“If you want to go somewhere you like but no one else wants to, go by yourself. You'll meet people with similar interests as you.” – sat a retweet on my timeline from one of those corny “Lifehacks” accounts, just a few hours ago. It’s right actually. I always have the most difficult time convincing people to take trips with me. As far as concerts or the Weekenders are concerned, I have no problem finding someone to accompany me, and the last one I was at (Pune) was a blast, where I happened to meet even more people who will most likely be next year’s companions.
As far as the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2015 (henceforth: JLF) was concerned, companionship didn’t matter, though, once I told my friends and college mates about it, they all wanted to attend, but couldn’t for various reasons. Most of the blame falls on me. I booked my flight tickets as soon as the dates were announced. So basically I bought my tickets in the first week of October for an event that was going to be held in the last week of January. WIN. Then, I got my delegate pass to JLF at an early-bird, discounted rate, again, sometime in October. DOUBLE WIN. (Note: JLF is largest FREE literature fest in the world, but since delegates are the prime audience, a delegate pass ensures access to delegate lounges and the music fests and exclusive lunches/dinners with authors and so on.) Another reason for me to ‘lone-wolf’ (as I like to call it) JLF was because of the second half of that quote at the beginning of this (long) post.
Go
by yourself. You'll meet people with similar interests as you.
Now, confession, as soon as my parents heard “I’m going to Jaipur”, they immediately made me book them tickets too, and so we extended our stay a little bit, so I could go sightseeing with them after JLF (that goes on for 5 days). Yep. There goes my theory of lone-wolfing. However, I still had 5 days.
As briefly as I can, I’m going to put down the highlights of each of the 5 days and the sessions I attended, the people I met and so on (more for my benefit than yours). Obviously, I couldn’t be at 6 places at one time and for that, I am glad that the videos of all the sessions are being uploaded on YouTube as I write this. Anyway, I tried to mix up the events in a way that I attended some sessions of authors/speakers and their agendas known to me, and then a few that I had no clue about in an effort to learn something different. I will be numbering the sessions in a way that may seemed jumbled to you, but that’s how they’re numbered on the schedule, as six sessions happen simultaneously. With break for lunch and tea, a person can attend 7 sessions that are (each) an hour long.
Armed with the official JLF schedule, its speaker manifesto, a fully charged phone, a portable phone charger, a light sweater, a thick hoodie, juice boxes, a notebook and a pen, I headed towards Diggi Palace.
Day 1. 21st January.
Wednesday.
Just landed the night before, I
found out that the place I was staying at was, thankfully, close to Diggi
Palace. It would take me about 15 minutes in a super-fast rickshaw and traffic
in Jaipur in nothing compared to the larger cities. I got my pass and
everything smoothly, and I headed straight towards the Front Lawns for the
opening ceremony. The opening act was by celebrated Rajasthani musicians Nathoo
Lal Solanki and Chugge Khan (a JLF favourite as I’m told) along with Sonam
Kalra. The songs praised spirituality and the oneness of all the Universe and
many verses of Kabir Das (the Muslim/Hindu poet saint) were put in song form.
JLF, that is usually surrounded by controversy because of extremist religious
groups/politicians (who can forget the Salman Rushdie controversy), began in
the best way it could, by celebrating the unison of faith with the spirit and
not by mere idolatry of religious icons. Session 1: Key Note – The Poetic Imagination with Vijay Seshadri, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Ashok Vajpeyi.
Session 7: Wild Magic by Cat Weatherill.
Session 13: The Reading Habit / Is the commerce of Literature killing good writing? Girish Karnad (The Reading Habit) / Nayantara Sahgal, CS Lakshmi, Mark Tully, Karthika VK, chaired by Prasoon Joshi. Here, Girish Karnad was given only 6 minutes to talk about ‘The Reading Habit’ and he did so wonderfully explaining how important it is to inculcate a reading habit, and that his son won’t let him have a Twitter account because he might get addicted to it.
Session 19: From Born Confused to Bombay Blues: New York to a New Mumbai with Tanuja Desai Hidier with Monisha Rajesh. Tanuja Desai Hidier is also a singer/songwriter who performed at the Clarks Amer on the second day.
Session 22: The Empress Dowager Cixi - The Concubine who launched Modern China. Speaker: Jung Chang chaired by Naresh Fernandes. An eye opening session about the life of the Empress Dowager, Chang kept the audiences enthralled.
