5 - 7 December 2019 , Thu - Sat.
GALF 2019 : Speakers | Programme | Partners | Performances | Artwork | Videos
Photo Gallery: Inaugural Day | Day 1 | Day 2
Samhita Arni
When she was eight, Samhita Arni started writing and illustrating her first book. The Mahabharata - A Child's View went on to be published in seven language editions and sell 50,000 copies worldwide. Samhita's second book, Sita's Ramayana, a graphic novel developed in collaboration with Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar, was on the New York Times Bestseller list for Graphic Novels. Her third book, The Missing Queen, has been published by Penguin (Viking) and Zubaan. Samhita's fourth book, The Prince, has been published by Juggernaut.
Tilak Devasher
Tilak Devasher is the author of three books on Pakistan: ‘Pakistan: Courting the Abyss’ (December 2016) that was termed ‘easily the best book on Pakistan’ by a noted Pakistani commentator – Khaled Ahmed; ‘Pakistan: At the Helm’ (July 2018). A Pakistani reviewer in Dawn termed it as ‘a book that any future leader of Pakistan ought to have by their bedside, simply because it is the sum of all that has gone before.’ The third book ‘Pakistan: The Balochistan Conundrum’ was published in July 2019.
Tilak retired as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India in October 2014. He is currently a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and also a Consultant with the Vivekananda International Foundation.
During his professional career Tilak served in J&K, Delhi and abroad. He specialized in security issues, especially pertaining to India’s neighbourhood. Post retirement, he has continued to take a keen interest in such issues with special focus on Pakistan.
Tilak has taken to writing after his superannuation. Apart from his books, he has written articles for a host of newspapers, magazines and think tank journals. He also appears regularly on TV talk shows.
Tilak is an alumnus of Mayo College, Ajmer and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
Ritwik Sanyal
Pandit Ritwik Sanyal, is one of the most eminent Dhrupad singers,disciple of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Zia Fariduddin Dagar ,he got Sangeet Natak Academy Aword for Music in 2013, he is also a great academic, writer and philosopher.
Retired Professor of the Banars Hidu University, where he was vocal teacher in the faculty of performing arts for 39 years, he has been also Dean of the faculty and Head of the department for several years.
He has been travelling across the globe since childoohod and tha is why he received a very special input to express with his own words and philosophy the ancient musical tradition of India.
His father was an eclectic philosopher and scholar, Prof. Batuk Sanyal and his mother, Shri Mati Ranu Sanyal a great writer and singer.
He assimilated his parents gifts and the Dhrupad tradition with a deep research in the indian tradition, both musical and philosophical , becoming a unique Master that combines the finess of singing with the logical way of Philosophy.
His master work Philosophy of Music is a book where he explains the sublime concept of music in philosophycal language.
Prajwal Parajuly
Prajwal Parajuly (b. 1984) is the son of an Indian father and a Nepalese mother. The Gurkha’s Daughter: Stories, his literary debut, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in the UK and longlisted for The Story Prize in the US.
Land Where I Flee, his first novel, was an Independent on Sunday book of the year and a Kansas City Star best Book of 2015. Parajuly’s writings have appeared in The New York Times, Guardian, Los Angeles Times, New Statesman and been performed on the BBC. He is the Clayton B. Ofstad endowed distinguished writer-in-residence at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri
Mustansir Dalvi
Mustansir Dalvi is an anglophone poet, translator and editor. He has two books of poems in English, brouhahas of cocks (Poetrywala, 2013) and Cosmopolitician (Poetrywala, 2018). His poems are included in the anthologies: These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry (Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo, editors); Mind Mutations (Sirrus Poe, editor); The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India (Vivekanand Jha, editor) and To Catch a Poem: An Anthology of Poetry for Young People (Sahitya Akademi, Jane Bhandari and Anju Makhija, editors. His poems have been translated into French, Croatian and Marathi. Mustansir Dalvi’s 2012 English translation of Muhammad Iqbal’s influential Shikwa and Jawaab-e-Shikwa from the Urdu as Taking Issue and Allah’s Answer (Penguin Classics) was awarded Runner Up for Best Translation at the Muse India National Literary Award in 2012. He is the editor of Man without a Navel a collection of new and selected translations of Hemant Divate’s poems (2018, Poetrywala). He has translated the poems of Hemant Divate from the Marathi in struggles with imagined gods and other poems published by Poetrywala in 2019. Mustansir Dalvi was born in Bombay. He teaches architecture in Mumbai.
