The Jaipur Literary Festival is a Mecca for book lovers in India and draws a huge crowd every year. It is an overwhelming affair, given the wealth of literary giants on its menu. Therefore, on January 20, 2015, twenty four students with three staff members were on their way to be a part of this spectacular event. Most of us were grappling with a volcano of mixed emotions, feelings of anxiety, happiness, enthusiasm, excitement and expectations! We were all looking forward to reaching Jaipur.
As always, the festival schedule was packed with the who's who of the literary world. A major draw at the festival was the presence of Nobel Prize winner, V.S. Naipaul, and his former associate, novelist, Paul Theroux. The octogenarian wordsmith spoke at what might just be his last public talk. Despite his wheel chair, physical discomfort and slight inability to recall the right words during the interview, we listened to him in rapt attention. He spoke about his early days of writing, India and Africa and his book, "India: Land of Darkness".
[gallery]The Char Bagh venue played host to a sublime discussion on 'A House for Mr. Biswas' featuring Hanif Kureshi, Amit Chaudhuri and Paul Theroux, celebrating 50 years of Sir V.S. Naipaul's groundbreaking masterpiece. The Nobel laureate made a rare public appearance at the festival and lent unique insights into his book and its legacy in contemporary literature.
Travel writer Paul Theroux described the novel as, "The most complete novel I have ever read since Dickens."
This year, the spotlight was on poetry with Sahitya Akademi Award winner, Ashok Vajpeyi, the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry Vijay Sheshadri, and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, a stalwart of the Indian English poetry tradition, delivering the keynote. Mr. Sheshadri, the American-Indian poet, was brilliant in his meditative, cerebral sessions. He was articulate in every subject he was asked about: his life as a child in America, his growing-up years, why he decided to work for five years in the commercial fishing industry, the seventies of America, and his favourite poets. He was a fascinating speaker and left the audience craving to hear more from him. Seshadri spoke at length about the emigrant experience during one such curtailed talk with Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi. He quoted W H Auden's famous quote on the subject, "Emigrants don't know what they want but they do know what they don't want." His witticisms about the American experience for a non-white person and the Pulitzer Prize left the packed auditorium in splits! "The Pulitzer Prize is a nice thing. I recommend it to everyone," he said with his deadpan disposition intact.
Another session that was deeply interesting was on Pakistan. Journalist Suhasini Haider moderated the session titled "Descent into Chaos Pakistan on the Brink" with Ahmed Rashid and ex-Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, G. Parthasarathy and Anatol Lieven. The experts plunged deep into the topic and came up with fascinating insights.
The session Writing Back featured eminent personalities like Meena Kandaswamy, Elimear McBride and Pakistani author, Kamili Shamsie. Films also made their presence felt with Naseeruddin Shah discussing his memoir: 'And then One Day' and Waheeda Rehman talking about her book with her biographer Nasreen Munni Kabir. Film critic Anupama Chopra launched her new book 'The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema', at the festival. Lyricist Javed Akhtar spoke about the journey of film songs and their connection with Urdu, Hindi and Hindustani traditions.
Girish Karnad, the playwright and actor was an absolute delight both when talking to Naseeruddin Shah about their early days of acting and then in another session making a compelling case as to why a Library of Classic Indian literature is an immediate necessity.
The prolific master of words and music, Prasoon Joshi, spoke to poet and musicologist Yatindra Mishra about the Indian traditions of popular poetry and music, screenplays, advertising, Bollywood and the secret of words, in the event called Taare Zameen Par. Mr. Joshi also valued the request of his fans and recited a beautiful poem for them. The Reading Habit by Girish Karnad and Is the `commerce of Literature today killing `good writing? featuring Nayantara Sahgal, C.S. Lakshmi, Mark Tully, Karthika VK, chaired by Prasoon Joshi, were both insightful sessions.
Poetry-reading by Keki Daruwala was yet another interesting feature and it took me down memory lane as I remembered the time when this great poet had visited our School as chief guest during Literary Week!
The book launch of Masterchef by Vikas Khanna also attracted the attention of food lovers, including our's..
The festival also witnessed the launch of the 26th edition of the Limca Book of Records by Coca Cola India, followed by an extremely well-conducted quiz by the renowned quiz master and ex-CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders, Joy Bhattacharya.
JLF was not merely a fest but a learning experience and a great exposure for the young brigade of The Indian School. Jostling their way through the crowd, listening to great minds, interacting with the literary world and a multitude of other experiences left an everlasting impression on the young minds. The students spent a lot of time at the Amazon.com stall, browsing through books and interacting with authors at the book-signing corner. Diggi Palace, Jaipur was indeed a forum to ignite the young minds.
Filed by Ms. Mithu Ghosh.
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