Kaveri College successfully organizes an interactive session with World renowned PEN International Writers
As a part of the ongoing 84thPEN International Congress, an interactive session of PEN International writers was organized by Kannada Sangha Pune’s Kaveri College of Art, Science and Commerce on 28thSeptember 2018.
The world renowned PEN writers, Halina Cieplinska-Binter, Secretary General, PEN Polish Centre, Diana Cousens, poet and photographer, PEN Melbourne Centre, Dr. K.K. Chakravarti, Chairman, Lalit Kala Academy, Linguist and Researcher Dr. Madan Meena, interacted with the students on the theme of ‘Truth, Freedom and Diversity.’ Mr. Kushal Hegde, President, Kananda Sangha, Mrs. Indira Saliyan, Vice President, Kannada Sangha, Mrs. Malati Kalmadi, Secretary, Kannada Sangha, Mrs. Radhika Sharma, Joint Treasurer, Kannada Sangha, Dr. Ashok M. Agrawal, Principal, Kaveri College and Dr. Muckta Karmarkar, Vice Principal Kaveri College, were also present on the occasion. By their presence about 500 students, invitees, and literature lovers made this programme a huge success.
Halena Cieplinska-Binter in her comparative speech on Mahatma Gandhi and American poet Philosopher, Henry David Thoreau said that Thoreau, the father of Civil Disobedience is forgotten by American society but Mahatma Gandhi who imbibed Civil Disobedience very effectively in the struggle of India’s Independence is still being relevant all over the world. She said it is the most appropriate time to talk about Mahatma Gandhi’s values of Truth and non-violence as the world is in dire need of both.
Dr. K.K. Chakravarti said that today’s society is driven by media and the onus is now on the youngsters to differentiate between truth and fiction. He said that that writers world over are facing a threat to speak truth but they should not succumb to any pressure and continue speaking the truth and give voice to the voiceless.
Dr. Madan Meena gave information about the People’s Linguistic Survey of India’ which was a mammoth work carried out under the guidance of Dr. Ganesh Devy. He said that over 780 Indian languages got documented because of the survey and that to save Indian languages such efforts in digitalizing them for posterity is of paramount importance.
Diana Cousens talked about Mahatma Gandhi’s Inter-faith prayers and she recited her poems about Australian aborigines.
It was followed by a question-answer session and students asked varied questions on the topic of the relevance of the values of Truth, Freedom
and Diversity.
Prof. Sayee Kulkarni compered the program and Dr. Muckta Karmarkar proposed the vote of thanks.
