Mountain Echoes 2012
Let the festivities begin
Pack your bags with some cozy woolens, a few favorite books
and oodles of excitement. The mountains are calling out to literature
enthusiasts as they gear up for five stimulating days packed with dialogue,
debate, prose, poetry, films, photography, music and much more.
Mountain Echoes, The Bhutan Festival of Literature, Art and
Culture starting on 20th May 2012 in Thimpu, is all set to host some
of the most renowned personalities from the worlds of literature, cinema, music,
art, food, media and photography. Few of the stellar names bringing all these
different fields together include Vikram Seth, Gulzar, Ali Sethi, Patrick
French, Dayanita Singh, William Dalrymple, Sharmila Tagore, Wendell Rodricks and
Amitabh Bhattacharya.
The festival will kick off on Sunday with a welcome address
by Queen Mother of Bhutan, HM Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Indian
Ambassador Pavan K Varma and festival director Namita Gokhale, followed by an
inspiring invocation of words and music, ‘Gaata Rahe Mera Dil’ by Sonam Dorji
and Ali Sethi.
The days to come will see a variety of fascinating and
eclectic sessions on subjects ranging from linguistic traditions, spirituality,
travel, Bollywood, folklore, music and lyrics. Some of the promising sessions to
watch out for at the Tarayana Center include The Rivered Earth with
Vikram Seth and Ali Sethi, Once Upon a Hill with writer duo, Kalpana
Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, Transcreations: Poetry Dialogues with
Gulzar, Pavan Varma and Sukrita Paul and Tales from Far and Near with
Tshering Cigay Dorji, Karma Tenzin ‘Yongba’ and Kishwar Desai.
For those out to explore other aspects of art and culture,
there are sessions such as, Moda Goa: History and Style with Wendell
Rodricks and Pramod Kumar KG, Exploring Cinema: Fifty Years in Films with
Sharmila Tagore and Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, The Music Room: From the
Classical to the Popular with Ugyen Pande, Amitabh Bhattacharya and Rekha
Bhardwaj.
The other venue hosting some of the sessions is Taj Tashi,
Thimpu. Here, the audiences can catch Gulzar talk about the metaphor of travel
in his poetry in the session, Musafir Hoon Yaraon, Dayanita Singh and
Aveek Sen discuss the genre of Photo Fiction, Vikram Seth, William
Dalrymple and Patrick French in conversation with Nidhi Razdan in Rolling
Clouds: Dreaming Mountains or learn some fun recipes as Sarla Razdan and
Kunzang Choden talk to Mita Kapur in Hill Kitchens.
While all these engaging sessions are on at these two venues,
a third spot – the Nehru Wangchuck Center will be screening some unique and
interesting films such as Bryan Adams: Bare Bones, Rocking the Hills, Sound
Check, A Composer’s Dream and Living Stories.
There is a music concert at the Clock Tower on
21st May when the festival will resound to the rocking tunes of the
band Eka.
With all this and more, the third edition of Mountain Echoes
is brimming with fresh ideas, activities and sessions, waiting to roll into
action.
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