JLF 2022 Part I

 JLF--it sure is an addiction.  I just can't seem to not attend the sessions and this year is no exception.  The fest this time is being held in hybrid mode, the first few days purely online and then the last five days in person in Jaipur with the sessions being streamed online.

I must confess, after having attended the fest many times in person, I do prefer attending the sessions from the comfort of my home where I have the liberty to mutli-task during a session which not be as interesting as I might have imagined it to be.

So, what are the sessions that I have caught so far?

Yesterday, I caught James Fox's The World According to Colour which proved to be a fascinating session with a lot of trivia on various colours, such as the blue butterfly does not have any blue pigment but is actually brown and its blue appearance is actually a result of scales that reflect the blue or that the Arabic word for green is the shortest line in the Quran.  This is definitely a book I want to pick up to dip into every now and then. Having lost track of time resulted in me catching the end of the conversation with Padma Kaimal on the Kailash temple of Kanchipuram--definitely a book to read before visiting the temple! Elif Shafak's session had me putting her book The Island of Missing Trees on my wish list.  I just hope it lives up to its promise.  

Today, I attended the talk by Marc David Baer whose book on the Ottomans deviates from classical approach of the likes of Bernard Lewis and others who saw the Ottomans through a rather Orientalist lens.  Instead, he presents them as constantly evolving and at its zenith as being a dynamic empire which fostered learning and inquiry and which was a force to reckon with not just on land but at sea too. The end of this session had me adding The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs to my wish list:)  Let's see how many more get added to my list over the next week!  

Definitely, time was well spent while attending the sessions.  The only thing that rankled is how in referring to Indians who challenge the Mughals, Dalrymple referred to them as Hindus!  Clearly the colonial gaze of identifying Indians by their religion rather than nationality continues--but more on that another day!

Jaipur Literature Festival 2019

Last Friday, saw me headed to Jaipur after four years to attend the Lit Fest once again, though this time it was with my daughter and her friends in tow.  

And yes, the festival still continues to offer a smorgasbord of writer discussions to attend and, dare I say it, the organisation of the festival seems to have improved.  Entry into the festival was smooth and trouble free; while the use of cash cards made all purchases at the festival hassle free as change was no longer a problem.  Even lunch was a smooth process, probably in part due to the proliferation of food stalls all across the grounds of Diggi Palace.

Interestingly, the page 3 type attendees seemed to have decreased and their place taken by a younger local crowd.  Nonetheless, weekend afternoons still remained super crowded making navigation quite a feat.  The festival bazaar has expanded to accommodate more stalls, though one can't complain if it helps in ensuring the free entry to the festival.

Well enough of general observations, lets move on to the actual writers and their sessions.  

I kick-started the festival by catching Princess Di's brother's dramatic account of Charles II's escape after the Battle of Worcester.  Charles Spencer made this period of English history seem almost as fun as Henry VIII's!

While on royal escapades, I sat in on master storyteller Simon Sebag Montefiore's sketch of the Romanovs.  He single-handedly kept the Charbagh audience riveted with his gory account of the cursed dynasty, reminding one of the Horrible History series (and that is a compliment!)

The session on Indian Princes vs the Raj had Moin Mir, Stewart Gordon &; Sunil S. Amrith share fascinating stories about Indian Royalty.  Gordon explained how the patronage of Yunani medicine by the Begums of Bhopal was a subtle form of resistance against the British.  Amrith pointed out how the Kaveri water dispute has its origins in the conflict between the Princely State of Mysore and the British.  Moin Mir gave a brief of the Nawab of Surat's fight against the EEIC, whose final face off was in the English Parliament—quite unique I must say!

Sitting in on Sven Beckert's talk based on his book Empire of Cotton:  A Global History, I was privileged to witness the new approach that history writing is taking today, the shift away from nationalistic accounts.  Sven explained that to gain a global perspective of history he went local—looked at cotton—and then located it in a network of global connections.  His book basically charts how cotton was crucial for the unfurling of the Industrial Revolution and interestingly the book opens in Surat.  

