The Tagore Festival, organised by India to mark the 155th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, has concluded with a seminar on contemporary literature here in Egypt.
India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya and Egypt Culture Minister Helmi el-Namnam inaugurated the seminar titled as 'Tagore, Shawky & Mahfouz', held at the Supreme Council for Culture in the Cairo Opera House. Indian and Egyptian scholars, writers also attended the seminar.
"We see Tagore Festival as a stepping stone towards triggering off more collaboration between Egypt and India," Bhattacharyya said yesterday.
The seminar tackled the life and similarities between the three major writers Rabindranath Tagore, Ahmed Shawki, also known as the Prince of Arabic Poetry and Egyptian writer and Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz.
Famous Egyptian poet and writer Mohamed Ibrahim Abou Senna, Egyptian writer and professor Mustafa Riad of Ain Shams University and Saugata Bose, Member of Parliament of India and renowned Historian were the speakers at the seminar.
Shawki has a great similarly with Tagore as he also wrote poems, plays and other kind of literature.
Both Tagore and Shawki believe that nature is the natural source of inspiration in poetry, Abou Senna said.
He said Tagore inspired many poets and that he himself, in the 1960s, read Tagore's Gitanjali and became captivated by the magic of Tagore and then he read more of the works by the Indian writer, which deeply affected him.
Mustafa Riad said the three writers Tagore, Shawki and Mahfouz had witnessed the crisis of modernity; the British occupation in India and the French Campaign in Egypt (1798-1801).
"The literature of the three writers is an international literature which calls for a world in which peace and fraternity prevail. As long as we celebrate their legacy, there will be hope for a better world," he said.
Saugata Bose, Member of Parliament of India spoke about the life of Tagore and said that the Indian writer was certainly no believer in a clash of civilizations.
"He was a modern man with universal aspirations of his own," Bose said. He also recited some of Tagore's poems.
During the past five days, Tagore Festival attracted many intellectuals who were keen on attending the various events at the festival.
The festival featured a painting exhibition, a book fair and the dance drama "Shapmochan" (Breaking the Spell) by well known Indian Classical dancer Dona Ganguly, a screening for the movie "Ghare Baire" by legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray while renowned 'Rabindra Sangeet' singer Shreya Guhathakurta gave a presentation during the festival.
