Patna Litfest 2014 ends

Patna, Feb 17, 2014: The Patna Literature Festival 2014 came to and end yesterday (Feb 16) evening with a concluding performance titled “Piya Bavari” by Pt Ajay Pohankar.

Today late afternoon I’ll fly back to Kolkata. The weather, afer a few days of downpour, has cleared up today. It seems the rain gods wanted to test the organizers of the Patna Litfest who succeeded in living up to the challenge.

I could feel that Patna has changed a lot. The locals, mostly the young people I interacted with, said the crime rate had come down sharply paving way for growth and development.

My thanks to Dr Ajit and Anvita Pradhan, their sister-in-law Aradhna Pradhan, for organizing a Litfest with a lot of content in seven languages – Hindi, English, Bhojpuri, Urdu, Magahi, Maithili and Angika.

My only regret of the Patna visit was that I could not visit St Karen’s School since it was weekend.

Although I spoke to Edward Galstaun, the current President of the school, he also told me that Boston Sir, who I still remember was our head teacher, is very much there leading a retired life. He also told me that next year St Karen’s would be celebrating its Golden Jubilee and that I must attend. Let me see whether I am able to do so.

One more thing, I was immensely impressed with the quality of service at Hotel Maurya. Not just the quality of food, the politeness of the staff was striking. The Hotel went out of its way to accommodate all my requests, including providing a separate lounge space to accommodate my large number of visitors.

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