What was lovely to see was  Venki Ramakrishnan the Nobel prize winning biologist asking Sven a question at the end of the talk!  It is not often that one sees speakers sitting in the audience.  Perhaps, here is a man who loves to learn and does not consider himself above us mere mortals.  My take-home from Venki's session was an insight into the world of scientific research where competition spurs people on one hand but on the other monopolies make people complacent.  
As a student of history I quite enjoyed the session titled after Richard Evans book In Defence of History.  Here the participants all argued in favour of the relevance of the discipline of history in today's world.  Of course, they might just be biased as all of them have written history books!  During the session, Evans pointed out that history writing is now focusing on cultural, transnational and global themes—evident in the writings of the panel.  He also mentioned that the internet was a threat to historical writing as online writing bypasses the guardians of information and anyone can post anything claiming it to be fact.  Stewart Gordon stated out that history should be taught as a way of knowing, wherein students are taught how to separate facts from opinion.  He also mentioned how in today's age we need to be wary of the way in which numeric evidence can be manipulated into making falsehoods appear as the truth.  Sanjay Sanyal stressed on how facts cannot be altered, though everyone is entitled to form their own interpretations.  He also sensitised the audience to how evidence is not static, rather it evolves with new discoveries.  Ruby Lal brought up the need to think of authorship of the evidence: who was recording the evidence and why.  Dan Jones with his tattooed arms clearly dispelled the image of a tweed coat clad historian!  At the end of the hour, the historian in me was satisfied and my view of history as a discipline that fosters critical thinking was reaffirmed.

But after some highs there must be lows.  Richard Evans' session on The Coming of the Third Reich was a bit lacklustre in that it was a lecture on how Hitler came to power—not a very juicy topic.  What he did stress on again and again was the widespread of use of violence by the Nazis to squash any opposition.   

The Fog, the Smog and the Flu—what a catchy title for a session on the perils of pollution and epidemics.  Laura Spinney pointed out how we tend to glorify mass deaths by war but not those by other causes, because of which we are unaware of the fact that the Spanish Flu caused more deaths than World War I.  Christine Corton provided a very entertaining account of the London Smog and its impact on London society while Siddharth Singh reminded one of the perils that air pollution causes us today in India.  Clearly after this session I needed some cheering up!

At earlier editions of the festival,  I was quite an autograph collector but this time I was keen to get only one autograph—Manoranjan Byapari's!  His book Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit really sensitised me to the injustices the Dalits face.  So varied are the twists and turns of his life, that the book seemed like a movie.  His conversation on stage was fascinating and one quite admired him for being so loquacious on stage.  So imagine my shock when I found such a different persona when I went to get his autograph, it was almost a volte-face—the chatty man on stage had metamorphosed into an angry old man; he just did not want to sign the book (but I persisted!).  Perhaps this explains why his translator (who just happened to be his editor) was making such odd faces while on stage during his session and and instead of paying attention to what he said presented a memorised speech when she was asked to translate what he had just said.

The last session that I attended at the fest this time was Perumal Murugan's.  He is always a joy to listen to.  A pertinent point he made this time was that the term regional literature needs to be done away with and instead the umbrella term Indian literature should be used for all Indian writing.  It was also interesting to note how he credited Justice Sanjay Kaul's judgement for motivating him to write again (Kaul's 2016 judgement concluded with the lines: "Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write.")

While this is a summary of the sessions I attended, what of the rest? Well, here is some feedback on a few of them:  R really enjoyed Markus Zusak's session and can't wait to read his Bridge of Clay.  She found Yann Martel's session equally engaging.  The girls enjoyed the sessions on Brexit, The Right to Know, Why I Am No Longer Talking About Race, Bloodhead, Climate Change: A Call to Action, Beyond Borders: On Migration and the Novel.  In contrast, they found the session on Directorate S a bit dry.  

