Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2022 starts off on a high note on the very first day

The 13th Edition of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival commenced today with a distinguished line-up of speakers. The virtual event garnered audiences from myriad walks of life – bibliophiles, thinkers, intellectuals, and aesthetes, paving its way towards an iconic success. A classical tribute by Dancer Sohini Roy Chowdhury to late Pandit Birju Maharaj marked gratitude and admiration from the entire team of Oxford Bookstores and AKLF 2022. – Watch the performance here

Maina Bhagat, Director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, inaugurated the three-day literary extravaganza with a stream of eclectic words “It is a matter of pride to meet the exceptional standards that we at Oxford Bookstores and Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival have set for ourselves over the years. After the highly successful hybrid edition last year, we are ready with the 13th edition of AKLF to be held in a Virtual format due to the current pandemic. Literature and art have always stood as two strong pillars of elevating our community, and we believe that they will continue being so. The Festival commemorates the Centenary Year of the much loved Heritage Oxford Bookstore – the hub and nucleus of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival celebrating a century in Books. It has been a chronicler of history, having played host to the Maharajas of yore, eminent statesmen, and iconic personalities such as Sir V.S.Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Gunter Grass, Satyajit Ray and numerous others.”- Watch the inauguration here:

The opening session Minding the Mind with international bestselling author and licensed psychotherapist, global relationship and empowerment expert, and the author of Boundary Boss, Terri Cole and filmmaker and author of HINGE moderated by renowned television anchor and radio broadcaster, Sunit Tandon reasserted the significance of mental and emotional wellness in current times. – Watch the session here:
One of the most awaited sessions The Myth in Mythology—A talk by Indian mythologist, speaker, illustrator, and author, Devdutt Pattanaik has been a glimmer amidst our fight in the long battle with pandemic. Setting up the prelude for the enriching story-telling sessions; the talk teleported us to a deja vu point, through the lens of Mythology through his recent published ‘Eden’. In his session he beautifully describes, “As a mythologist, we have to be aware of the historical truth and people’s personal truth and the cultural truth. I strongly believe that mythology is about discovering stories in different ways in the subjective truth of different people. The bottom line myth in mythology is somebody’s truth. Everybody lives in myth. We all have our subjective truth and through conversation, we can expand our truths with each other. This way I believe we could be more tolerant towards humanity, religion, and other aspects of our lives.”- Watch the session here:
A FEED India Initiative —“A Life in Abundance for All” by Famous Chef Vikas Khanna deserves a special mention at a time when people are trying to cope up with the pandemic for the past two years. He was in conversation with Ruchira Gupta and during the nightmarish second wave, he monitored that the food is served to the needy with dignity and worked closely with the volunteers to administer the distribution. According to Khanna, “Volunteers are the ones who motivated me, apart from my inspiration behind serving people, my mother has motivated me throughout her life.”- Watch the session here:

About Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival
Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival is India’s only literary Festival curated by a bookstore and Kolkata’s first literary festival, reflects our city’s vibrancy of thought, its engagement with the literary world at large and explores literature as part of our tangible and intangible heritage. Celebrate books, music, art, film, and more with the finest creative minds in the nation and globally, as events unfold at the city’s magnificent heritage sites. Please visit www.aklf.in to know more.

About Oxford Bookstores
Established in 1919, Oxford Bookstore is one of the oldest heritage bookstores of the nation. It is India’s only bookstore to curate multiple literary festivals like Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Apeejay Bangla SahityaUtsob and Hindi SahityaUtsav. The Oxford Bookstore not only offers book lovers access to the very best books and ambience, but also India’s first of its kind tea boutique, Cha Bar. At Oxford Bookstores, success is measured by the smiles on millions of happy readers that the brand has served over the last 100 years. Each time you walk into our iconic store in Kolkata, its old-world charm leaves you enchanted and desiring for more. Our fleet of ‘happy to help’ the knowledgeable booksellers and conversant hosts, work round the clock to bring to our vendees and world-class reading experience. Be it through our books or our fine teas we abide by the brand’s motto – Much more than a bookstore – at every Bookstore.
Please log on to www.oxfordbookstore.com  for any further information.