Chandigarh 8-10 Feb 2013
The 12th international conference of
MELOW on “Patterns of Story Telling:
Traditions, Innovations, Visions and Revisions” was held
at Panjab University, Chandigarh. This year it
dovetailed into the Fourth Chandigarh Festival of Letters (organized by
the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi) which was inaugurated by Sh KK Sharma, Adviser
to the Administrator. Presiding over the event was the Vice-Chancellor of
Panjab University, Prof AK Grover.
Prof Cheryl Johnson, from the Miami U of Ohio, gave
the keynote for the MELOW Conference. Her presentation was entitled “A Simple, Awful Truth: African American
Storytelling and the Pursuit of Freedom” and the subject was slave narratives. She focused on the agony, pain and fear in
the writings of AfroAmerican memoirs. The keynote set the tone for the
conference which focused on different aspects of story-telling, adaptations and
revisions. The opening session was followed by four parallel sessions in which
twelve different papers were presented by visiting delegates.
In the evening a special programme was held for the
visiting delegates. Irshad Kamil, lyricist-poet who is an alumnus of Panjab
University, interacted with the audience in a late evening session. He spoke of
popular and elitist literature, talked about the difference between poetry and
film songs, critiquing the reasons why there is sometimes a bias against the
latter. Irshad's session was greatly appreciated by the audience who wanted him
to recite more and more of his poetry.
The second day began with several parallel sessions
that were conducted smoothly, keeping to a strict time schedule. By lunch
time more than forty registered delegates of the conference had presented papers
on different aspects of the theme. These were divided into fifteen parallel
sessions that ran back-to-back through the morning. The post-lunch sessions
were devoted to Conference papers again, with fifteen more scholars presenting
their papers in six different sessions. Chairing these sessions were
senior scholars from Chandigarh and also from other parts of the country.
Several foreign delegates also presented papers.
The highlight of the evening was another
interactive CSA session with two budding creative writers who have scaled the
heights of success: Vikram Sampath from Bangalore, best known for his
novel My Name is Gauhar Jaan, and Siddhartha Gigoo, author of the
acclaimed novel The Garden of Solitude. Listening to these two very
young writers was a delightful experience. Present at the evening session was Shri KK
Sharma, the Adviser to the Administrator, who evidently enjoyed the
sessions with the writers.
On the final day of the MELUS-MELOW Conference
there were more than thirty scholarly presentations in nine parallel
sessions and one plenary. The highlight of the day was the special Isaac
Sequeira Memorial Session in which three outstanding papers by young scholars
were presented. In memory of the late
Professor Isaac Sequeira (of Osmania University) who was a leading academician
and the patron of MELUS-India and MELOW, the ISM Award is given to a scholar
below forty years of age for the best conference presentation. It is essential
that competing scholars should meet all necessary deadlines for submission of
abstracts and full papers. Thereafter, the written papers are evaluated by a
panel of senior professors and three best papers are selected for presentation
in the ISM Session of the conference. The award is highly prestigious and hotly
coveted by younger scholars.
This year there were 27 abstracts submitted for the
ISM Award, of which 10 were long-listed. The ten full papers were then
evaluated and three were shortlisted for final presentation. Navreet
Sahi, PhD scholar from the English Dept of Panjab University, competed for the
award with Garima Williams of Kanpur and Sangeeta Singh of Hamirpur. The
competition was very close as all three presentations were outstanding and it
was very difficult for the judges (senior professors: Sushila Singh of BHU,
Mukesh Williams from Japan, and Meera Malik from Chandigarh) to arrive at a
decision. Finally the award went to Garima Williams but the other two
candidates were also highly commended by the judges. The award comprises a
certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 5,000. Professor Sushila Singh delivered
the special ISM Lecture. Her subject was 'Art of Self-Telling: Reading Annie Besant's An Autobiography' and it
blended well with the conference theme.
The final Vote
of Thanks brought to a satisfactory conclusion the three-day festival of
letters. There was a glow of happiness on all faces, the sense of satisfaction
that comes from an enriching experience.
A General
Body Meeting was held in which several decisions were taken. The main
points discussed are listed below.
· The GBM began with a statement of
accounts by the treasurer, Anil Raina, which was passed by the General
Body. Although the society is in good
financial health, it was proposed that there was a need to increase the
delegate fee for future conferences. The exact amount would be decided by the
host institution after working out the costs.
· Revised papers of this conference (2013) should be submitted for
possible publication to aneelraina@gmail.com by the 1st of March 2013.
· The venue for the next conference was discussed.
There were several delegates from Jammu who volunteered to hold the conference
at Jammu University. A proposal also
came in from Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar. The house discussed the matter and it was
decided that (i) the next international conference in 2014 would be held in
Jammu; and (ii) LPU may think of hosting a smaller regional / local conference
/ seminar. Formal proposals need to be submitted, however, detailing the time
schedule and the format of the proposed events.
· The theme for the next
conference has to be finalized. Tentatively, the house agreed on “In a Wired
World: Literature in the Age of Information Technology”. The final title along
with the concept note will be circulated soon. Meanwhile suggestions from delegates
are welcome.
· Time and date: the host
institution will decide on the date of the next conference and convey the same
at the earliest. Deadlines for abstracts, etc will be announced thereafter.
· The following Office Bearers were elected for the next two conferences:
President: Prof Sushila Singh, BHU, Varanasi.
Vice-President: Prof Anil Raina, PU, Chandigarh.
Secretary: Prof Manju Jaidka, PU, Chandigarh.
Jt.
Secy: Dr Manpreet Kaur,
IPU, Delhi.
Treasurer: Dr Meenu Gupta, PU, Chandigarh.
Executive Members:
§ Prof Ashis Sengupta (Darjeeling
§ Dr Vijay Sharma (Delhi)
§ Dr A. Hari Prasad (Hyderabad)
§ Dr Roshan Sharma (Solan, HP)
§ Dr RG Kulkarni (Sangli)
§ Dr Pranav Joshipura (Gujrat)
§ Dr Seema Bhupendra (Rajasthan)
§ Dr Neela Sarkar (WB)
§ Dr Ravinder Singh (Jammu)
§ Dr Jyoti Mishra (CG)
Advisory Board:
• Prof Paul Giles, Oxford University
• Prof Mukesh Williams, Soka University, Japan
• Prof Sushi Dutta-Sandhu, U Mich, Kalamazoo, USA
•
Prof E. Nageswara Rao, Hyderabad