Thinking of the festival as a whole I realised that what bound a lot of speakers together were the political potshots they took; the targets being the trinity of Trump, Brexit & Modi.  Criticism of the latter made me realise just how leftist the Indian intelligentsia is barring one lone voice: Sanjay Sanyal's.  

In this huge melee the absence of the larger than life William Dalrymple was striking.  The co-founder of the festival was clearly missing in action; a contrast from previous festivals where he was buzzing around the venue introducing virtually half of the speakers and taking part in a number of discussion.  His absence was so not in character that it made me wonder what is afoot…… 

  Strangely, while I enjoyed the sessions, perhaps I'm a bit jaded as no single session stood out.  My high instead was interacting with the artist Abhishek Singh and getting a sketch in lieu of an autograph, which will now be framed and placed on my souvenir wall.

Overall the best part of the weekend was seeing how much the girls enjoyed the festival; their enthusiasm & curiosity ensured that they were an engaged audience rather than mere passive listeners—questioning the speakers when they could and carrying the conversations long past dinner to chasing down authors to get an autograph to collecting their insta moments (how else would one know that they were teenagers!)  It was with a heavy heart that they left Jaipur. On the ride back home they unanimously decided that the next time they were to attend the festival it would be for its entirety! 

And yet, despite not being floored by the festival itself, I do want to go back next year since Neil Gaiman is supposed to come (but then again wasn't he supposed to come this time?) along with George Saunders…won't it be great if they could be conversing with each other?!?

JLF 2015 Day 1

Too Much of a Good Thing...


Ok, I confess, I might be a JLF junkie, given that this is the sixth time that I am attending the fest!  Though in my defense, I do have to admit that I was planning to skip it this year, but then my friends arm twisted me to Jaipur with them in tow.  Can't complain though as I am having a great time hanging out with them.
As for the festival, as always there are great speakers and not so great speakers, intelligent moderators and inept ones.  The ones that stood out are: Molly Emma Aitken, William Pinch, Jung Chang on Cixi, Llewelyn Morgan, Daud Ali, Tom Holland, and Bettany Hughes.  More on them later.
At the end of the day, I did feel like an old-timer at the fest unhappy with the changes this year.  Entry to the fest disappointed me as chaos reigned supreme...disorderly lines with the lack of information guidance resulting in a mess at the registration counter....a brutal change from the previous years of seamless entry.
At the bookstore, I had a heart attack....my familiar faces of Full Circle had been replaced by the mechanical ones of Amazon.  Yes Amazon does give discounts, but shouldn't a lit fest support bookshops???  That too when they were their original book partners?
And finally on a slightly trivial note, my frozen yogurt store had been replaced by a tea shop, boo hoo.
Well, I guess one can't have it all!

PS: have woken up to rain in jaipur....hope the venue is not swamped!

Jaipur Literature Festival 2014, Day 3--The Importance of Being a Good Listener.

After an intense first two days, I took things a bit easy today by attending sessions during the second half of the day.

I was very excited to attend Partha Mitter's session on his seminal text Much Maligned Monsters.  Unfortunately, he was not a very inspiring speaker, so I left the session.  However, I do plan to read his book as it challenges the western way of looking at Indian art.

The highlight of my day was definitely, Reza Aslan's session on his book Zealot: Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth along with AN Wilson.   Aslan began by stating that there is a huge chasm between the Christ of faith and the Jesus of history.  Regarding the Jesus of history, there is consensus on only three things about him:
He was a Jew
He lived in the First half of the first century
He launched a movement of the Jews
However, given that the world of the Jews was well documented by the Romans we can make certain inferences about him. In Aslan's words we can make, "educated speculation based on what we know of the world we live in".
He mentioned that, in his opinion, Jesus' lost years were not spent far away but rather spent in rebuilding a town close to Nazareth.  AN Wilson disagreed with Aslan on this point saying that this theory of Aslan's was 'fantasy'.
Aslan then went to explain how Jesus was influenced by the ideas of zealotry, in particular the overthrow of Roman Rule.
What made this session particularly enjoyable apart from Aslan's engaging talk was that even though Alan and Wilson disagreed, they were so civilised about the whole matter and their arguments to a person who did not speak English would have seemed to be friendly banter.

