event, the author Amish Tripathi announced the dates, the line-up of artists who will be gracing the stage at Vishwarang to perform, and he also unveiled the poster of the 4th edition of the Vishwarang festival.
During this session, Amish Tripathi appreciated the initiative taken by the Rabindranath Tagore University, Bhopal to create an iconic festival like Vishwarang, which gives a global platform to artists, while celebrating Indian literature, culture, art, music and cinema. He spoke about the importance of a festival of this scale in India and acknowledged it as one of the biggest festivals to promote and spread Indian culture across the world. Lauding the efforts of Shri Santosh Choubey, who was instrumental in conceptualising Vishwarang, which is now reaching out to the international audience to showcase Indian literature, art and culture. He said that the earlier distorted perception of India has changed positively abroad, thanks to the efforts of visionaries like Shri Choubey.
Dr. Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi, Parenting Expert and founder, Get Set Parent with Pallavi, moderated the interaction with Amish Tripathi. Amish said that the elite class in India needs to decolonize their mind. Giving an example of this, he said “We are making glass buildings in India, while the weather of our country is not favourable for it. This is because of the western mindset. The colonization of our mindset is visible in many aspects. We do not know many heroes of our history like Kanhoji Angre, Suheldev etc. who were amazing, and whose stories we should know, but our younger generation is not familiar with them. Similarly, we are often told that we became a nation in 1947 and the British raised us as a nation. Rather it is not true, thousands of years ago in our Vishnu Purana, Bharat is defined as a place south of the Himalayas and north of the Indian Ocean where the progeny of Bharata resides.
Speaking at the event, Siddharth Chaturvedi, Executive Vice President of AISECT Group said “Vishwarang has played a pivotal role in promoting Indian culture and literature on a global stage for the last 3 years and has given many young talented artists a platform to showcase their talent, Indian culture and heritage. We are honoured to have a celebrated author like Amish Tripathi come forward to support us in our endeavours, and share profound insight into Indian Mythology, while making it fascinating for the new generation, during the auspicious festival of Navarathri”.
The 4th Edition of Vishwarang International Literature & Arts Festival will be held between November 17- 20th.
