DATE TIME VENUE SESSIONSWednesday 11.30 am Son-et-Lumiere Inauguration by Anita Desai January 25 Victoria Memorial Hall

11.50 am Writings of a Lifetime: Anita Desai in conversation with Supriya Chaudhuri

12.45 pm North South Dialogues: Are stories from Tamil literature gaining a larger audience in the north? Perumal Murugan and Kannan Sundaram in conversation with Samantak Das

12.45 pm Western Quadrangle Tweets, Trolls and Lols: Arnab Ray (@greatbong) and Swati Chaturvedi Victoria Memorial Hall (@bainjal) discuss the parallel universe that is Twitter. In conversation with Poorna Banerjee

2.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere, How did Donald Trump the Press and Poll Pundits? Victoria Memorial Hall Kanishk Tharoor, Deepa Iyer, Sandip Roy and Firoozeh Dumas discuss the election that divided America. In conversation with Devdan Chaudhuri

2.30 pm Western Quadrangle Literature Across Frontiers: Roman Simič, Inga Žolude Victoria Memorial Hall and Marina Perezagua on modern trends in European writing. In conversation with Alexandra Büchler

3.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere Mahasweta Devi, the Literary Legacy and Beyond: Swapnamoy Victoria Memorial Hall Chakraborty, Usha Ganguli, and Ina Puri in conversation with Snigdhendu Bhattacharya (Bengali Session)

3.30 pm Western Quadrangle Times They are a Changing — Dylan and Cohen: Homage to the Victoria Memorial Hall poetry and songs of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen with Joie Bose, Ananya Chatterjee and Saira Shah Halim. With Arthur Cardozo. Music by Rahul Guha Roy

4.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere The Sellout: Paul Beatty discusses his Victoria Memorial Hall Booker Prize-winning novel with Sandip Roy

4.30 pm Western Quadrangle Taranath Tantrik: Release of graphic novel based on Taradas Victoria Memorial Hall Bandyopadhyay’s cult book, followed by a discussion featuring Surojit Sen, Anirban Mukhopadhyay and Tathagatha Banerjee. Accompanied by a preview to installation and performance at 50A Harish Mukherjee Road from January 27-29; 5.00-8.00 pm (Bengali Session)

5.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere Brexit and the Arts: Shami Chakrabarti, Stephen Kelman, Victoria Memorial Hall Philip Hensher and Rachel Holmes discuss the referendum and whether it will change UK forever. In conversation with Pradeep Gooptu

5.15 pm Western Quadrangle Paanch Doshok ar 200 Bochhor: Jayanta Mitra, Ashim Chatterjee, Victoria Memorial Hall Dr. Anuradha Lohia, Paroma Roy Chowdhury, and Boria Majumdar discuss their days at Presidency College. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali Session)

6.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere India @ 70, a Report Card: Victoria Memorial Hall Ramachandra Guha examines seven decades of democracy

7.15 pm An Era of Darkness: Shashi Tharoor on the cost of Empire that India had to bear. In conversation with Sugata Bose

DATE TIME VENUE SESSIONSWednesday 8.30 pm Front Steps Music Sutra – The Awakening: A musical performance by Ustad January 25 Victoria Memorial Hall Rashid Khan, Deene Khan, Bonnie Chakraborty, Usri Banerjee, Alyssa Mendonsa, Ratul Shankar Ghosh, Gabu, and others

Thursday 11.15 am Calcutta Club Before We Visit the Goddess: Release of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel. January 26 Jash Sen in conversation with the author

12.30 pm Hidden Histories: Shashi Tharoor and Sanjeev Sanyal on the silences and omissions in the textbook telling of India’s past. In conversation with Kunal Sarkar

2.30 pm Son-et-Lumiere Thrills and Spills: Ruskin Bond on why the Hills are a great setting for Victoria Memorial Hall murders and mystery. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

3.00 pm New Homes, Old Memories: Anuradha Roy and Stephen Kelman in conversation with Panchali Mukherji

