How I wish I could have attended all the talks that I had encircled, underlined and/or starred. But to make that feasible I needed the superhuman power of bilocation, multilocation or at times omnipresence. I am still trying but haven’t been able to reach that stage of perfection yet. Maybe next year. As of now, my superpower of drifting away from the topic has overpowered me yet again. Thankfully I am totally dedicated to coming back to the point, that is, recording the experience of the Jaipur Literature Festival by quoting the authors, panelists or participants of some of the talks that I really enjoyed. So here I go:
Day 1 (21.01.2015)
I started the festival by attending“Gaate Jaye Banjara: Film Songs- Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani”: Javed Akhtar introduced by Priyanka Chaturvedi. Basically satisfying the love of writing and the love of good film songs via one talk. Quoting Javed Akhtar:
“The film songs today don’t include the subtle morality that the old songs included. The basic thought of life, the morals of day to day living for the common man, were propagated through film songs earlier. Songs like ‘Kisi ki muskurahton pe ho nisaar...’ talked about basic morals of life that indirectly got induced in a common mans life. The film song lyrics today create this void in the society. The indirect spreading of good thoughts, morals and philosophies of life is not happening anymore. The social morality void is also a result of the changing film songs to a certain extent.”
“Faiz and Kaifi- A Poetic Legacy”: Salima Hashmi and Shabana Azmi in conversation with Ali Husain Mir - A beautiful conversation with daughters about the poets and their fathers.
Salima Hashmi quoting Faiz Ahmed Faiz - “Always be at work. Even if you do not have any ‘work’. Create work. Never stop working.”
Shabana Azmi quoting Kaifi Azmi - “When you want change and work for it, accept the fact that it might not happen in your lifetime. But you have to sincerely keep on working because even if you re not there, the change WILL see the light of the day.”
Day 3 (23.01.2015)
Day 1 (21.01.2015)
I started the festival by attending“Gaate Jaye Banjara: Film Songs- Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani”: Javed Akhtar introduced by Priyanka Chaturvedi. Basically satisfying the love of writing and the love of good film songs via one talk. Quoting Javed Akhtar:
“The film songs today don’t include the subtle morality that the old songs included. The basic thought of life, the morals of day to day living for the common man, were propagated through film songs earlier. Songs like ‘Kisi ki muskurahton pe ho nisaar...’ talked about basic morals of life that indirectly got induced in a common mans life. The film song lyrics today create this void in the society. The indirect spreading of good thoughts, morals and philosophies of life is not happening anymore. The social morality void is also a result of the changing film songs to a certain extent.”
“Faiz and Kaifi- A Poetic Legacy”: Salima Hashmi and Shabana Azmi in conversation with Ali Husain Mir - A beautiful conversation with daughters about the poets and their fathers.
Salima Hashmi quoting Faiz Ahmed Faiz - “Always be at work. Even if you do not have any ‘work’. Create work. Never stop working.”
Shabana Azmi quoting Kaifi Azmi - “When you want change and work for it, accept the fact that it might not happen in your lifetime. But you have to sincerely keep on working because even if you re not there, the change WILL see the light of the day.”
Day 3 (23.01.2015)
My love for traveling took me to the talk - “Wanderlust and the Art of Travel Writing”: Paul Theroux, Charles Glass, Samanth Subramanian, Akash Kapur, Sam Miller, Brigid Keenan in conversation with William Dalrymple. I thought William Dalrymple said the most beautiful thing about travel writing without even noticing that he said it! Quoting William Dalrymple:
“The thing about these books is that they are about places that were when we wrote the book; they no longer exist.”
Next I attended “Shadow Play: The Art of Biography”: Jenny Uglow, Jung Chang, Mark Gevisser, Kate Summerscale, Lucy Hughes Hallet moderated by Anita Anand. I have always been interested in knowing people and human nature. So I went to this talk because I shared the interest of the authors of getting to know somebody else. The discovery of the art of writing a biography was not the focus for me. And while the authors on the panel had different, to a point contradicting, methods of writing a biography, there were some very interesting statements made. While Jung Chang described her method by saying “As a biographer it is your job to get into the head of your subject”; Kate Summerscale confessed in beautifully framed words: “The story of them is not their story, it is my story of them.” To elaborate on this dilemma Mark Gevisser quoted a famous biographer: “There is always betrayal while writing a biography. You cannot look at a person the way he looks at or thinks of himself.”
