4th IPSAA Indian Literary Festival held in Brisbane

The 4th Indian Literary Festival was organized by the Indoz Punjabi Sahit Academy of Australia (IPSAA) – a renowned literary organization in Brisbane, Australia. 

IPSAA Australia took the initiative to organize Indian Literary Festival in association with Picasa 4 years ago. But since then they’ve been organizing events independently.

In 2020, two poets of Australia Ashraf Shad for Urdu and Rekha Rajvanshi for Hindi were honoured on December 20.

In the first session of the event Manjit Boparai welcomed the guests and writers who came to the function. He described the function as fraternal and harmonious.  After that former Secretary of the organization and poet Sarbjeet Sohi shared information about the activities and literary flow of Indoz Punjabi Sahitya Akademi of Australia from its inception till date.

In the second session, local poets of Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu recited poems, amongst them were – Meet Dhaliwal, Atma Hayer, Nitu Singh Malik, Vibha Singh, Soma Nair, Tariq Naveed, Shoaib Zaidi, Prince Pal Kaur, Harki Virk, Farah Amar, Netarpal Singh, Sarbjeet Sohi, Syed Faisal, Rupinder Soz, Poonam Likhotra, Harman Singh Khilchia, Sukhnaib Singh and Ripjit Brar.

In the third part of the function, Punjabi poet Gurmeet Kaur Sandha was felicitated with an award of honour for her work in the field of folklore. Kavita Khullar, who has played the role of stage secretary in previous festivals, was also honoured. On this occasion Sarbjeet Sohi was honoured by the Literary Council of Australia and American College for his book ”˜Jagde Harf Da Lo’ published in Shahmukhi in Pakistan.

Moving towards the final hours of the function, first of all, Hindi poetess Rekha Rajvanshi was honoured with IPSAA Award for her literary achievements in Australia. She appreciated IPSAA’s initiative of organizing literary festivals and said that our culture and literature needs to be passed on to the younger generation. She also shared her heart touching poetry with the audience.

Ashraf Shaad, a progressive writer, originally from Pakistan was also honoured at the function. He is a renowned novelist and poet of Sydney. He won listeners heart by singing ghazals in Taranam. He was also awarded IPSAA Award for Literature for his lifelong literary work.

Special Guest Balraj Sangha in the Presidency was given the Award of Honour for his services to Punjabi journalism. Finally the special guest Prabhjot Singh Sandhu Punjabi Council of Australia in his presidential address while endorsing the work of IPSAA said that only such initiatives can keep the mother tongue and culture alive in migration. He was also given the Award of Honour by IPSAA.

Hindi translation of Sarbjeet Sohi’s book ‘Visjarjan Se Pehle’ was also released at the function. Sarbjeet’s beautiful poetry was also appreciated by all.

Among other prominent people present on the occasion were Dr. Bernard Malik, Amarjit Singh Mahil, IPSAA President Dalveer Halwarvi, Tarsem Singh Sahota, IPSAA Founder Jarnail Singh Bassi, Vice President Pal Rauke, Spokesman Satwinder Teenu, Joint Secretary Deepinder Singh, Dalbir Singh Boparai, Balwinder Moron, Shamsher Singh Cheema, Gurwinder Khatra, Advocate Gurpreet Singh Bal, Ranjit Singh Gill of Majha Youth Club, Balraj Singh Sandhu, Jagdeep Singh Gill, Daljit Singh Dhami, Musician King Rahim Jullah Ji, Manju Jehu, Shashi Nair, Meet Dhaliwal, Paramjit Virk, Ajaib Singh Virk, Balwinder Kaur Gaggarbhana, Pushpinder Singh Toor, Bhupinder Singh Jatana etc. were present. The role of stage secretary was executed very well by the young anchor Gurdeep Jagera.

The program ended with a sumptuous dinner and a Ghazal night at Rauke Nivas.

This poetical evening was a real treat to the audience, everyone enjoyed listening to Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi poetry.

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