Session 29: God’s Traitors: Religious Terrorism in Elizabethan England. Jessie Childs introduced by William Dalrymple.
Session 31: (B) Faiz and Kaifi- A Poetic Legacy with Salima Hashmi and Shabana Azmi in conversation with Ali Hussain Mir. A special extra session only for delegates, the ladies spoke about their fathers and their poetic influence of them both and on the young lives that surrounded them.
The evening music programs took place at the Clarks Amer. I reached there in time for ‘The King and the Corpse’. Next to go on was the ‘Alim Qasimov Ensemble: Spiritual Sounds of Azerbaijan’ and the ‘Jaisalmer Boys’.
Day 2. 22nd January.
Thursday.
I woke up to a dense fog as it
had started raining sometime in the night. Everyone knows I hate the
rains. Actually, I hate it when I have to get out of the house and a deluge is
in the making. Coming from Bombay, it was more like a drizzle to me, however,
no one was prepared for the rain and the cold weather got colder. The rain
hadn’t stopped at all, and it continued to pour all over the place. Most of the
tents were wet and dripping. Many sessions were shifted to the drier places at
Diggi, and every session was now 30 minutes instead of an hour. All the
sessions of the Front Lawns where shifted to various different venues but I
still managed to see whatever I intended to except the first session, as I
waited for the rain to subside a bit before I left my place.Session 39: Descent into Chaos- Pakistan on the Brink with Ahmed Rashid, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, G Parthasarathy, Anatol Lieven, moderated by Suhasini Haider. Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Kurshed Mahmud Kasuri made some excellent points and valuable inputs by Anatol Lieven and Ahmed Rashid only added to the dignified panel. However, Gopalaswami Parthasarthy was applauded the most. You had to be there.
Session 48: The Buddhas of Bamiyan. Conversations with Llwelyn Morgan and Barry Flood chaired by William Dalrymple.
An interesting thing happened at lunch as I happened to meet Ritika Taneja (@dynamightt). She is absolutely fun to have lunch with and there was a friendship forged.
Session 60: How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds and the Scandal That Shook the French Throne. Jonathan Beckman introduced by Naresh Fernandes. The long wait into the Durbar Hall was absolutely worth it.
Session 62: Hamlet’s Dilemma. Vishal Bhardwaj, Basharat Peer, Tim Supple, Jerry Brotton in conversation. Introduced by Suhel Seth. I study literature, and I watched Haider twice. If I start writing about the session, this post will be twice as long.
Met Ayush (@cycle_bin) for the first time after tweeting to him for years.
Once again at the Clarks Amer, the music event was shifted indoors due to the rain. Tanuja Desai Hidier collaborated with Gaurav Vaz. Still Dirty, with one of their 'dirty' gigs was actually fun. I left early since I didn’t want to be caught up in the rains, though they had stopped, but transportation is a bitch.
Day 3. 23rd January.
Friday.
They day started well for me as
I was force-fed parathas by the cooks at the guest house. This was serious
business as my first meal of the day is usually lunch since I’m out the door
before breakfast is made. “Didi, ek aur
paratha” and a fat paratha stuffed with potatoes lands into my plate before
I can say no. Right, moving on. Session 71: A Revolution is Brewing: Sangeeta Bandopadhyay, C. Mrunalini and Sukrita Paul Kumar in conversation with Malashri Lal. I was still reeling from all the paratha eating.
Session 75: Wanderlust and the Art of Travel Writing with Paul Theroux, Charles Glass, Samanth Subramanian, Akash Kapur, Sam Miller, Brigid Keenan in conversation with William Dalrymple. Okay. First of all Paul Theroux. Let that just sink in for a minute. I could cry. Secondly, Brigid Keenan. Such a distinguished panel. Dalrymple, whose books one can find in every bookstore in all of Rajasthan, is a JLF legend. I can go on and on. I won’t. I sat on the floor for this one as it was the most crowded session of the day.
Session 80: Shadow Play: The Art of Biography: Jenny Uglow, Jung Chang, Mark Gevisser, Kate Summerscale, Lucy Hughes Hallet moderated by Anita Anand.
