Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Literature and spring will blend to form a creative cocktail at the 10-day Spring Fever, an annual literary festival, here March 4-13 at the India Habitat Centre.

The festival, presented by publishing giant Penguin India, will feature writers like Vishal Bharadwaj, Ruskin Bond, Javed Akhtar, William Dalrymple, Shobhaa De and Gurcharan Das who will read out from their books and discuss the emerging trends in literary arts.

Inaugurated in 2010, the festival promotes quality literature among the youth and helps readers buy books from an open air library that stocks all Penguin imprints ranging from the early classics to the new children’s series.

The highlight of the festival this year is a session, “Lights, Camera…Action” March 13 that will bring novelist Ruskin Bond and filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj on the stage to discuss movies and literature.

On Feb 18, Bharadwaj’s new production, “Saat Khoon Maaf” based on a short story by Ruskin Bond was released in theatres across the country. Bond appeared in the movie in a cameo role.

Bharadwaj had earlier adapted another of the writer’s short story into a critically- acclaimed screenplay, “The Blue Umbrella”.

Translations of Urdu poetry and Punjabi spiritual text will occupy centre-stage at a reading session, “In the Bazar of Love”, which will comprise presentation and readings from “In the Bazaar of Love: The Selected Poetry of Amir Khusrau”, “Zafarnama” by Guru Govind Singh and “Kama Sutra” by Vatsayana.

Cricket analyst and quiz master Joy Bhattacharya will anchor a quiz, “Howzzat” while William Dalrymple and Shobhaa De will read from their books, “The Return of the King: Shah Shuja” and the first Anglo-Afghan War” and “Sethji”, respectively.

The head of marketing at Penguin-India, Hemali Sodhi said the focus of the festival in 2011, like last year, was “readers is our way to celebrate the culture of reading”.

“Spring Fever is India’s very first literary spring festival to be organised by a publisher. At the core of Spring Fever is an open-air library which will present a great opportunity to readers,” Sodhi told IANS.

The themes are different from last year. “Since the World Cup is ongoing, the festival will feature a cricket quiz, an Osho workshop, a film screening and the launch of our new imprint, Penguin Young Adult,” Sodhi said.