After a nine-day long festival of literature, culture, art, film, music, food, three sessions on ‘Writer’s Corner (Word World)’ with Gujarati actress Kajal Oja Vaidya, writer Jai Vasavada and poet Rajesh Vyas were concluded. The first edition of the Ahmedabad International Book Festival (AIBF) brought the curtain down on Sunday.
Kajal Ojha Vaidya led a discussion on women writers and characters in Indian literature, followed by a talk by author Jai Vasavada and a discussion on ‘Travel and Book Culture’ by Rajesh Vyas.
Chef Lokesh Parwani led a session on ‘Good Food, Good Mood: The Key to Wellness’ at Pak Sahitya Manch (Cooking and Kitab) while Children’s Corner (Pragya Shibir) scheduled three sessions a day. One was on musical storytelling by storyteller and trainer Vasudha Ahuja and composer Kunal Shandilya, another on calligraphy by visual artist Mukesh Kumar and the third on Gujarati ballads by poets and music artists, Kirit Goswami and Krishna Dave.
On the international stage – 3000 BCE: A dialogue between civilizations, Lucas Bohrer de Moraes, a student of Ayurvedic medicine, led the session on ‘Soft power that connects: Ayurveda, culture and literature’ on the final day.
The children’s film festival showcased titles like ‘Lost’ (from Lithuania), ‘Fire and Ice’ (from India) and ‘Selfie with Rostam’ (from China). The closing session of AIBF-2024 also saw a band performance by Mukt on the cultural stage (Rangamancha).
Organized by the National Book Trust in partnership with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the event brings together regional and international voices to celebrate the rich confluence of books, culture, cinema and cuisine as a whole, organizers said.
Inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on November 30 at the Sabarmati Riverfront Event Centre, AIBF organized over 340 book stalls representing publishers and exhibitors from across the country. The festival also hosted acclaimed and respected personalities from various walks of life for literary sessions, author discussions, workshops, music and dance performances, as well as culinary sessions.
The festival featured insightful discussions on Gujarati novels, literature and humor, the need for digital technology to help with human purpose, cultural narratives prevalent in Indian cinema today, development of financial literacy, importance of recording travel experiences, and more. Travel, the importance of building a personal brand, and India’s rich cultural ties with nations like Hungary, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, among many others.
Over the last nine days, the cultural stage (theater) saw performances by artists practicing various art forms like Bharatanatyam (by Monica de la Fuente), Kathakali (by Quijote Kathakali who recited snippets from the Spanish novel Don Quixote), Gujarati. Folk Fusion (by Rushabh Ahir and Tarika Joshi) and Folk Dance of Gujarat (by Jayatu Jayatu Gujaratam).
The Culinary Stage (Rasoi Aur Kitab) and the Children’s Film Festival add new layers of culinary art and cinema respectively to AIBF’s mission to encourage audiences to take a multifaceted approach while exploring India’s literary and cultural heritage, organizers said.