JLF 2015 Day 3

I woke up on Friday, 23rd of Jan to receive the news that horror of horrors: Jhumpa Lahiri was the winner of the the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015!  Having read The Lowland (refer to the Overrated page for a review of the book) last year, I was shocked to learn that Lahiri had won the prize, a sentiment echoed by friends who had also read her book. Don't tell me the other books were worse than hers, was the first thought that ran through my head. Wait, is it even possible to have worse books than The Lowland was the second. I then felt that well, the judges must have been biased and taken in by Lahiri's pretty face. I then chided myself for being so nasty and instead checked out who the other contenders for the prize were. So, the other contenders were:
Bilal Tanweer: The Scatter Here is Too Great
Kamila Shamsie: A God in Every Stone
Romesh Gunesekera: Noontide Toll   
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi: The Mirror of Beauty
Upon going through the list I suffered another shock--SR Faruqi had not won.  Yes, I have not read his book, but after hearing him speak the previous day, I found it hard to believe that he had been by-passed in favour of Lahiri.  Being a PYT definitely pays!
Post breakfast one proceeded to the fest.  I first caught a session on The Art of Memoir where one was impressed by Anchee Min's frank candor.  Brigid Keenan was a natural storyteller who adeptly provoked laughter from the audience.  I then moved to Valmik Thapar's session on The Tiger--it was so heartening to hear that tigers are now doing better in India, though there is still a lot of work that need tot be done for their conservation.  In my zest to catch BN Goswamy's talk I caught the tail end of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar's q and a and promptly put his book The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey on my reading list.  BN Goswamy's presentation on Indian masterpieces was a real feast for my soul...what exquisite works....
The post-lunch talk on Ibrahim Adil Shah I of Bijapur was such a revelation...for here was a figure experimenting with syncretism in the Deccan at the same time as Akbar was in the North--and despite being a student of Indian history I had no idea of his existence!  I then caught Rick Stroud's riveting account of how British officers kidnapped a Nazi General off the occupied island of Crete--definitely great spy movie  material.   The last session of the day was a set of fun readings by Jonathan Gil Harris and Sam Miller of their accounts of Firangis in India.
Thus ended my sojourn at the JLF in 2015.  I was taking back with me new knowledge and perspectives, despite organisational glitches.  Perhaps, next year I'll catch the fest from the comfort of my home.