Kolkata Literary Meet inaugurated

The five-day Kolkata Literary Meet- 2017 got off today with 140 writers, politicians, journalists and thinkers from around the world attending it.
With the magnificent Victorial Memorial in the background, the event, one of the most important in the literary calendar of the city, was inagurated by Anita Desai, novelist and professor from USA, and Tata Steel executive director Koushik Chatterjee.
Chatterjee later said Tata Steel had enjoyed the association with the meet for the last three years.
Desai was thrilled at being in the 'City of Joy' after a long gap of 60 years and recalled her connection to the city, brief though.

The five-day jamboree boasts of a galaxy of luminaries like Paul Beatty, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, P Chidambaram, Shashi Tharoor, Ruskin Bond, Rachel Holmes, Soumitra Chatterjee Gulzar, Romila Thapar, Ramchandra Guha, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Akhtar and others. .
The two new focus areas in this year's meet are youth engagement and writing of history.
Another highlight is the trans-generational writing, bringing together writers from two different generations, which will be best illustrated by mother and daughter duo of Anita and Kiran Desai, Nabaneeta Dev Sen and Nandana Sen and the father and son duo of Shashi and Kanishk Tharoor.
The sixth edition of the literary meet intends to explore Shakespeare @400, an intrinsic way of dwelling on the journey of the legend and the 400 years of his literally omnipresence.