Day five of the 10th edition of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet kicked off with a session on water conversation. The importance of conserving nature is of utmost importance. Noted wild life writer Bikram Grewal in conversation with Mridula Ramesh and Labonita Ghosh dived deep into India’s water crisis. He highlighted the importance of conserving water as India faces acute water shortage in turn highlighting how during the pandemic, Indians started to look at nature in a different perspective and how they have become far more conscious on the importance of conserving nature for larger interest of humanity.
The afternoon saw a power-packed session titled “Maganagarer Nayak”. Three eminent actors – Dhritiman Chaterji, Barun Chanda and Pradeep Mukherjee – who made their debut with cinema maestro Satyajit Ray as a protagonists shared their experiences on working with Oscar award winning director. They also delved into Ray’s film making process, and his vision about cinema.
Kolkata Literary Meet cannot be over without a session with Kolkata’s all-time favourite Ruskin Bond. Though he was not present physically, Ruskin Bond joined the session titled “The Spirits of India” virtually and discussed about ghosts, spirits and monsters along with Rakesh Khanna which awed the audience.
In the evening, Manu Pillai, Isabella Nardi and Gianluca Rubagotti shared their thoughts on Italian footprints across India in a session titled “Italian Brahmins to Firpos”.
Books have always been an integral part of Kolkata Literary Meet. Suman Mukhopadhyay launched his new book “Mancha-Chitrer Brittanto” in the presence of Kaushik Sen, Anirban Bhattacharya and Aveek Majumder.
On the East Gate Kalam Lawn, acclaimed author Kunal Basu shared insights about his new book with Raghu Karnad and Malavika Banerjee. Amish Tripathi known for his book series Shiva Trilogy which has set a record of fastest selling book series in Indian publishing history a decade back shared his experience on the book.
Another interesting session which saw full house was cricket writer and columnist Pradeep Magazine talking about India’s fascination towards cricket and how cricket and India have changed and remained the same over the decades.
Day five concluded with the screening of Ajoy Bose’s “The Beatles and India” and much awaited Goutam Ghosh’s short film on pandemic “Samayer Smritimala” at the Bengal Club.
On the penultimate day (Day 6), a galaxy of stars would descend on the Victoria lawns. Ghazala Wahab will be discussing her award-winning book – “Born a Muslim” and followed by Sukanta Chaudhuri and Doyeeta Majumdar discussing the impact of Dante’s Divine Comedy even after 300 years. In what is expected to be riveting session, Simi Grewal will be sharing her thoughts about her work in Satyajit Ray’s and Mrinal Sen’s films. Kalam 2022 saving the best for the last ends with a spellbinding classical sitar recital by Ustad Shujaat Khan.
