Report: Valedictory

       The valedictory session drew the curtains down on the three day long Literary Festival celebrating the bi-centenary and centenary of Charles Dickens and Sadat Hassan Manto respectively. The event began with a speech by the E.L.A. advisor Mr. Saroj Mahananda, who expressed satisfaction with the whole event. He talked about his earlier wish of organising the event on the scale similar to the Jaipur Literary Fest but it could not materialize due to lack of funds and infrastructure. 

       Throughout the fest Mr Mahananda was marking the whole organisation and had given a mere 5 out of 10 a few days ago, but today a beaming Mr Mahananda expressed satisfaction with the effort that the students put in and gave it a 10 out of 10, which delighted the entire audience. It was followed by an inspiring speech given by the Chief Guest, Dr S. M. Saajid the Registrar of Jamia Millia Islamia, where he lauded the efforts of the students and of the department in hosting such an event. He hoped that such a festival would be repeated again in the near future and on a larger scale.

      The Guest of Honour for the event was Sanjeev Agnihotri an AIR radio presentator , a theatre artist and production manager. He briefly introduced the life of Manto for the and on a lighter note he revealed that he would have been more delighted at being invited for the dramatics competition on the first day. It was followed by the unveiling of the “The Legacy of the Pickwick club” which was a large collage consisting of pictures and quotes taken throughout the event. The next was the prize distribution where Dr. SM Sajid and Mr. Sanjeev Agnihotri handed out prizes to the winners of all the competitions with huge rounds of applause echoing around the venue. This was followed by a presentation of the press club and behind the scenes of the Festival by the students who worked unseen and unnoticed.

The event closed with a PowerPoint Presentation by the students of BA Mass Media, in which the efforts were highlighted, the best part of the day, was, that the legacy of THE PICKWICK FEST will be CONTINUED!

-Farhain Khan

MA Final