CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: The annual literary festival Athena 2026, organised by the Department of English and the Literary Society at Sarojini Naidu Government Girls Postgraduate Autonomous College, Bhopal, opened on a grand note with the echoes of epics.
The two-day literary festival began on the theme “Epic Echoes: Where Stories Resonate, Legacies Live On.” On the first day, the timeless stories and characters of Indian epics were brought alive on stage through literature, dance, theatre and acting.
The programme began with the lighting of the lamp by college principal Pratima Yadav. The central theme of Athena 2026 is based on the idea that epics are not merely ancient stories, but narratives that carry human values, struggles, relationships, aspirations and perspectives on life from generation to generation, and whose resonance can still be heard in social and cultural life today.
The first presentation was a dance-drama based on Indian epics. The performance placed special focus on women characters from the epics and their perspectives. Through dance, music and acting, the students powerfully presented the emotions, struggles, decisions and life experiences of these women characters.
This was followed by the presentation “Literary Avatar,” in which students took on the forms of literary characters from the epics and brought them alive on stage. The students delivered dialogues of the characters and, through them, expressed their thoughts, emotions and inner conflicts. The presentation gave stage life to characters usually encountered in books and created an effective bridge between literature and theatre.
Athena 2026 was organised under the academic guidance of Indira Javed, Head of the Department of English. Faculty members Rohit Trivedi, Rajkumari Sudhir, Sonal Choudhary and Sunita Gupta actively participated in the organisation of the event.
For the students, the programme was not only a cultural presentation but also an important academic experience. By playing the roles of characters from several literary works and epic narratives prescribed in the college’s English curriculum, students had the opportunity not merely to read those texts but to live and experience them.
While delivering the dialogues of the characters, understanding their circumstances and expressing their emotions on stage, the students engaged with the literature in their syllabus with greater depth and empathy. All presentations on the first day received an enthusiastic response from the audience, making the opening day of Athena 2026 successful and impactful.
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