Sanawar Lit-Fest concludes at Kasauli
The three day long Lit-Fest 2022, a literary extravaganza organised by the Old Sanawarian Society, the alumni association of the Lawrence school Sanawar established in 1914, that began in the salubrious 139-acre campus of the school concluded on the premises of the Kasauli Club, on Thursday.
The Lit Fest is conceived as a curtain raiser to the book “Tales of Sanawar” curated by Pankaj Sapru, an old student of school and published by Penguin Random House India. The Book will be officially released at Founders, on October 4, 2022. The Book contains 191 stories written by Old Sanawarians of different vintages, the oldest being from the Batch of 1953. Those who have penned their schooldays memoirs include Air Marshal Nanda K.C. Cariappa, Ranjit Bhatia (1960 Rome Olympian), Col. Rupi Brar and Col. Billy Sodhi (Arjun Awardees & celebrated Indian Polo veterans), Lt. Gen. Tajinder Singh Shergill, Navin B Chawla (former Chief Election Commissioner), Brig TPS Chowdhury (of INS Trishna fame), Siddharth Kak (Author & Television personality), Gen. Gaurav S J B Rana (former Nepalese Army chief), Dr. Harishpal S Dhillon, Sanjiv T Lall, Mohyna Srinivasan, Avtar Singh, and Rajika Bhandari (all published authors), Maneka Gandhi (MP & former Union Cabinet Minister), Omar Abdullah (former Chief Minister, J&K), Pooja Bedi (Actor, Columnist & Television Host) and Papa CJ (Stand-up Comedian & Author).
Over fifty distinguished old students of the Lawrence School Ssanawar visited their Alma mater to participate in the first-of-its-kind “Back to School” literary festival that witnessed four Story Reading Sessions, an Inter-House Quiz on the history and legacy of Sanawar school and a Panel Discussion on the significance of legacy Schools.
On the second day, during the two reading sessions held at Parker Hall (the school Library) and the school chapel, the oldest existing building of the school built in 1853, more than twenty authors read their stories enthralling the audience with their reminiscences of their school days laced with wit and humour. While the story by noted filmmaker Rahat Mahjan was read out paying tributes to his school teacher Dheeraj Sapru who was a major inspiration behind the making of his movie “Meghdoot”, Pankaj Sapru narrated a humorous anecdote that revolved around the legendary deputy headmaster of Sanawar, Mr. Bhupinder Singh who served the institution for 43 long years with unparallel dedication and commitment upholding the glorious tradition and ethos of the school. The headmaster of the school, Himmat Singh Dhillon who also happens to be an old student of the school of the batch of 1989 read his story on the occasion.
In the latter half of the second day, the quiz master Pankaj Sapru, dished out over 40 questions in a quiz pertaining to the 175 years old history of Sanawar school. The quiz had five teams wherein four teams comprised of the old students affiliated to their respective houses and the fifth team consisted of current students of the school. After nine adrenaline filled rounds, Himalaya won the quiz scoring 190 points followed by Nilagiri and Vindhya winning silver and bronze medal respectively.
On the third and the final day of the Lit-Fest, a panel discussion was held in which more than ten panellists shared their views on the significance of legacy schools. An old student of the school with a distinguished career, Air Marshal Nanda Cariappa(retd.) shared his pearls of wisdom on the importance of legacy schools and strongly commended these schools for their yeoman contribution to the society in all walks of public life. Omar Abdullah
former chief minister and also an old student of Sanawar, spoke his mind on the various nuances of legacy schools highlighting their contribution towards making of good and global citizens.
The Lit-Fest concluded with the fifth and the last reading session in which the most interesting stories, including the ghost stories of Sanawar were read by the authors themselves. The old students of 1950s and 1960s, recollected and narrated their nostalgia keeping the audience spell bound. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr. Pankaj Sapru, the vice-president of the Old Sanawarian Society.
