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A-Literation: Dispatches from Jaipur
Amrita Tripathi
The fifth annual Jaipur Literature Festival has just about wound down,
you can practically hear the drum beats receding in the distance.
After making my fourth annual pilgrimage, I have to say, Diggi Palace,
which hosts the literary extravaganza, is bursting at the seams. Which
may be why writer and Festival co-director William Dalrymple does tell
us in an interview that they're possibly looking at land to expand
onto the next time round.
(Yes, they've already started short-listing authors for next year.
Orhan Pamuk, Candace Bushnell, Zadie Smith, and JM Coetzee are some of
the names he mentions.)
As for me, I'm just about recovering. There's no doubt it's
overwhelming, it's grown into a mega-event, and I'm told there were
double the number of journalists than authors, not to mention visitors
in the tens of thousands (Dalrymple tells us 30,000 visitors and
counting... something Festival producer Sanjoy Roy is quoted as saying
as well, but honestly I've lost count and the mind boggles!).
But more than that, and more than the sun and the sheer range of
quality on display in Jaipur, I'm still reeling from the excitement of
meeting Hanif Kureishi (the author of Something to Tell You, Buddha of
Suburbia), Roddy Doyle (the author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha, The Woman
Who Walked into Doors) and Roberto Calasso (the author of Ka, The
Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony).
Kureishi was charming even though I admitted I was going to have to
dash off without attending his session. Roddy Doyle has the mildest
Irish accent, is most obliging to journalists, had kids in the
audience in splits when asked why he always has dogs in his books, and
yet managed to find time to himself, going incognito in his dark
glasses, though he practically lost his voice before his final
sessions!
I was floored by Calasso, having read him (as well as some of these
other heavy-weights) back in college, and was pleasantly surprised
that his session on myths and story-telling was jam-packed.
Om Puri and Nandita Puri did a disarmingly honest interview with us,
and I thought Shabana Azmi was most graceful and least diva-like when
she spoke with us (she and Javed Akhtar thoroughly enjoyed themselves
and hope to make it next year, she tells us).
I didn't get to speak to Akhtar, or Rahul Bose, both of whom were
mobbed for autographs by school kids and grown-ups alike (as was Ms
Azmi, naturally!).
Kancha Ilaiah was thought-provoking as ever, even though I dare say I
disagree kids will "get the message" about the need for dignity of
labour more from a work-book than a story-book, but hey, who am I to
argue!
And then there was Asma Jehangir, at a superbly-moderated session by
journalist Siddharth Vardarajan, alongside Shyam Saran, Ali Sethi (who
made his literary debut with The Wish-Maker last year), and young
Bangladeshi writer Shazia Omar (Like A Diamond in the Sky). Asma
Jehangir obliged her fans as well as local press, despite having torn
a ligament in her foot.
Pulitzer-prize winners Steve Coll and Lawrence Wright were most
engaging (especially Wright's Reporting 101 moment, detailing what he
carries in his back-pack and how he goes from the most obvious names
of people to interview to the least obvious). Javed Akhtar did hammer
at Steve Coll in a session on why he was participating in the Al Qaeda
and US "conspiracy" that Osama bin Laden is still alive, when it's
clear that "he's dead", Akhtar thundered away... (I wish we could ask
him now, after the release of this latest audio tape).
My least favourite session (I may be mobbed for this) was Ira
Trivedi's along with Chetan Bhagat -- you had to hear it to believe
it, the Beauty though may have struck a chord, so feel free to
disagree with me here.
In the same age group, but much the revelation of the year was Ali
Sethi! Not only is he articulate, intelligent, (whether he's asked to
hold forth on Indo-Pak relations or the IPL controversy) he's also got
that whole soulful vibe down. I only got to hear five minutes of his
singing (rushing as I was helter-skelter trying to get my interviews
in) but suffice it to say he blew everyone away with his rendition of
poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Susheela Raman was incredible too, though Tamil friends in the
audience were a little less superlative, totally amused by the fact
that she's singing local and devotional songs, with a rock edge.
In case you're not one of the gazillion people to have turned up, it's
really a who's who at the Lit Fest, you meet old friends,
acquaintances, other journalists, not to mention incredible writers
and "personalities"
must-read and has a dry sense of humour to boot. Alexander McCall
Smith was delightfully humble.
Tina Brown of The Daily Beast has gone from delegate to sponsor in one
short year, and that really goes to show how this festival is growing
in leaps and bounds. I hope they find the real estate to accommodate
the ever-growing hordes.
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