Given that I had signed up for Sandel's MOOC on justice, attending his session was a no-brainer.  My immediate reaction to his session was that he is a gifted and skilled teacher.  I was super impressed by the level of his research to customise his 'lecture' to the Indian scenario because of which he had terms like All India Rank, figures such as reservation quotas and Sachin
Tendulkar's yearly income on the tips of his fingertips.  Truly the mark of a great teacher is the level of his/her preparedness.  Sandel deployed the Socratic method throughout his session, questioning members of the audience, and asking the brave ones to counter the other's argument.  He wrapped up the session, stating that public discourse helped develop good civic habits such as listening to others even if you don't agree with their point of view.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2014, Day 5--A Glorious Finale!

Magic, finally, on my last day at the JLF, probably the wettest n coldest day in the history of the festival.  Till yesterday, I was adamant that next year I would take a break from attending the fest, but after today's sessions I am not so sure.

Though I have not read Jim Crace's Harvest yet, I attended his session for two reasons: firstly, I had heard him earlier and he speaks very well; and secondly, my dear friend V, who is my guru, particularly, when it comes to advising me on what to read next, highly recommended Harvest;

so, how could I miss his session?
It was lovely listening to Crace talk about his writing as he is such a modest person and instead of blowing his own trumpet, he pointed out his 'bad habits': a tendency to be over-moralistic; the over-use of rhythmic and poetic language; and a leaning towards pessimism.
He began the session by declaring himself to be an old fashioned storyteller, and then went on to state that the ability to tell stories is what makes us human.  Perhaps, everyone can tell a story...but not many can write one well!
Crace talked about the importance of deciding which tense and person to write in.  While the third person is the default voice of story telling, it implies an all-knowing narrator.  In contrast, with the first person narrator, there is a sense that the narrator does not know everything and, instead, encounters things along with the reader.  Similarly, by using the present tense, there is a sense of not knowing what lies ahead.  Crace likened his narrator of Harvest to Nick Carraway who, though being a party to the action, was an observer.
He mentioned that in Harvest he touches upon three issues: capitalism; the tendency of people under pressure to look for scapegoats; the duality in the nature of humankind, of a person's immense love for his/her own land vs an immense curiosity for the rest of the world.

Crace while discussing religion said that though he was an atheist and believed more in land than in god, he did not dismiss god.  He felt it was the norm for humankind to have belief.  While he did not believe in the truth of religious stories he believed in the comfort that such stories provided.  Great religions, according to him, understand the importance of a memorable story as a means for people to believe. Crace explained that he believed in the power of storytelling.  However, with the progress of science religious narratives are being pushed to a corner so, according to Crace, new narratives are needed.
What really gets under Crace's skin is the assumption that an uneducated person person cannot have great sensibility.  According to him, the argument that Shakespeare could not have written his plays because he came from a humble background is rubbish.  He said that if one were to look at the upper class of the times they were 'buffoons'.  Just like Shakespeare loved converting nouns to verbs, Crace confessed he loved doing the same.

Jim Al-Khalili's session was electrifying, pure magic!  In less than an hour, he gave one a glimpse into the Golden Age of the Arabic speaking world, buzzing with the frenetic energy of scholars on their quest for learning.   To hear of Ibn Sina and Al-Biruni exchanging letters, quizzing each other on the limits of their knowledge made me think that if it were not for their names, this could be a European Renaissance or modern day story of great minds swapping notes.  Then, I thought to myself, why should it be such a surprise that science was so advanced in the Arabic speaking world, after all, the sophistication of their art and architecture would have to be paralleled in the other realms of knowledge.  To think that this session with Al-Khalili was a bonus as the scheduled author was unable to make it for her time slot!  If you have the time, you must watch this session on the JLF website.