Lunch with Ritika and Tripti (that little wonder). This journalist couple from the BBC struck up an interesting conversation with me before and it’s too bad we didn’t exchange full names. But I had a good time breaking bread with Sandeep and Karen/Carol (and you think you’re bad with names).
Session 90: Hitler’s Secret Bankers: Has Switzerland Profited from the Holocaust? With Adam LeBor in conversation with Jonathan Shainin. Something interesting happened here. The Durbar Hall, has a capacity of a small number of people and thus it needs bouncers (for the lack of a better word) to keep people out. So, I waited in line because I absolutely couldn’t miss the session. Right behind was Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Kurshed Mahmud Kasuri, standing in line with regular festival goers. He didn’t push through. He didn’t use his Speaker badge to get in, though he could. He refused to go past when I offered him to take my place since he was who he was. He spoke to me so nicely and is a humble man. While standing in line together, we spoke about his session from the previous day and not once did he speak with an air of arrogance. Such people do exist. Also, I met a interesting woman, Shagun, who I hope to run into again next year.
Session 96: Abducting A General: Rick Stroud introduced by William Dalrymple. Can’t wait to get my hands on this book.
Session: 102: Toxic Legacy: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy with Javier Moro and John Elliott in conversation with Salil Tripathi about the world’s worst industrial disaster that still plagues the region.
Right after this session, I met up with Abhinav Chandel (@ABHIandNOW) and after a brief interval, we met up once again at Clarks Amer for the music fest with the legendary Sain Zahoor. With Tripti and Ritika joining in, it became sort of a tradition for the next few days. Dub Colossus followed. Shreya joined us for dinner. Many more things, but let’s keep this clean. Also, met up with Abhinav Lohiya (@rok_moosick) who took me out for an amazing breakfast on my last day in Jaipur.
Day 4. 24th January.
Saturday.
Okay, I was sort of tired since
all the running around but that didn’t stop me from attending. And on this day,
our beloved ex-prez Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam had two sessions. A visionary who
ignites minds (see what I did there? No? Okay, you wouldn’t get it if you
weren’t there), a man with a cult following that would shame fans of any Khan
or Kapoor in Bollywood, a name that resonates with every school kid across
India (and I am far from a kid now), was at JLF and I couldn’t even get near
the stages he was at. Thank God for YouTube, right? Session 104: Why a Library of Classical Indian Literature? Girish Karnad and Sheldon Pollock in conversation Arshia Sattar. *spotted Abhishek Gurbani (@ChiknaVakeel) at this session and waved to him. So glad I did as he later helped me out immensely. And his girlfriend is adorable.
Session 111: Dance Like a Man: Refiguring Masculinity with Mukul Deva, Christos Tsiolkas, and Shobhaa De in conversation with Ashok Ferrey. No, Dattani wasn’t there, but this session dealt with a lot of issues that surround the play ‘Dance Like a Man’. If you’ve studied the play for your Drama and Theatre paper in your TY (like I did) or you will be studying it, I highly recommend you watch this session on YouTube.
Session 117: Beautiful Offspring: The Art of Historical Fiction with Damon Galgut and Eleanor Catton in conversation Kamila Shamsie. Eleanor Catton, ‘nuff said.
Lunch with Chandel, and we shared our table with this polite British gentleman and two correspondents of a small time news crew. It is amazing how many people from different backgrounds are enthralled by JLF. We were later joined by Ritika and Trupti.
Session 124: Meltdown in the Middle East in conversation with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Gideon Levy, Charles Glass, Fady Joudah, Hisham Matar and Pinak Chakravarty. Gideon Levy had some very important things to say about the Israeli Occupation questioning its legitimacy and how it must end in order for the region to move forward. He also went ahead to say that “a festival like this (JLF) cannot take place in any other county.” Certainly pleased the crowds.
Session 133: “Evolution of Jazz” by Joe Alvares. There was some confusion as to this session being cancelled, and since I was too tired to enquire, I decided to sit under a tree and talk to Gurbani and his (did I mention adorable) girlfriend and Ayush. It was a much needed respite from running from one hall to another tent. The crowd was ridiculous.
Session 139: The Poetry Hour 7×7: Kavita Nirantar with Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Helon Habila, Malchand Tiwari, Meena Kandasamy, Aruni Kashyap, Nand Kishore Acharya and Arundhati Subramaniam. The Ford Samvad tent concluded with a Poetry Hour every day. It was interesting to see poets from around the world recite their poems. Meena Kandasamy stole the show. Such a little person, such immense talent. Met Arunita Roy (@babajikibeauty) at this session.