3.15 pm Western Quadrangle Love Forever: Achala Moulik and Priyanka Mookerji on love and Victoria Memorial Hall timelessness. In conversation with Rita Bhimani

4.00 pm Son-et-Lumiere The Ocean of Churn: Sanjeev Sanyal on an ocean-facing view Victoria Memorial Hall of Indian history and its ripples across the world. In conversation with Mudar Patherya

4.15 pm Western Quadrangle Two Bengals, One History: Shazia Omar and Jayanta Sengupta Victoria Memorial Hall on whether pre-20th century history is perceived the same way by historians in Bangladesh and West Bengal. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

4.50 pm Son-et-Lumiere The Writing Gene: Shashi Tharoor and Kanishk Tharoor Victoria Memorial Hall in conversation with Sandip Chatterjee

5.15 pm Western Quadrangle Kobitar Bhasha: Sudhir Dutta and Srijato discuss the place Victoria Memorial Hall of classical and modern language in Bengali poetry. In conversation with Angshuman Kar (Bengali session)

5.40 pm Son-et-Lumiere Chitra Katha: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on her remarkable literary Victoria Memorial Hall career spanning decades and continents. In conversation with Diya Kar Hazra

6.30 pm Women’s Lives Matter: Ashley Judd and Ruchira Gupta on why both women and men need to be reminded of women’s rights even today. In conversation with Sagarika Ghose

Friday 11.00 am Son-et-Lumiere Integration and Identity: Shami Chakrabarti, Deepa Iyer and Aakar January 27 Victoria Memorial Hall Patel on how these issues are being tackled in the world’s largest democracies. In conversation with Sagarika Ghose

11.15 am Western Quadrangle Radice’s Tagore: Sukanta Chaudhuri and Martin Kämpchen discuss the Victoria Memorial Tagore translations that took his writings to the world. Release of William Radice’s book Gitanjali Reborn: William Radice's Writings on Rabindranath Tagore. Conversation with Samantak Das

11.50 am Son-et-Lumiere Acts of Faith: Javed Akhtar, Shazia Omar, Tabish Khair and Mudar Victoria Memorial Hall Patherya on the triple challenges of Islamophobia, stereotypes and radicalisation. In conversation with Mir Afsar Ali

12.10 pm Western Quadrangle Science and Enterprise: Somak Raychowdhury and Devangshu Datta Victoria Memorial on how science and entrepreneurship work hand in hand

DATE TIME VENUE SESSIONSFriday 12.40 pm Son-et-Lumiere Pink and the Power of No: Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Aniruddha January 27 Victoria Memorial Hall Roy Chowdhury and Ritesh Shah on the importance of the 2016 �lm. In conversation with Kunal Basu

1.00 pm Western Quadrangle Children’s Literary Meet Special: Ruskin Bond: Books that made Bond Victoria Memorial the writer he is. In conversation with Ahon Gooptu

2.00 pm Son-et-Lumiere Banglar Shakespeare: Soumitra Chatterjee, Kaushik Sen and Suman Victoria Memorial Hall Mukhopadhyay discuss how William Shakespeare’s plays have been transcreated on the Calcutta stage. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali Session)

2.15 pm Western Quadrangle Does Literature Travel Well? Inga Žolude, Alexandra Büchler, Victoria Memorial Albert Forns, Marina Perezegua and Roman Simič on whether India is reading enough of world literature and if India’s vernacular writers getting read abroad. In conversation with Debnita Chakrabarti

3.00 pm Son-et-Lumiere Kohinoor: Release of the book followed by discussion featuring Victoria Memorial Hall William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, in conversation with Sagarika Ghose

3.15 pm Western Quadrangle Sita’s Echoes: Vaidehi, Volga and Nabaneeta Dev Sen on Ramayan seen Victoria Memorial through Sita’s eyes. In conversation with Anuttama Banerjee

4.00 pm Son-et-Lumiere The Art of Leaving: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Nayomi Victoria Memorial Hall Munaweera on how stories about diaspora are framed by memories rather than arrival. In conversation with Sujata Sen

