'Meer ki Delhi': Celebrating the bygone era

The city's legacy of literature and music is being celebrated in a unique festival that will take the audiences on a historical ride to "Meer ki Delhi".
Organised by Sanathan Sangeet Sanskriti and eminent Hindi poet Ashok Vajpayee, the two-day literature festival, which started today, revolves around the themes of "City, Nature, Love and Loneliness".
Meer Taqi Meer, an important poet of the city in the 18th century, is the inspiration behind the festival, which has named all its sessions from his poems be it 'Kehte hai Bagh Baharan hai', 'Kaunn Jaye Meer' or 'Hum bhi Iss Zindagi Se.
"The festival will discuss what was Delhi years back and the several ways in which we can see how the city is today. The four themes here will be the guiding force," Trustee, Sanatan Sangeet Sanskriti Malvika Rai told PTI.

Taking part in this celebration of grandeur of Delhi will be eminent personalities like William Dalrymple, Muzaffar Ali, Surjit Patar, Mangalesh Dabral, K Satchid Anandan, Mrinal Pande, Pawan K Varma and Raghu Rai among many others.
"There are variety of discussions taking place in the festival. For example, we have Pawan Verma talking on the subject of loneliness, then there are young editors of digital daily talking about how the digital media has taken over things.
"So the panelists will be deliberating on very varied topics. And also there are some beautiful music compositions to complement the event," Rai said.

The inaugral event will also have a musical concert curated by Vikram Lall, the concert is titled 'Khayal Gayaki' (The musical heritage of Purani Dilli).