The last talk cum performance of the day that I attended was “Kathputli: Of Puppets and Puppeteers”: Dadi Pudumjee, Puran Bhatt, Rajesh Bhat Nagori in conversation. Introduced by Sanjoy Roy. Not a particularly literary gathering, it was a talk with puppeteers and the lost or dying traditions of the Kathputli. Puran Bhatt, fit to be called a master puppeteer, a very sensitive and passionate man, talked about how the art is suffering because of loss of patronage and a decent performance platform. Dadi Pudumjee, a leading puppeteer of India and almost the torch bearer of present puppetry scene in India, said something precious during the talk, something that as a conservation architect I truly support:
“Tradition has to keep on moving. If there is no change or no scope for creativity you are just making a museum. Tradition has to evolve.”
Day 4 (24.01.2015)
One of the most awaited talks for me was about the Murty Classical Library and its inception. So the first talk I attended this day was “Why a Library of Classical Indian Literature?”: Girish Karnad, Sheldon Pollock in conversation Arshia Sattar. Without a doubt I was totally impressed by Sheldon Pollock. What a brilliant man! I ended up buying his book The Language of the Gods in the World of Men immediately. Out of the many reasons and answers he gave for the main question - ‘Why a library of classical Indian literature?’, the statement that is still making me think was “No culture is entirely competent to explain itself.” Some solid food for thought! As complex as this statement sounds, his definition for a ‘Classic’ was as straightforward as it gets. “Classical is perpetual uncontemporary. The purpose of a classic is to take you to a ground not experienced or experiencable by you.”
Drifting away from the topic of the making of the Classical Library, when asked by a member of the audience, what according to him, is the reason that in India old literature is undoubtedly phenomenal and no new work can compete it, no matter what Indian language you consider, Sheldon Pollock very simply said : “We have to accept that there has been a continuous development of underdevelopment in India for the past 300 years. Not only, many of the valuable texts have been lost and many more are on the road to extinction, but also, many Indian languages have been lost because we do not care or worry enough.” Well, yes, agreed. I agree. I totally agree. When will we start caring about our roots? When? If a majority does not care still, I think India will be a dead tree very soon. On that note, I thought the Murty Classical Library is a wonderful initiative and really hope that they continue the good work.
Moving on, away from a little revolutionary feeling inside me, I attended “The Writer and The World”: VS Naipaul in conversation with Farrukh Dhondy. The highest level of sensitivity and emotion packed in one talk. My eyes were literally damp. Especially when V.S.Naipaul thanked the audience for being so wonderful with tears rolling down his face in cascades, it was too much for me to take. Though crying was not involved in my reaction, I will not deny that I was completely emotionally exhausted. Anyway, coming back to the quoting job I have taken over myself, as an aspiring writer I totally admire his reply to the question - why he didn’t try to do something else when his initial writings were not being accepted by publishers; he said, “I had to stay with my talent! I believe if I left confidence in my talent, I would not have had confidence in me to do anything at all.”
“The thing about these books is that they are about places that were when we wrote the book; they no longer exist.”
Next I attended “Shadow Play: The Art of Biography”: Jenny Uglow, Jung Chang, Mark Gevisser, Kate Summerscale, Lucy Hughes Hallet moderated by Anita Anand. I have always been interested in knowing people and human nature. So I went to this talk because I shared the interest of the authors of getting to know somebody else. The discovery of the art of writing a biography was not the focus for me. And while the authors on the panel had different, to a point contradicting, methods of writing a biography, there were some very interesting statements made. While Jung Chang described her method by saying “As a biographer it is your job to get into the head of your subject”; Kate Summerscale confessed in beautifully framed words: “The story of them is not their story, it is my story of them.” To elaborate on this dilemma Mark Gevisser quoted a famous biographer: “There is always betrayal while writing a biography. You cannot look at a person the way he looks at or thinks of himself.”
The last talk cum performance of the day that I attended was “Kathputli: Of Puppets and Puppeteers”: Dadi Pudumjee, Puran Bhatt, Rajesh Bhat Nagori in conversation. Introduced by Sanjoy Roy. Not a particularly literary gathering, it was a talk with puppeteers and the lost or dying traditions of the Kathputli. Puran Bhatt, fit to be called a master puppeteer, a very sensitive and passionate man, talked about how the art is suffering because of loss of patronage and a decent performance platform. Dadi Pudumjee, a leading puppeteer of India and almost the torch bearer of present puppetry scene in India, said something precious during the talk, something that as a conservation architect I truly support:
“Tradition has to keep on moving. If there is no change or no scope for creativity you are just making a museum. Tradition has to evolve.”
