Immediately after his retirement Raghav Chandra (Redt IAS:1982:MP) appears to have engaged himself with his literary pursuits. As the Chairman of the festival preparations organizing committee Chandra has been overseeing the preparations for the first ever literature and art festival of Central India– Heartland Stories- will be held from January 12 to 14 at multi-art centre Bharat Bhawan.

Former IAS officer and Union Minister of State for Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam will inaugurate the festival on January 12. The three-day festival is being organised by Society for Culture and Environment in association with Sahitya Academy and Ministry of Tourism.

Authors, educationists, artists, civil servants and intellectuals from the literary field from India, UK, USA and Austria will attend the festival.

The festival is being organized in three parallel sessions with the specialists speaking from their books on subjects as varied as Art and Lifestyle, Dialogue and Discussion, History and Mythology, Biography, Environment and Conservation, Defence and Diplomacy, Culture and Society, India: The Path Ahead and Memory and Creativity in Literature.