4.15 pm Western Quadrangle View from the Hills: Anuradha Roy on her writing, and her preferred Victoria Memorial hideout in the hills. Readings from Sleeping on Jupiter. In conversation with Sumit Ray

5.00 pm Son-et-Lumiere Inheritance and In�uence: Anita Desai and Kiran Desai discuss the joys Victoria Memorial Hall of having two writers in the family. In conversation with Sandip Roy

6.15 pm Recitations: Javed Akhtar and Srijato

7.30 pm Front Steps The Last Mughal: Readings and performance by Victoria Memorial Hall William Dalrymple and Vidya Shah

Saturday 11.00 am Son-et-Lumiere Sialkot, Delhi, Kolkata: Ashwin Sanghi investigates which city is the January 28 Victoria Memorial Hall thriller capital. In conversation with Yajnaseni Chakraborty

11.00 am Western Quadrangle Memories and Memorabilia: Abhinav Bindra, BoriaMajumdar and Victoria Memorial Hall Jayanta Sengupta on sports, artefacts and why sports and history don’t go together in India. In conversation with Ashok Malik

11.30 am Bengal Club For or Against: Is neutral reporting an impossibility? Can a journalist’s memoirs ever be objective? Rana Ayyub in conversation with Arunava Sinha

11.50 am Son-et-Lumiere The Colour of Money: P. Chidambaram on demonetisation, the ethics Victoria Memorial Hall of cash and cashless and what to expect from the Budget. In conversation with Rajdeep Sardesai

12.30 pm Bengal Club Kohinoor, an Indian Obsession: William Dalrymple and Anita Anand on the infamous diamond and its journey through continents. In conversation with Bee Rowlatt

12.40 pm Son-et-Lumiere Scripting an Innings: Sunil Gavaskar on playing, Victoria Memorial Hall writing and talking cricket

DATE TIME VENUE SESSIONSSaturday 1.30 pm Western Quadrangle Melancholy Melodies: Vidya Shah releases her book on GauharJaan. January 28 Victoria Memorial Hall Conversation with the author

2.30 pm Son-et-Lumiere Mother Tongues: Paramita Satpathy, Volga and Joya Mitra on how Victoria Memorial Hall stories about women unite various parts of the country

2.30 pm Western Quadrangle Jihadi Jane: Tabish Khair on the inexplicable stories of IS recruits from Victoria Memorial Hall Europe. In conversation with Piya Chakraborty

3.20 pm Son-et-Lumiere The New Age International Thriller: Achala Moulik and Kris Srinivasan Victoria Memorial Hall on the political landscape that de�nes their new-age thrillers. In conversation with Yajnaseni Chakraborty

3.30 pm Western Quadrangle The New Short Story: Philip Hensher and Kanishk Tharoor on how the Victoria Memorial Hall modern short story has charted its own path, inspired by past masters. In conversation with Debnita Chakrabarti

4.10 pm Son-et-Lumiere The Women who Made History: Rachel Holmes and Bee Rowlatt on Victoria Memorial Hall how the women who change history are often forgotten by it. In conversation with Sujata Sen

4.30 pm Western Quadrangle Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor on life, the cinema and the dynasty. Victoria Memorial Hall In conversation with Shantanu Roy Choudhury

5.00 pm Son-et-Lumiere Banglar Aaj o Aagami: What do young Bengalis look for in their books Victoria Memorial Hall and cinema? Srijato, Anindya Chatterjee, Smaranjit Chakraborty and Pracheta Gupta (Bengali Session)

5.30 pm Western Quadrangle Movies, Masti and Magic: Mansoor Khan and Akshay Manwani on the Victoria Memorial Hall biography of Nasir Husain and the magic of the 1960s Hindi �lm. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

5.30 pm Literature By The Lakes From Bihar to Tihar: 2016 newsmaker Kanhaiya Kumar on his (Rabindra Sarobar, remarkable journey. In conversation with MudarPatherya Opp. Menoka Cinema)

