Mumbai: Rekhta Foundation will organise Rekhta Gujarati Utsav in Mumbai to celebrate Gujarati language, literature and culture. The first-of-its-kind event will host ‘mushairas’ by renowned Gujarati poets, discussions on Gujarati language and literature and music performances by well-known Gujarati artists at Vadodara and Bhavnagar also.
Rekhta Gujarati will organise a one-of-its-kind Gujarati literary event in three cities across Gujarat and Maharashtra to celebrate Gujarati literature. Rekhta Foundation is known for its flagship festival Jashn-e-Rekhta, which works to promote Urdu language through an annual festival in Delhi which sees participation by renowned Urdu writers and Urdu-loving audience.
After Jashn-e-Rekhta, the organisation has come up with the first ever Gujarati literary festival through Rekhta Gujarati. After the festival’s celebration in Vadodara on January 5, the festival will also be organised in Mumbai on January 11 at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chowpatty. Audience can register themselves on Rekhta’s website for free to attend the event.
Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, will be present at the festival as chief guest while actress Sarita Joshi will be present as the guest of honour at the Mumbai festival, along with Sanjiv Saraf, the founder of Rekhta Foundation. Bhavnagar event will have famous humorist and author Shahbuddin Rathod and poet Vinod Joshi as the guests of honour.
The festival is expected to host poets Saumya Joshi, Vinod Joshi, Vivek Kane, Udayan Thakker and Harish Meenashru, who will recite their poetic creations. Mumbai event will have mushaira of poets Rajesh Vyas ‘Miskin’, Bhavesh Bhatt, Krushna Dave, Sanju Vala, Hemen Shah, Mukesh Joshi and Harshvi Patel. Renowned vocalists Praful Dave and Hardik Dave will also present Gujarati folk music at the Mumbai event.
“It is the need of an hour that Gujarati literature should be taken to the youth in a way that they can enjoy it. If the youth will not like the Gujarati literature, Gujarati as a language might survive but not the literature,” said Mehta at the Rekhta Gujarati Utsav celebrated in Vadodara.
On January 19, the grand mushaira at Bhavnagar will host poets like Rajendra Shukla, Bhavesh Bhatt, Snehi Parmar, Parul Khakhar, Bharat Vinzuda, Krushna Dave, Saumya Joshi and Manohar Trivedi. Celebrated Gujarati singer Jigardaan Gadhavi aka ‘Jigra’ will perform with his band at the event.
In March 2024, Rekhta Foundation had launched its digital platform Rekhta Gujarati to preserve and promote Gujarati language, literature and culture. The inaugural event in Ahmedbad was graced by spiritual leader Morari Bapu, India’s solicitor general Tushar Mehta, actor Paresh Raval and author Raghuveer Chaudhary.
Rekhta Foundation has also launched an app, Rekhta Kidz, for children to learn Gujarati language in an entertaining way. Rekhta Gujarati is also working on digitizing old and historic libraries of Gujarat including Ahmedabad’s B. J. Vidyabhavan, Nadiad’s AS Dahilakshmi Library and Navsari’s Shri Sayaji Vaibhav Library.
