Dakshin Literary Festival 2020

Day 1: December 21 , 2020

7.00 pm

Shri Arif Mohammad Khan,
Hon Governor of Kerala

Taking South Indian literature to the world Opening address and festival introduction:
Prabhu Chawla ,
Editorial Director ,The New Indian Express Group
7.15 pm

The Making of the Modern Epic

Ashwin Sanghi
Bestselling author of The Vault of Vishnu and The Sialkot Saga
8.00 pm

Debate

Translation and the Indian gene: Taking local stories global
Gautam Choubey
Translator of Pandey Kapil's Phoolsunghi
Krishna Manavalli
Translator of Chandrasekhar Kambar's Two Plays
Himansu S Mohapatra
Academic, author and translator
Chair : Daniel Thimmayya
9.00 pm

Masterclass (Malayalam session)

The Kerala Code: Stories from across the ocean that we want to hear
Benyamin
Winner of the Kerala Sahitya Academi Award, Man Asian Literary Prize and the JCB Prize, Benyamin is popular for his books Aadu Jeevitham (Goat Days) and Jasmine Days
Lijeesh Kumar
Academician, author and screenwriter, he is the author of Gujarat

Day 2: December 22, 2020

7.00 pm

In Conversation

The Art of Writing a Memoir
Meghnad Desai
Economist, politician and author of Rebellious Lord
Chair: Kaveree Bamzai, Daniel Thimmayya
8.00 pm

Fireside Chat

Overcoming the Odds, Making it Count
Shaheen Bhatt
Author of I've Never Been (Un)Happier
Tahira Kashyap
Author of The 12 Commandments of Being a Woman
Chair: Daniel Thimmayya
8.30 pm

In Conversation

Sci-fi on a high: Is India raising the bar for good fantasy fiction?
Gautham Shenoy
Sci-fi writer and commentator. Pop culture curator
Arati Kadav
Director and writer of sci-fi film Cargo that premiered on Netflix
9.00 pm

Masterclass (Telugu session)

Feminism in Four Verses: Musings of a Telugu Poet
Volga
P Lalita Kumari, who writes under her pen name Volga is a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Telugu poet
Kadali Satyanarayana
Young author of the anthology of feminist writing, Mustard

Day 3: December 23, 2020

7.00 pm

Masterclass

Making the Gita Make Sense to Millennials
Bibek Debroy
Chairman of EAC to PM, Author and Economist
Chair: Kaveree Bamzai
8.00 pm

The Big Debate

Sense and Satire: Life in cartoon county
Rachita Taneja
Rachita Taneja started the webcomic Sanitary Panels that touches up themes of social justice
Ashvini Menon
Founder and principal designer at Ashvini Menon Visual Design Studio, formerly published cartoon strip Ecotism
Rohan Chakravarthy
Author and Cartoonist and illustrator of the popular Green Humour series
Chair: Daniel Thimmayya
8.30 pm

Fireside Chat

Death: An Intimate Study
Arun Shourie
Journalist, author and politician
Chair: Kaveree Bamzai, Daniel Thimmayya
9.15 pm

Conversation

The Anatomy of a Character
Aruna Nambiar
Author of Mango Cheeks, Metal Teeth
Priya Balasubramanian
Author of The Alchemy of Secrets

Day 4: December 24, 2020

7.00 pm

In Conversation

The Best Thing About Biographies
Anupam Kher
Actor and Author
Chair: Prabhu Chawla and Kaveree Bamzai
8.00 pm

The Big Debate

Patriarchy, Politics and the Power of Writing
C S Chandrika
Feminist author, academic, social scientist, activist. Author of several books, including award winning short story collection Kleptomania
Anand Neelakantan
Author of Asura, Chathuranga and other bestsellers. Columnist and commentator
Sharanya Manivannan
Poet and author of The High Priestess Never Marries and The Queen of Jasmine Country
Chair: Kaveree Bamzai
9.00 pm

Fireside Chat

No Child’s Play: Globalising South Indian tales for children
Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan
Author of several children’s books, including Indi-Alphabet, How Many Lines in a Limerick
Lakshmi Iyer
A banking professional who moonlights a writer, she is the author of Why is my hair curly?
Khyrunnisa A
Author of the Butterfingers series
Roopa Pai
Children's author with over three decades of experience in publishing
Laxmi Natraj
Veteran writer of children's stories
Chair: Kaveree Bamzai

Arif Mohammad Khan

Shri Arif Mohammad Khan, Hon Governor of Kerala

Arif Mohammad Khan (born 18 November 1951) is an Indian politician who is currently the Governor of Kerala. He has previously been a cabinet minister in the Union government. He has held several portfolios ranging from energy to civil aviation. He was educated at Jamia Millia School, Delhi, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and at Shia College, Lucknow University. He started his political career as a student leader. He was the President of Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union in the year 1972-73 and also its Honorary Secretary a year earlier (1971–72). He contested the first legislative assembly election from Siyana constituency of Bulandshahar on Bharatiya Kranti Dal party's banner but was defeated. He became a member of the legislative assembly of UP in 1977 at the age of 26. Khan joined the Indian National Congress party and was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 from Kanpur and 1984 from Bahraich. In 1986, he quit the Indian National Congress due to differences over the passage of Muslim Personal Law Bill which was piloted by Rajiv Gandhi in the Lok Sabha. He was against the triple talaq legislation and resigned because of differences with Rajiv Gandhi on this issue.

