Literally geeky

The 83rd Marathi Literary Convention, to be held in the city, will be nothing short of hi-tech with videoconferencing, webcasts and podcasts. And its recognition of Marathi blogs is also a first

By Nitin Brahme
Posted On Tuesday, March 02, 2010 at 11:04:15 PM

At the pre-conference event, from left: Anil Awchat, Mahesh Ghatpande, Prasanna Joshi, Milind Joshi, Sandhya Tanksale and Dr Ujjwala Barve
The 83rd Marathi Literary Convention (MLC), that will be held in the city from March 26 to 28, 2010, is going to be hi-tech by all means.

Not only is this event going to be like a live chat, but it will also recognise blog writings as authentic literature. In fact, MLC’s elected president D B Kulkarni will soon start his own blog.

Venues and video conferencing
MLC’s convenor Satish Desai told Pune Mirror that the convention will be held across 20 different cities, among them being Nashik and Ratnagiri, in the state via video conferencing. It will also have a potcast and telecast via Internet.

Deepak Shikarpur, head, hi-tech committee of MLC, said, “We are going to webcast the proceedings and for this, we are collaborating with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd. The webcast will be mass-personalised, i.e. you can watch them on PC, laptop or your cellphone.”

Other venues being considered are Hyderabad, Indore, Goa and Saudi Arabia. But talks are still on regarding these venues.

On Manday, MSP organised the Bhurjpatra te Webpage: Marathi Shabdancha Pravas (A journey of marathi words from leaves to web) where many Marathi bloggers were present.

Bloggerspeak
During a panel interview on Monday, MSP secretary Milind Joshi expressed the need for a separate body to recognise literature being generated on the web. The interview was conducted by Prasanna Joshi and co-ordinated by Madhyamites, a new media association based in the city.

Anil Awchat, a prominent Marathi author, stressed on the need of controlling the quality of the literature being generated on the blogs.

Dr Ujjwala Barve, Head of University of Pune’s Journalism Department, rejected restrictions on the contents generated on blogs. Mahesh Ghatpande, founder of e-Diwali issue, said the quality of the content on blogs should get precedence. Dr Kiran Thakur, senior journalist, stressed on the need of recognition of literature on blogs by mainstream media.

Marathi bloggers had met in the city on January 17, 2010, and demanded recognition for blogs as an effective medium for literature during MLC and also appealed to D B Kulkarni to start his own blog.

The Marathi blogosphere carries various subjects such as poems, short stories, discussion, self-expressions, novels, etc. There are about 12,000 Marathi blogs. For more details and updates, log on to MLC’s official website: sahityasammlean2010.org.

Some prominent Marathi blogs
http://marathiblogs.net/
Titled Marathi Blog Vishwa, it is an index of all Marathi blogs on the Net. Subjects ranging from calligraphy, technology, Diwali editorials, Marathi recipes, poetry, short stories, are up for takers

http://www.marathimandali.com
This one is a Marathi portal which also hosts blogs

http://www.marathinovels.net
As its title suggests, it provides Marathi novels in a blog form. Apparently, readers can even contribute to these novels

http://batmidar2.blogspot.com/:
Also titled Kalte-Samajte, it claims to be ‘the first online media newspaper in Marathi’. It’s a blog that hosts the latest developments across the globe

http://batmidar.blogspot.com/
This blog claims to report on the latest happenings in worldwide media
Marathi blogs
The Marathi Sahitya Parishad (MSP), the official convenors of MLC, have on Monday acknowledged Marathi blogs as an effective medium for Marathi literary expression in a convention-related programme.