The last session I attended was by Artemis Cooper on her biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor.  She told such an engrossing tale about the man who walked across Europe over the span of two years; who romanced a Romanian princess; who kidnapped a German General off the isle of Crete; who accidentally became the target of a vendetta; who travelled to exotic islands to finally settle down in Greece and pen many a book; that not only am I motivated to pick up a copy of her biography of the man but I also want to read his travelogues.

Well, as you can see that over the period of this five day literary smorgasbord, I have ended up with quite an extensive reading list that I am going to be broke for a while!

Jaipur Literature Festival 2014, Day 2--A Critique

Day two saw my initial euphoria of being at the literature festival subside and replaced by a more exacting frame of mind.  I spent the day classifying writers into good and bad speakers, for despite being masters of the word, not every writer is necessarily a good speaker. So, who were the good and the bad and the indifferent....(of the sessions I attended)?

Interestingly, some of the best speakers were professors...after all if you want to hold your class' attention you better be a good orator!  Professors whose classrooms I would love to be in include:
Marcus du Sautoy--whose fascinating lecture on symmetry and the language of maths made me, a totally non-maths person, pick up his book Finding Moonshine!
Anthony Beevor--always great to listen to him.  While talking about non-fiction he pin-pointed the problem with historical fiction--a genre that I find uncomfortable dealing with.  According to him, the problem with historical fiction is ascribing thoughts and feelings to real, historical figures.
Reza Aslan, a consistently engaging speaker, mentioned how he does not like the distinction between fiction and non-fiction to be that the latter is true.  Rather he prefers to define non-fiction as being tethered to reality.  He explained that the non-fiction tag gives a voyeuristic layer to the story which makes it more true.  He also stated that the goal of all writing is to reveal character.

Other impressive non-professor writers were:
Xiaolu Guo who pointed out that East Asian writing was more poetic and less narrative than that of the Western world and then went on to condemn American Literature as being over-rated.  I do admire such people who don't hesitate to speak their minds and I do agree with her when I think of Franzen's Freedom!
Nadifa Mohammed a very articulate speaker pointed out that FGM in Somalia is a part of every day life and therefore is regarded in a different way than outsiders view it.
Jim Crace--always wonderful to listen to.  According to him 'global novels' are non-English novels that capture the imagination more than the country they are written in such as Achebe's and Marquez's works.
Fariba Hachtroubi--what a passionate speaker!  She totally held one's attention and had so much to say about Iran and women's rights, echoing Gloria Steinem and Shereen El Faki, in the importance of having control over one's own body.
Shereen El Faki pointed out how the Arabs a thousand years ago were very open about sexuality and that it is Islamic fundamentalism that has made the discourse on sexuality so narrow.  I am definily attending her session on 'Sex and the Citadel'.
Carsten Jensen with his engaging anecdotes has proved  to be a great writer to listen to.  Today's anecdotes were about how reading helped calm and reassure him whether as a young child scared in his room or an adult travelling on a dangerous road to Kabul.
Andrew Graham-Dixon's session on Caravaggio I hear was amazing.  I got to hear a bit from him on the session on 'How can the sacred be sensuous' and I could understand why his earlier session was such a hit.  Here he pointed out that in Boticelli's Birth of Venus, the cloak being held by Venus was shaped as a vagina--only the male eye could figure that one!  Guess I better examine the painting carefully now.
George Michell.  I guess I was already biased in his favour having enjoyed studying his works in univ.  I was so disappointed that he spoke so briefly today as the others were monopolising the show.  In the session on the sensuous and sacred focusing on Indian temple art, he stated that there was a strong connection between the court and the notion of what a beautiful image was and that 90% of the imagery of the Indian temple was that of the privileged elite.  I can't wait to hear more from him on Monday.
Samantha Shannon, I place her under this category not because she made a huge impact on me but because I think that what she has achieved so far is very credible and because she was interesting to listen to, despite her young age.  I liked the way she pointed out how YA which is supposed to refer to a target audience of 12 to 18, now refers to a genre of fiction!

