Hans fest on role of women writers in Hindi literature from October 28

NEW DELHI: Hans, India’s top Hindi literary magazine founded by Munshi Premchand, is organising a three-day festival at Bikaner House in Delhi starting October 28 to celebrate the role of women writers in Hindi literature in India.

Titled ‘Stri Srijan Ka Sara Aakash’, the festival will felicitate Geetanjali Shri for winning this year’s Booker Award. Geetanjali Shri debuted in Hans as a writer when her first story was published in the magazine by the then editor, noted Hindi author Rajendra Yadav.

Over 75 renowned speakers from the fields of literature, films and theatre will participate in a series of discussions during the three-day festival. Most of the participants would be women and the issues will range from gender equality to reflection and projection of women by our literary legends; violence against women and its expression in literature; Dalit writers and their challenges; changing face of women in Hindi cinema; portrayal of women in theatre; role of women in the field of translations and women in the publishing sector.

On the opening day, veteran Hindi authors Mridula Garg and Ashok Vajpayee will kick off the festival. Among the speakers from literature, theatre and film world who will participate in the discussions will be Himani Shivpuri, Ratna Pathak, Gillian Wright, Rakhshanda Jalil, Urvashi Butalia, Alka Saraogi, Sushila Takbhaure, Jaya Jadwani , Sudha Arora, Pratyaksha, Manisha Kulshreshtha, Nasira Sharma, Anita Bharti , Neelam Mansingh, Kirti Jain, Meera Johri and many more.

Each day of the festival will end with a short cultural capsule with programmes like one-act play on Mannu Bhandari’s story by Himani Shivpuri, Dastangoyi by Darain Shahidi and Mahmood Faruqi and Ismat Chugtai’s story by Jashn-e-Qalam.