“LBSNAA Festival of Literature and Arts,” 12-13 April 2019 will see a confluence of art, literature and administration, where at over a mile high in the sky in Mussoorie, artists, writers, poets and administrators, shall meet and mingle over two days.
Perhaps Mussoorie the distinction of being home to the highest density of published authors anywhere in the country. In nineteen square miles there are more published authors than anywhere else in the country. It all dates back to 1838, when the hill station was just thirteen years old as one of the earliest writers, Fanny Park wrote: ‘The beautiful rhododendrons are forest trees, not shrubs, as you have them in England.’
Following in her footsteps was Mauger Fitzhugh Monk, who wrote letters home in 1840 and gives us an idea of life in the hills when we were in our teenage years. Soon after came the writers of our earliest guides beginning with John Northam in 1870; F. Bodycot in 1900 and F. Wilson in 1936. The Austrailan John Lang spent the last years of his life here and gave us exaggerated accounts of life during the Raj. Among the famous are Kedar Pandey a.k.a Mahapandit Rahul Sanskritayan with fifty-six books in his eight years in Mussoorie’s Happy Valley. Others resident authors include those gone before us like Satyaketu Vidyalankar, Dr. Hari Dutt Bhatt and Sudhir Thapliyal. Presently Bill Aitken, Ganesh Saili, Ruskin Bond, Hugh and Colleen Gantzer, Stephen Alter among many others have kept the ink flowing.
From the 12 to the 13th of April, authors, poets, novelist from all over India will flock to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie to take part in the 2nd Edition of the “LBSNAA Festival of Literature and Arts.”
Among invitees are diplomat-politician-author Pawan Verma, Author Pooja Marwah, Author Mona Verma, First Naga-Novelist Easterine Kire, Lokesh Ohri, Bijoya Sawain, Pradeep Singh, Dr. Jaskiran Chopra, Author Raj Kanwar. The rest looks set to be a memorable feast of words and more.
