KOCHI: The session on music at the Krithi fest on Saturday threw light on the present state of the music in Kerala. The panellists on Music Production Today - Aesthetics, Technology and Commerce were musicians Harish Sivaramakrishnan, Sreevatsan J Menon, Nandu Kartha and Renuka Arun. There was almost a consensus on one aspect: The internet and social media have made music more popular. But the question raised was: Whether the musicians who devoted their career and life to music benefitted? The panellists felt the rapid advancements in technology were offering more opportunities as well as challenges. Nandu Kartha made a demonstration of the technological advancements.
The session on Literary Culture and Agrarian Society held in the evening felt that the sylvan and agrarian presence in literature was fast diminishing with the onslaught of urbanisation. The panellists Kadammanitta Vasudevan Pillai, A.M. Sreedharan and Nedumudi Harikumar all felt every genre of Malayalam literature produced enough writings where farming and the culture associated with it got a mention. They felt that from Upanishads itself this was evident. Sixth-century writings like Tolkappiyam and Thirunizhalmala had ample reference to farming. Later from Kunchan Nambiar to Thakazhi, Cherukad and Ponkunnam Varkey, a lot of eminent writers reflected the culture associated with agriculture in their writings. Coupled with this were the agrarian songs and folk songs.
The session on modern short story drew the audience in ample measure with short story writer Subhash Chandran among panellists stealing the show. Space scientist and novelist V.J. James, Socrates Valath, K. Rekha and S. Harish were others on the panel. They proclaimed that the modern short story writer was reflecting life in a simple way and did not have any ideological or any other hangovers.