5.50 pm Son-et-Lumiere Write the Change: Booker Prize winners Kiran Desai and Paul Beatty Victoria Memorial Hall discuss their books and their views on recent developments in America. In conversation with Arunava Sinha

6.40 pm The Language of Love Aaj Kal: Ravinder Singh decodes Gen Y’s language and its art of loving. In conversation with Poorna Banerjee

7.00 pm Calcutta Club Are Short Films Better when they are Deliciously Dark? Tisca Chopra and Vikram Bhatt in conversation with Arunava Sinha. Session to start with the screening of Tisca’s Filmfare Award winning short �lm Chutney and to end with the premiere of Vikram’s short �lm Black Christmas

Sunday 11.00 am Son-et-Lumiere Children’s Literary Meet Special with Abhinav Bindra: Indian sports’ January 29 Victoria Memorial Hall golden boy talks about the importance of dreams and of hard work. In conversation with Joybeer Dutta Gupta

11.30 am Western Quadrangle Film on a Tab: Sujoy Ghosh and Tisca Chopra on cinema following Victoria Memorial Hall literature into the personal device. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

12.05 pm Son-et-Lumiere Multilingual Muses: Kunal Basu and Anupam Roy on being bilingual Victoria Memorial Hall and being writers. In conversation with Yajnaseni Chakraborty

12.30 pm Western Quadrangle Writers from Norwich on cities and the way they inspire writers. In Victoria Memorial Hall conversation with Arunava Sinha

DATE TIME VENUE SESSIONSSunday 12.55 pm Son-et-Lumiere Chronicling the Icons: Aruna Chakravarti, Hindol Sengupta on writing January 29 Victoria Memorial Hall about the human side of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda. In conversation with Suman K. Mukherjee

2.00 pm Western Quadrangle Coming of Age in Bharat and India: Mukul Kumar and Devdan Victoria Memorial Hall Chaudhuri on day jobs, writing and the di�erences of growing up in two Indias. In conversation with Avik Chanda

2.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere Make Up Your Mind: Nandana Sen and Nabaneeta Dev Sen on the Victoria Memorial Hall daughter’s translations of the mother’s poetry. In conversation with Samantak Das

3.00 pm Western Quadrangle Mon o Mejaj: Anupam Roy on his poems Victoria Memorial Hall

3.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere Goliath of Shenzen: Aritra Sarkar on his path-breaking dual facing Victoria Memorial Hall novel. The author in conversation with Arunava Sinha

4.00 pm Western Quadrangle Versifying Violence – Come and See the Blood on the Streets: Victoria Memorial Hall A discussion on ‘poetry as protest’ with poets who are also passionate activists. Panel discussion with Devdan Chaudhuri, Avik Chanda, Saira Shah Halim, Ruchhita Kazaria and Srijato, to be moderated by Ashoke Viswanathan

4.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere Is the Media Victim or Villain? Rajdeep Sardesai, Ashok Malik on Victoria Memorial Hall whether objectivity in media is dead. In conversation with Arunava Sinha

5.00 pm Western Quadrangle Short Films vs the Language Barrier: Jahnu Barua and Sujoy Ghosh on Victoria Memorial Hall the popularity of their �lms across the country. Screening of Jahnu Barua’s short �lm, That Gusty Morning, and Sujoy Ghosh’s short �lm, Ahalya

5.15 pm Son-et-Lumiere All the World’s a … Shakespeare on Page, Stage and Reel: Sukanta Victoria Memorial Hall Chaudhuri and Suman Mukhopadhyay on reading, staging and watching Shakespeare on screen. In conversation with Jayant Kripalani

6.15 pm The Story So Far: Kiran Desai on her novels and her inspirations. In conversation with Jash Sen

7.15 pm Valedictory Address by His Excellency Keshari Nath Tripathi, Governor of West Bengal

7.30 pm Calcutta Club Indian Spirits: Palash Krishna Mehrotra and Nandana Sen raise a toast to the ‘spirits’ of India

Presented by