Writers who are proficient speakers but failed to impress were:
Jhumpa Lahiri:  she is an intelligent writer and made several pertinent points, but lacked the x factor...
Vidya Dehija...yes she is a professor but her lecture with loads of quotes from tamil poets was not terribly exciting.  I found her whole perspective very westernised starting with her investigation into why the sacred in India is sensuous, for this is not a strange thing for Indians.  Furthermore, I felt that this approach led her to a superficial explanation that it was a way for the patrons to ask to be  blessed with conjugal bliss.  Yet, we do know that the sexual images in places of worship in
India have a deeper meaning...a way of attaining another plane of awareness through the release of sexual energy.

The challenged speakers were:
Bejan Matur...in her case I think not being a native English speaker proved difficult for her, so while she made some interesting points she failed to excite one's imagination.
Nadeem Aslam...an extremely disappointing speaker, especially given that his books have been so well received.
Cyrus Mistry was perhaps the worst speaker...but he  went up in my esteem by publicly acknowledging that public speaking was not his forte.  I will read his Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer, as it just won the DSC prize for South Asian Literature.

So, as you can see today was quite an intense day, because of which I am only going to attend the second half of the day tomorrow.  Well, the real reason actually is that strangely no session in the first half rally appeals to me.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2014: Day 1--A Sampling

Am back attending the Jaipur Lit Fest for the fifth time in a row...each year I leave saying this will be my last time, only to find myself back a year later.

Day 1 was a bitterly cold day, but that did not deter enthusiasts like me from attending the festival.  What proved tougher than dealing with the weather was having to choose which session to attend as there were so many interesting sessions being held simultaneously...a problem that will continue for the entire fest.
I was very excited to hear Gloria Steinem talk in real time, but perhaps my high expectations were responsible for feeling a bit disappointed that this session failed to make an impression on me.  So, in true JLF style I moved to another session--Ved Mehta's.  Ved Mehta's statement that living in India was very difficult as it is so anarchic brought a smile to my lips, specially when I thought of the AAP in Delhi.  Given that I had entered this session mid-way, I felt I had missed out on the focus on the conversation and so I moved on to another venue.  This third session proved to be a real find, even though I caught the tail end of the discussion.  It was delightful to listen to Ananda Devi talk about how writing as a mother is not so easy in that one cannot go off to a study and write undisturbed due to family demands---how I can relate to that predicament!  I so agree with her statement that it is crucial for boys to be taught to respect women--a lesson that unfortunately a majority of men just don't seem to learn.  Her comment that French has a lyricism that English does not brought a smile to my lips...I can't wait to recount this to my girls, who keep groaning every time I point out the pros about the French language.  I definitely want to pick up her books to read.
The next session saw me firmly ensconced in the Baithak listening to Oscar Guardiola-Rivera explain how the US was involved in Allende's overthrow as they found him even more dangerous than Castro   for being both a democrat and a Marxist!  Guess that should not be too surprising, however, it does have one wondering what other events the US has been involved in.

The session on Litcrit was good fun to attend.  It was chaired by Homi Bhabha--a number of moderators should learn from him how to conduct a session in terms of how to stay on the topic and give the panelists ample opportunity to air their views.  One of the points to emerge from the discussion was the distinction between criticism and reviews--specially pertinent to me given that this blog will primarily be a place for me to share reviews of various books.  Carsten Jensen was particularly impressive with his dry observations, so his book We, the Drowned was promptly put down on my reading list.  I do hope that I can do what Philip Hensher said is a reviewer's obligation to the reader, of introducing the public to things they may not haven known of; wish me luck in this endeavour!

Save the best for last--that seems to have been the motto of the day with Anthony Beevor's session being held in the last time slot.  I was riveted listening to him  talk about the horrors of WWII and the atrocities committed by all parties involved.  He ended by stating that WWII defies generalisation.

Thus ended Day 1, leaving one with a lot of food for thought and an ever-expanding reading list!