Bhubaneswar: The three-day Tata Steel Bhubaneswar Literary Meet 2019 begins from Friday, here at XIMB campus. Eminent English poet Jayanta Mahapatra will inaugurate the meet. Bollywood film actress of yesteryear Waheeda Rehman will grace the opening day event.

Jayanta Mahapatra (11 Jan, 3.30pm-4.00pm)

Jayanta Mahapatra  is a major Indian English poet. He is the first Indian poet to win Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He is the author of such popular poems as Indian Summer and Hunger, which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. Jayanta Mahapatra was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009. Jayanta returned his Padma Shri to protest against the rising intolerance in India.

Sugata Bose (11 Jan, 4 pm-5 pm)

Sugata Bose is an Indian historian and politician who has taught and worked in the United States since the mid-1980s. His fields of study are South Asian and Indian Ocean history. Bose taught at Tufts University until 2001, when he accepted the Gardiner Chair of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.Bose is also the Director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, India, a research center and archives devoted to the life and work of Bose’s great uncle, the Indian nationalist, Subhas Chandra Bose.Bose is the author most recently of His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire (2011) and A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire(2006).

Jatindra Nayak (11 Jan, 4 pm-5 pm)

Jatindra Kumar Nayak is a translator, literary critic, columnist, editor and educationalist from Orissa.

He has translated several works of Oriya literature into English, including Yantrarudha, an Oriya language novel by Chandrasekhar Rath, as ‘Astride the Wheel’. Astride the Wheel’ received the Hutch Crossword Book Award 2004 for Indian Language Fiction Translation, and established Nayak’s reputation as a notable translator in India. Earlier he won the prestigious Katha Translation Award for his English rendering of Tarun Kanti Mishra’s short story as ‘The Descent’.

Nayak is a co-translator of Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Oriya novel Chha Mana Atha Guntha. The English translation of the book was first published in the USA under the title Six Acres and a Third. He has also translated Atma Jibana Charita, the autobiography of Fakir Mohan, as ‘Story of My Life’.

Waheeda Rehman  (11 Jan, 5.00 pm-5.45 pm)

Waheeda Rehman is an Indian actress who has appeared in mainly Hindi films, as well as Telugu, Tamil and Bengali films. She is noted for her contributions to different genres of films from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. She has received the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality, the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Film Award for Best Actressand two Filmfare Awards for Best Actressthroughout her career. She has been cited as Bollywood’s “most beautiful” actress by various media outlets, a title for which she has received substantial publicity

Ravinder Singh  (11 Jan, 5.45pm – 6.30 pm)

Ravinder Singh is an Indian author,software engineer. Ravinder Singh is the best selling romance writer. He has written eight novels entitled I Too Had a Love Story, Can Love Happen Twice?,Like it happened Yesterday, Love Stories That Touched My Heart, Tell Me A Story, Your Dreams are Mine Now , This Love That Feels Right, Will You Still Love Me.

Abijit Ganguly  (11 Jan, 7.30pm onwards)

A Bengali living in Delhi, Abijit Ganguly’s humor tackles the most mundane Indian problems like parents, pressure of getting married and buying condoms in the most unapologetic way. The bi-lingual comedian performs in both Hindi and English, is over 2000 shows old and NDTV has repeatedly named him as one of the Rising Stars of Comedy in India. When he is not packing venues on comedy nights or doing corporate shows, the Delhi School of Economics graduate poses as a brand consultant to major multi-corporations like Woo, Sprite, Culture Machine and OYO Rooms, and also as a freelance writer. The comedian has appeared on various TedX Talks, dishing gyan about being on stage, following dreams, and earning your bread in the process.

Mitra Phukan (12 Jan, 11 pm-11.50 pm)

Mitra Phukan  is an Indian author who writes in English. She is also a translator and columnist.

Prajwal Parajuly (12 Jan, 11 pm-11.50 pm)

Prajwal Parajuly  is a Nepali-Indian author whose works focus on Nepali-speaking people and their culture. Parajuly’s works include the short-story collection The Gurkha’s Daughter and novel Land Where I Flee.

Nabina Das (12 Jan, 11 pm-11.50 pm)

Nabina Das is the author of four books – a short story collection, The House of Twining Roses: Stories of the Mapped and the Unmapped; a novel, Footprints in the Bajra; and two poetry collections, Blue Vessel, and Into the Migrant City. She teaches creative writing in universities and workshops.

