Karachi literature festival

A ROOM without books is like a body without a soul,` said Marcus Cicero a long time ago. One could say the same about a people without a love of books. Thankfully though, many Pakistanis have rediscovered the joy of the printed word if they had ever lost it at all as the increasing number of literary festivals all over the country indicate. The Karachi Literature Festival 2015 begins tomorrow, the sixth iteration since it launched in 2010. It has since evolved into a much-anticipated event, an intellectual and cultural oasis in a teeming, frenetic city

whose internal tensions often threaten to tip it into violence. Audience numbers have risen exponentially, from about 5,000 in 2010 to 70,000 last year. Speakers/ participants have similarly gone up from 35 to over 200 over the same period. This year, although the number of sessions has been reduced, they have been crammed into two days, which is certain to leave many among the audience feeling they have a choice too many.

Nevertheless, as always, the event will offer a platform for debate and discourse through panel discussions and talks on a diverse range of issues, as well as nearly 30 book launches.

While KLF is said to have taken its inspiration from the Jaipur Literature Festival, it has provided the impetus for other similar events in Pakistan, some of them organised by the KLF team itself.

There are now literary festivals in Lahore and Islamabad, as well as children`s literary festivals proving that instilling a love of books in children is possible even in an age of instant gratification via video games and multiple television channels. Nor are such events limited to the major urban centres of the country. Gwadar hosted a well-attended book festival last month. Some days before that, Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur was the venue of an international literature festival. All of which leads you to believe that the battle for the soul of Pakistan is far from over.