Hay Festival Kerala begins November 17

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Hay Festival Kerala will have its official inauguration at the Kanakakunnu Palace on Thursday at 10 am.   The inaugural session where M T Vasudevan Nair and M Mukundan will discuss the evolution of their writings will be reflective of the evolution of Malayalam literature through two generations.   Shashi Taroor MP, will dissect the Indo-China relations against the backdrop of the rise of the two countries as superpowers in a session chaired by BBC presenter Anita Anand. Poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, French author Agnes Desarthe, performer and storyteller Cat Weatherill, science writer Simon Singh and Annamaria Motrescu who examines colonial amateur films, photographs and oral history records to research South Asian History, will speak on day one.   A session on Dalit poetry involving authors M B Manoj, Vijila Chirappad, M R Renukumar, Sunny M Kapikkad and S Joseph and another one chaired by K Satchidanandan and dedicated to the memory of the inimitable Kamala Das will be the other major highlights.