Dash Benhur (12 Jan, 11.50 pm – 12.40 pm)

Jitendra Narayan Dash, who writes under the pseudonym of Dash Benhur is a Sahitya Akademi award winner writer from Odisha. He was born in Khandapadain Nayagarh district, Odisha. He retired as the Principal of Samanta Chandrasekhar (Autonomous) College, Puri. He is a founder member of Aama Odisha.

Ruskin Bond (12 Jan, 12.40 pm – 2.15 pm)

Ruskin Bond  is an Indian author of British descent. The Indian Council for Child Education has recognised his role in the growth of children’s literature in India. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, his novel in English. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Bikram Grewal (12 Jan, 12.40 pm – 2.15 pm)

Bikram Grewal is an ornithologist, author, birdwatcher and conservationist from Delhi, Indiawho has written several guides to Indian birds. He has been working with governments and private groups to promote Eco-tourism in Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal and Nagaland. His 2002 book Birds of India [2]has been a best-seller[3] among Indian bird books. He has also been part of the Inheritance Series brought out by Sanctuary Asia.

Jayant Kripalani (12 Jan, 2.30pm – 3.30 pm)

Jayant Kripalani is an Indian American film, television and stage actor, director and trainer. Most known for TV series, like Khandaan,Mr. Mrs and Ji Mantriji (2003). He also wrote the screenplay for Shyam Benegal’s film, Well Done Abba (2009). He was noted for his performance in The Hungry (2017) that is based on the adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. He performed in Ji Mantri Ji, the well-known star plus comedy series in years 2000 to 2002.

Hussain Haidry (12 Jan, 2.30pm – 3.30 pm)

Hussain Haidry is an Indian spoken word poet, writer and lyricist. He gained prominence when his poem Hindustani Musalmaan went viral on social media. He has written lyrics for Bollywood films, Gurgaon, Qarib Qarib Single and Mukkabaaz.

Vineet Bajpai (12 Jan, 3.30 pm – 4.30 pm)

Vineet Bajpai  is perhaps India’s most loved English language author. His books are read by teenagers as well as octogenarians with equal zest. He is a crowd-puller at literature festivals and a permanent feature on bestseller charts. His business books are as admired as his fiction novels find a cult following. He has been listed among the greatest 75 Indian authors of all time.

Kishwar Desai (12 Jan, 3.30 pm – 4.30 pm)

Kishwar Desai (née Rosha) (born 1 December 1956) is an Indian author and columnist. As a novelist, her last novel The Sea of Innocence was published in 2014 in India as well as in UK and Australia, and was widely discussed ss it dealt with the difficult issue of gang rape . Her first novel, Witness the Night, won the Costa Book Award in 2010 for Best First Novel and has been translated into over 25 languages.

Charles Assisi (13 Jan, 11 am – 11.50 am)

Charles Assisi is an award-winning journalist with two decades of experience to back him. He is co-founder and director at Founding Fuel, and co-author of the book The Aadhaar Effect. He also wrote a weekly column under the slug Life Hacks in Mint, India’s most influential business newspaper.

NS Ramnath (13 Jan, 11 am – 11.50 am)

NS Ramnath is a senior writer and part of the core team at Founding Fuel, and co-author of the book, The Aadhaar Effect. His main interests lie in technology, business, society, and how they interact and influence each other. He writes a regular column on disruptive technologies, and takes regular stock of key news and perspectives from across the world.

Iliana Citaristi (13 Jan, 6 pm – 7.15 pm)

Ileana Citaristi is an Italian-born Odissi and Chhau dancer, and dance instructor based in Bhubaneswar, India. She was awarded the 43rdNational Film Awards for Best Choreography for Yugant in 1995 and became, in 2006, the first dancer of foreign origin to be conferred the Padma Shri for her contributions to Odissi.

Nicholas James (13 Jan, 6 pm – 7.15 pm)

Nicholas James  is an American actor. James is known for his recurring role (beginning in 2016) as Officer Justin Lewis in the Tyler Perry-created OWNseries The Haves and the Have Nots (Season 3 – Season 5, in 63 episodes as of July 2018) as well as for appearances in Prom Night (2008) and NCIS: New Orleans (2014). His earliest credited film appearance was in Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds in 2006.

Rekha Bharadwaj (13 Jan, 7.15 pm onwards)

Rekha Bhardwaj (born 23 January 1964) is an Indian singer and live performer. She has received two Filmfare and one NationalAwards. In addition to Hindi, she has also sung in Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi and Malayalam languages.