Ashwin Sanghi

Ashwin Sanghi

Ashwin Sanghi ranks among India’s highest-selling English fiction authors. He has written several bestsellers (The Rozabal Line, Chanakya’s Chant, The Krishna Key, The Sialkot Saga, Keepers of the Kalachakra and The Vault of Vishnu in the Bharat Series) and two New York Times bestselling crime thrillers with James Patterson, Private India (sold in the US as City on Fire) and Private Delhi (sold in the US as Count to Ten). Ashwin has also mentored, co-writes and edits titles in the immensely popular 13 Steps Series on subjects as diverse as Luck, Wealth, Marks, Health and Parenting. Ashwin has been included by Forbes India in their Celebrity 100 and by the New Indian Express in their Culture Power List. He is a winner of the Crossword Popular Choice Award 2012, Atta Galatta Popular Choice Award 2018, WBR Iconic Achievers Award 2018 and the Lit-O-Fest Literature Legend Award 2018.

Gautam Choubey

Gautam Choubey

Scholar and academic Gautam Choubey is known for translating Pandey Kapil's Bhojpuri classic and iconic novel Phoolsunghi.

Krishna Manavalli

Krishna Manavalli

Krishna Manavalli, who translated Chandrasekhar Kambar's Two Plays, has made the Kannada poet and playwright's creations accessible to English language readers with great skill and finesse.

Himansu S Mohapatra

Himansu S Mohapatra

Himansu S Mohapatra has had his training in literary study and has taught English at Utkal University, Odisha for almost two decades. He is known for his scholarly explorations into Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Vikram Seth and Aravind Adiga. This book is home to his “occasional”, but by no means insignificant, reflections which have livened up his otherwise “serious” pursuits.

Benyamin

Benyamin

Winner of the Kerala Sahitya Academi Award, Man Asian Literary Prize and the JCB Prize, Benyamin is popular for his books Aadu Jeevitham (Goat Days) and Jasmine Days. Benyamin is one of Kerala's most popular contemporary novelists, his work appears regularly on leading Malayalam publications

Lijeesh Kumar

Lijeesh Kumar

Short story writer and novelist Lijeesh Kumar entered the literary field with his novel Gujarat. The same was published in Desabhimani magazine.

Lord Meghnad Desai

Lord Meghnad Desai

Born in India, Lord Meghnad Desai is a member of the British House of Lords and an emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, where he taught from 1965 to 2003. In 1992, established the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the LSE. From 1990 to 1995, he was the director and founding member of the LSE’s Development Studies Institute. In 1991, he was made Lord Desai of St. Clement Danes. His book Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism (Verso, 2002) stated that globalisation would tend toward the revival of socialism. His other books include Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology of the New Terror (Tauris, 2006), The Route to All Evil: The Political Economy of Ezra Pound (Faber & Faber, 2007) and The Rediscovery of India (Bloomsbury, 2009).

Shaheen Bhatt

Shaheen Bhatt

Shaheen Bhatt, who has authored the book ‘I’ve Never Been (Un)Happier’ on living with and surviving depression, talks about how things began to change as she approached the age of 12 and “a lifetime of peace was suddenly disrupted by all-encompassing feelings of unease”. She is the daughter of famous Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt and sister of Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt.

Tahira Kashyap

Tahira Kashyap

Author and filmmaker Tahira Kashyap Khurrana's latest book The 12 Commandments of being a woman is filled with outrageously candid revelations. The book of essays — that could easily pass off as a memoir — is full of funny and relatable anecdotes from Tahira’s life. It has been a good year for Tahira, with her short film Pinni, starring Neena Gupta, releasing as part of an anthology, Zindagi inShort, on Flipkart Video.
Gautham Shenoy

Gautham Shenoy

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, writer and former international diplomat who has been serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He was formerly Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and contested for the post of Secretary-General in 2006.

Arati Kadav

Arati Kadav

The recent Netflix movie Cargo directed by Arati Kadav has been trending all over social media. The viewers are enjoying the never seen before experience of an Indian space sci-fi film. Cargo cast features Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi in the lead roles. Arati Kadav has resolved to dedicate her filmmaking career to the one genre she loves wholeheartedly—science fiction.

P Lalitha Kumari

P Lalitha Kumari

P Lalita Kumari, who writes under her pen name Volga is a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Telugu poet.

Kadali Sathyanarayana

Kadali Sathyanarayana

Kadali Satyanarayana is a young author of the anthology of feminist writing, Mustard

Bibek Debroy

Bibek Debroy

He is an economist, an advisor and the member of the Niti Ayog. But Bibek Debroy is much more than an economic advisor. His knowledge of Sanskrit and the scriptures can be challenged by few. He is also the Chairman of the PM's Economic Council. Debroy has made significant contributions to game theory, economic theory, income and social inequalities, poverty, law reforms, railway reforms and Indology among others.