As nightfall approached, Gurbani was nice enough to offer to drive me back to my place after I couldn’t get a cab or a rickshaw for a painful half an hour. Seriously, he is the best. Later that night, I made my way to Clarks Amer where I met up with Ritika and Tripti, and we just couldn’t get away from the Rizwan Muazzam Qawals. Once Midival Punditz started playing, we ate and drank to our health as Chandel went on a road trip for the night. Had an amazing conversation with this one guy whose name is an oxymoron which means ‘best among all the equals’. I honestly cannot remember his name even though his company and him made it a point to drop me home in the middle of the night. *Edit: The ‘best among all the equals’ guy somehow read this post and tweeted to me! Small world?
Day 5. 25th January.
Sunday. Last day.
This day began with mixed
emotions. There was a time I used to be out of the door by 6:30am for lectures
at Jai Hind. That time was before I graduated. JLF was the first time since
then that I was waking up before by 8am (and the week before JLF, I was
sleeping at 6am). The cold makes you want to sleep in. So on one hand, last day
where I have to get up so early. But, it was the last day. The last day to meet
the people I spent so much time with. The last day of sparkling conversations
with amazing authors who stood in lines with me and shared meals with me. The
last day of some soulful Rajasthani music fusioned with global acts. The last
day with Chandel. The last day with Ritika. The last day with Tripti. The last
day with Arunita. The last day of Dalrymple. The last day. Session 143: Anatomy of Disappearance. Hisham Matar in conversation with Razia Iqbal. My last day started off with a session with Hisham Matar, and ended with a session with Hisham Matar. “To devour the beloved is the desire” and with these words I became a Hisham Matar convert.
Session 146: The CIA and the Wilderness of Mirrors with Kai Bird, Charles Glass and Scott Anderson moderated by Jonathan Shainin. This was an extremely interesting session where Shainin said “he may be a bastard, but he’s our bastard” and Glass said that the CIA can’t even throw a surprise birthday party if it had to. It was the panel’s unanimous opinion that the CIA should be disbanded for the greater good as it the most unnecessary organisation in the world.
Session 157: Muthoni’s Necklace and Other Tales by Cat Weatherill. Even though I wanted to attend session 154: Granta on India with speakers Amit Chaudhuri, Samanth Subramaniam, Deepti Kapoor, Raghu Karnad and Sam Miller that was moderated by Urvashi Butalia, something about Cat Weatherill made me go to Ford Samvad’s tent. The way she tells a story is captivating and I immediately bought her book and got it signed from her as I know a kid who really needs to read her book and would appreciate it. And he did, even though I didn’t want to part with it. She wrote him a beautiful quote.
Session 161: Sanskrit: The Living Heritage” with Satya Vrat Shastri introduced by Sushma Singhvi. Since I haven’t an iota of knowledge about Sanskrit, I decided to attend this session. I’m glad I did.
Session 167: In Exile with Sahar Delijani, Ma Jian, Fady Joudah, Hisham Matar, Anchee Min moderated by Ramita Navai. The last session of the British Airways Baithak and the last one I attended, I took the front row seats. The Baithak was amazingly full for this session. William Dalrymple sat on the floor in front of me. These authors, in exile from their countries had thought provoking and tear inducing matter that got everyone’s attentions. If you weren’t there, please go ahead and watch it on YouTube since I can’t do it any justice by writing about it.
And then we danced away the night at the Writer’s Ball. And we danced. Candy hung from the trees; tables were laid out beautifully, candles adorned the dining area. Drunken writers mingled with drunken writers and danced with the who’s who of the literary community that had descended at Le Meridien, from all across the world. All dressed. The weather was amazing. The cold air was drunk with life. In the wee hours of the cold Monday morning, the Jaipur Literature Festival 2015 had ended.
I spent the next few days wandering around the many forts and palaces of Jaipur in a blur as I went through the symptoms of what I now call The JLF Withdrawal and something in me made this write this entire thing. Capt. Reynolds would call it ‘a mighty fine shindig’, as would I. I’d like to apologize since I can’t remember the names of many people, but I do remember our conversations.
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