The 20th District Kannada Sahitya Sammelan, a two-day event, began on a dull note in Kalaburagi on Monday.
The event began with a cultural procession that marched from SVP Circle through the main road to reach Dr. S.M. Pandit Rangamandir where the indoor events of the cultural conference were planned.
The procession carried Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka Folklore University T.M. Bhaskar who was to preside over the literary conference.
Dollu Kunita, Tamate Vadana, Lambani Dance and other performances were part of the procession.
The procession could, however, hardly attract the common public. Only the office-bearers of the district unit of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, schoolchildren and a few people associated with the parishat marched with the performing cultural troupes.
The official inauguration of the cultural conference at Dr. S.M. Pandit Rangamandir was delayed by more than an hour.
Since most of the initial time was spent in welcoming and felicitating guests, there was little time for writer Rajappa Dalavai, who inaugurated the event, and Dr. Bhaskar, who presided over the event, to deliver their speeches.
“Kalaburagi is a land of Sufi saints and Sharanas [reformers] who advocated secular values, love and peace. The literature that was generated from the land also upheld the very principle of peaceful coexistence of different communities with different socio-cultural backgrounds. However, hate and intolerance are making inroads into this land and attempting to tear the harmonious social fabric,” Mr. Dalavai said in his inaugural address and called upon the people to protest against injustice and discrimination along the lines of castes and religion.
The people in the auditorium were found struggling to fight the heat as most of the fans in the auditorium were defunct. There was no air-conditioning either. Owing to the lack of time and against an irked audience, the organisers did not even briefly introduce the sammelan president.
When Dr. Bhaskar came to the podium to deliver his presidential address, an important speech in a literary conference, most of the audience had left the auditorium for lunch.
Despite the poor audience, Dr. Bhaskar could hardly touch upon a few things from his 30-page written speech. He spoke about the origin of Kannada language, its script, its interaction with other languages in the past, the language environment on the Karnataka landscape, contributions of Kannada to world literature and many more issues.
State Information Commissioner, Kalaburagi Bench of Karnataka Information Commission, Ravindra Dhakappa, Director of Public Library Satishkumar Hosamani, president of 19th Kalaburagi District Sahitya Sammelan G. Kalyanrao Patil, district president of State Government Employees Association Raju Leganti, district president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Vijayakumar Tegalatippi, district honorary president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Yeshwantharaya Ashtagi and others were present.
There were 16 stalls put up on the premises of the Rangamandir as part of Sahitya Sammelan. However, only one of them was selling books. Of the others, some were dedicated to displaying photographs and others were selling clothes, home-made products and other household essentials.