Rachita Taneja

Rachita Taneja

Cartoonist Rachita Taneja is the founder of Sanitary Panels, an Instagram account that picks topical subjects to illustrate. In the words of Taneja, Sanitary Panels is a feminist webcomic that comments on politics, society, and culture. Her webcomic Sanitary Panels touches up themes of social justice. She uses stick figures because they are simple and effective way to communicate. Taneja called her comic Sanitary Panels because she wanted her cartoons to break taboos and be confrontational.

Ashvini Menon

Ashvini Menon

She formerly published cartoon strip Ecotism and is now the founder and principal designer at Ashvini Menon Visual Design Studio. Ashvini is the founder and principal designer at Ashvini Menon Visual Design Studio. She holds a Masters Degree in Graphic Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She is a strong supporter of sustainable development and also runs community-based projects to raise awareness of environmental issues.

Rohan Chakravarty

Rohan Chakravarty

Author and Cartoonist and illustrator of the popular Green Humour series. Rohan Chakravarty is a cartoonist, illustrator, wildlife buff and creator of Green Humour, a series of comic strips about nature. He believes that there is always a funny side to the serious things in life.

Arun Shourie

Arun Shourie

Arun Shourie is an Indian economist, journalist, author and politician. He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry.

Aruna Nambiar

Aruna Nambiar

Moving away from her corporate career, Aruna Nambiar nurtured her flair for words and became an author in 2014. Her first book, Mango Cheeks, Metal Teeth, a satire, was a coming-of-age story about a young girl's discovery of the world around her during a vacation in her ancestral house in Kerala.
Priya Balasubramanian

Priya Balasubramanian

Priya Balasubramanian graduated from Christian Medical College, Vellore and is a gastroenterologist and transplant hepatologist in Sacramento, California. Her non-fiction has appeared on NPR, Scoundrel Time and ROAR, and her fiction has been featured on Litro in the UK.

Anupam Kher

Anupam Kher

Celebrated actor and the former Chairman of Film and Television Institute of India, Anupam Kher is the recipient of two National Film Awards and eight Filmfare Awards. We all know about his extravagant contributions to the film industry, but he is also a well-known author. Anupam Kher recently launched his book, Your Best Day Is Today.

CS Chandrika

CS Chandrika

Author of several books, including award-winning short story collection Kleptomania. She is from Kerala who writes fiction and non-fiction and columnist involved in women's and human rights and environmental and development concerns.

Anand Neelakantan

Anand Neelakantan

Author of Asura, Chathuranga and other bestsellers. He is an author, columnist, screenwriter, television personality and motivational speaker. He has authored seven fiction books in English and one in Malayalam.

Sharanya Manivannan

Sharanya Manivannan

Poet and author of The High Priestess Never Marries and The Queen of Jasmine Country. First Book Award (Fiction) and longlisted for the Atta Galatta – Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize. She is also the author of two books of poetry, Witchcraft and The Altar of the Only World, and a picture book for children, The Ammuchi Puchi. Her poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in several journals and anthologies, including Drunken Boat, Softblow, Killing The Buddha, Full of Crow and Pratilipi.

Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan

Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan

Author of several children’s books, including Indi-Alphabet, How Many Lines in a Limerick, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan is currently a professional voice over artist. Her eloquent and warm voice has given life to documentaries, travelogues, children’s audiobooks and stage productions

Lakhmi Iyer

Lakhmi Iyer

Lakshmi Iyer (Tamil Nadu) - A former banking professional who moonlights a writer, Lakshmi Iyer is the author of Why is my hair curly?

Khyrunnisa A

Khyrunnisa A

Khyrunnisa A (Kerala) - Khyrunnisa A is a children's fiction writer, speaker, academic and a columnist, who created the comic book character 'Butterfingers'

Roopa Pai

Roopa Pai

Roopa Pai is a children's author with over three decades of experience in publishing. She is also a well-known computer engineer and journalist from Karnataka. Roopa was born in a Lingayat family in Bangalore. She started writing during her 11th standard, first writing articles for the Deccan Herald. She went on to complete her Engineering degree and moved to Delhi after her marriage. Here she started writing for the children's magazine Target.

Laxmi Natraj

Laxmi-Natraj

Laxmi Natraj is a veteran writer of children's stories from Tamil Nadu. The author is an educator with years of teaching experience. Her stories are a unique blend of her interest in scientific Advancements and her storytelling ability.
Prabhu Chawla

Prabhu Chawla

Prabhu Chawla is an Indian journalist. He was born in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, British India. He is alumni of Deshbandhu college University of Delhi. He started his career as an economics lecturer in Delhi University. He is the Editorial Director of The New Indian Express, a Chennai-based newspaper in India.

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an independent journalist with more than 30 years at India Today, The Indian Express and The Times of India. She was Editor of India Today and most recently of Robb Report India. She was the first, and so far, only woman editor of India Today, where she was employed till January 2019.