The Sahitya Utsab and Little Magazine Mela were inaugurated recently at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan in the presence of Joy Goswami, Debesh Roy and other eminent guests.

Speaking at the inauguration, author Debesh Roy said that he was happy to see new faces among the audience as that proved that young generation was coming forward and participating in bringing out little magazines. Without the participation of young people, the little magazines will not be able to prosper much in the future.

Apart from the inauguration ceremony, several individuals were awarded with different honours at the event. Some of them are mentioned below. Leela Roy Swarak Samman was presented to Puspit Mukhopadhyay, Tapasi Basu Swarak Samman was presented to Baby Sau, Somen Chanda Swarak Samman was presented to Tanni Haldar, Manojmohan Basu Swarak Samman was presented to Ganesh Halui, Suprova Majumdar Swarak Samman was presented to Ajoy Gupta and others.

Joy Goswami highlighted on the fact that eminent author Debesh Roy graced the inauguration event which was a huge thing for the event. He also said “Like Debesh Roy said earlier, we need to use literature to protest against various activities and also raise awareness among the people”.

Little Magazine Swarak Samman was presented to Baisakhi (for publishing rare writings of Hemendra Kumar Roy), Komal Gandhar and Krittibas.

About 400 writers will be participating in the event. 300 little magazine stalls will be there at the venue.

Different kinds of Bengali songs will be presented in the evenings.

The event will continue till 15^th January at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan.

Priyanka Dutta