Poonam Trivedi
Poonam Trivedi taught English at Indraprastha College, University of Delhi. She has specialised in Shakespeare Studies with a Ph.D from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. She has published articles and books in this area, especially on women in Shakespeare, on stage and film performance of Shakespeare in India, including India’s Shakespeare: Translation, Interpretation and Performance (2005), Re-playing Shakespeare in Asia (2010) and Shakespeare and Indian Cinemas: ‘Local habitations’ (2019).
Her larger interests extend to Indian theatre and women in the performing arts.
She has been the recipient of Fellowships at Queen Mary College, University of London, University of Hyderabad, Jadavpur University and has lectured at Rhodes College, Memphis, University of San Francisco among others. She has led seminars and panels at World Shakespeare Congresses, and has been invited to deliver many plenary lectures, including at The Globe, London, the latest being at Paul Valery University, Montpellier (Sept. 2019), and Queen’s University, Belfast (Oct. 2019).
Abdullah Khan
Abdullah Khan is a Mumbai based novelist, screenwriter, literary critic and banker. Born in a village near Motihari, Bihar, Abdullah was initially educated in madarsa (Islamic seminary) and Urdu medium school. In the mid-1990s, he discovered that George Orwell was born in Motihari. And, this Orwell’s connection with his home district drew him towards literature. Abdullah’s writings have appeared in Brooklyn Rail (New York), Wasafiri (London), The Hindu (India), The Daily Star (Bangladesh) and Friday Times (Pakistan) among others. His debut film as a screenwriter, Viraam, was released in the theatres in 2017. Patna Blues is his first novel which is being translated into many languages including Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Bangla and Tamil.
Nandita Haksar
Nandita Haksar was a journalist before her involvement in the women's rights movement forced her to take to law. For the past three decades she has worked as a human rights lawyer, campaigner. She has set many precedents in human rights and refugees law. She has taken up cases in the courts in India as well as appearing before international courts and committees. She has evolved and taught courses on human rights in various universities.
She was awarded a Degree of LL.D. (Honoris Causa) from NALSAR in recognition of her work in the field of human rights.
Haksar is no longer practicing law and has devoted her time to writing. She writes for various national and international journals including Scroll.in, Newsclick and Aawaz. She has published more than 15 books. Her publications include:
Framing Geelani, Hanging Afzal: Patriotism in the Time of Terror (2007) in which she writes about her experience of defending two Kashmiri Muslims accused of attacking the Indian Parliament, and Rogue Agent: How India's Military Intelligence Betrayed the Burmese Resistance (2009) in which she exposed the RAW, Indian’s external intelligence agency ; The Judgement That Never Came: Army Rule in North East India (with Sebastian Hongray, 2011); ABC of Naga Culture and Civilization (2011) which has been taught in schools for Naga children and; Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in North East India (2013); The Many Faces of Kashmiri Nationalism: from Cold War to the present Times (2015) and Framed as a Terrorist (with Mohammad Aamir Khan) (2016), The Exodus Is Not Over: Migrations from the Ruptured Homelands of Northeast India (2016), Antarctica: profits of Discovery Nationalism Beyond Borders (2018) and Kuknalim Naga Armed Resistance testimonies of leaders, pastors healers and soldiers (2019; co-authored).
Clarice Vaz
Clarice Vaz born in Kampala, Uganda in 1964 returned to Goa - Moira ,her ancestral home with her family in 1970. Although she excelled academically .....she chose nursing as a profession after desiring a career in serving others working in Bangalore and Mumbai briefly, eventually going back to her childhood passion of painting due to a health condition
Being self taught she has had several solo exhibitions in Goa. Today she is a contemporary Abstract Artist working primarily with acrylics constantly experimenting with colours, textures, mediums, gels using non traditional tools and even tools of her trade namely the syringe and different gauge needles, tubes etc. Her unique style of syringe painting which involves caressing the surface of the canvas with short bursts of spirals, dots, lines and curves have become popular with her clients. It's a tedious process. She also uses acrylic paste giving her paintings a 3D effect. Her creative endeavours include photography, writing short real life stories about village life.
Her love for her heritage drove her to create her first visual story book " A Song for Saligao."
She now resides with her family and two dogs in her pristine village of Saligao.
Abhay Sardesai
Abhay Sardesai has been the Editor of ART India, the premier art magazine of India, since November 2002. He has been a Visiting Faculty in Aesthetics at the Department of English, University of Mumbai; and the Chair of Humanities, Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai. Abhay has also taught at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS); the Bhau Daji Lad Museum (BDLM); and Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University. He writes in English and translates from Marathi, Konkani and Gujarati. Abhay has written widely on art and literature and read from his work at various places.
