Congratulations to Yatin Kakodkar of the ICG and Goa Book Club members Bhai Mauzo and Vivek Menezes for making the Goa Arts and Literary Festival a roaring success. There were many others like Goa Konkani Akademi members, Goa Writers and so on also collaborating.
Compared to the previous editions which I have witnessed this one was undoubtedly the most lively and well organized. Most of the sessions went to packed houses and others were very well attended. And sessions went on schedule even though the organizers had to forcibly halt sessions which were being raptly attended. After all the doubt and apprehension that has been expressed earlier the organizers will be very happy. No doubt structutral problems remain to be solved but at least this time there won't be many accusations of money going down the drain. Some of the sessions which I found very interesting were: Rajdeep Sardesai and Cyril Fernandes in conversation with Samar Halarnkar; Maria Couto and Vrinda Nabar talking about their books; Selma Carvalho's book launch; the poetry sessions, the translation sessions... There was so much going on simultaneouslly however that there were a lot of things that I missed. This year saw two new initiatives - the outreach program where speakers to GALF went to schools and colleges; and the inviting of school and college students to GALF. They were well received. I'm glad that the GALF authorities were able to succesfully take on the logistics of putting this into practice at very short notice. No doubt it will be fine tuned in future. There was a good representation of foriegn and Indian poets, novelists and non-fiction writers at the festival, although this year I thought the Arts section was a little subdued. Another new feature was the Babasaheb Ambedkar Lectures which tried to highlight the issues of the backward castes and communities and bring their problems before an upper class audience who generally think of him as only a Dalit icon. The lectures by Varsha Ayyar and Dr Chandrabhan Prasad on Ambedkar and Reservations and Ambedkar's India Project were on varied, even contradictory aspects of India's Constitution maker's thought. GALF has often been accused of being an upper class / caste festival and these lectures tried address the concerns of the oppressed. With Mr Yatin Kakodkar becoming Director of the International Centre, fresh young and dynamic blood has been infused into the organization which is very responsive to criticism and suggestions, and I would like to give him along with program director Arjun Halarnkar and his team a very big thumbs up. Best Augusto