Day 4 (24.01.2015)
One of the most awaited talks for me was about the Murty Classical Library and its inception. So the first talk I attended this day was “Why a Library of Classical Indian Literature?”: Girish Karnad, Sheldon Pollock in conversation Arshia Sattar. Without a doubt I was totally impressed by Sheldon Pollock. What a brilliant man! I ended up buying his book The Language of the Gods in the World of Men immediately. Out of the many reasons and answers he gave for the main question - ‘Why a library of classical Indian literature?’, the statement that is still making me think was “No culture is entirely competent to explain itself.” Some solid food for thought! As complex as this statement sounds, his definition for a ‘Classic’ was as straightforward as it gets. “Classical is perpetual uncontemporary. The purpose of a classic is to take you to a ground not experienced or experiencable by you.”
Drifting away from the topic of the making of the Classical Library, when asked by a member of the audience, what according to him, is the reason that in India old literature is undoubtedly phenomenal and no new work can compete it, no matter what Indian language you consider, Sheldon Pollock very simply said : “We have to accept that there has been a continuous development of underdevelopment in India for the past 300 years. Not only, many of the valuable texts have been lost and many more are on the road to extinction, but also, many Indian languages have been lost because we do not care or worry enough.” Well, yes, agreed. I agree. I totally agree. When will we start caring about our roots? When? If a majority does not care still, I think India will be a dead tree very soon. On that note, I thought the Murty Classical Library is a wonderful initiative and really hope that they continue the good work.
Moving on, away from a little revolutionary feeling inside me, I attended “The Writer and The World”: VS Naipaul in conversation with Farrukh Dhondy. The highest level of sensitivity and emotion packed in one talk. My eyes were literally damp. Especially when V.S.Naipaul thanked the audience for being so wonderful with tears rolling down his face in cascades, it was too much for me to take. Though crying was not involved in my reaction, I will not deny that I was completely emotionally exhausted. Anyway, coming back to the quoting job I have taken over myself, as an aspiring writer I totally admire his reply to the question - why he didn’t try to do something else when his initial writings were not being accepted by publishers; he said, “I had to stay with my talent! I believe if I left confidence in my talent, I would not have had confidence in me to do anything at all.”
Day 5 (25.01.2015)
The last day of the festival arrived and I was exhausted. So I decided to take it easy and attend some talks that I was inquisitive about and had no idea what those territories held in store. My general selection method of the talks had been based on some familiarity. Any aspect that was familiar was on my to attend list. But the last day I decided the familiarity has to be with the unfamiliarity of the subject or the author or the genre or something else that I could think of then. So the two talks that I attended were:
“The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life”: Bettany Hughes introduced by Avantika Sujan which was the talk I had not encircled on my interest schedule, but well, ended up being exactly what I would have been interested in. A valuable discovery was that a quote that I have adored since long and truly think defines how I see life was actually something that Socrates had said. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” To elaborate on this and to explain the social situation today, Bettany Hughes exclaimed, “Often in our world it does not matter what we do, but it does matter what people say we do.”
The second talk, which surely was an unexplored territory for me, opened up a new area of thought for me. The talk was “In Exile”: Sahar Delijani, Ma Jian, Fady Joudah, Hisham Matar, Anchee Min moderated by Ramita Navai. I had never heard of either of these authors. It was the fact that all of them were living in exile and writing revolutionary stuff about their motherlands, sounded interesting and different. The conversation was emotional in a very different way as compared to the Naipaul talk of the previous day. The emotions exhibited here were of longing and in some cases hatred. Then there was that weird aspect of coexistence of fear and courage. Some of them would be persecuted if they went back but still, when away from their lands, they were not afraid of writing the reality, knowing very well that their writing can harm them in the worst possible way. Their emotional turmoil is evident when we revisit the following statements made by the authors:
Sahar Dlijani says responding to a question about her views on dictatorship and how she accepts decisions taken by such a system - “Dictatorship anyway results in self exile.”
Anchee Min, surely one of the people who have seen the ugliest face of the society, exclaimed when asked about how she managed to steer through - “I could be defeated but I could not be conquered.” Adding later on in the conversation, “Also, sometimes the social madness dehumanizes you.”
Ma Jian, the second Chinese panelist, did not speak English. He lives in exile in London for the past few years and does not interact in English. He writes his novels in Chinese and all of them are translated by his wife. I found it very interesting that he did not learn English to make his life easy in an English speaking society. But then I didn’t have to wait for long for an answer. In his words (as translated), “In exile, I am my language, and so, I am.
Exile is like being able to see a mountain even when you are away from it.”
Hisham Matar, came across as a very peacefully revolutionary personality. When asked about wanting to go back to his motherland or not, he delved deeper into the philosophy of exile and said - “We can never totally authentically return to anything. You are always moving forward.”
Carrying the philosophy forward, much like a poet, Fady Joudah said: “Exile is always an idea of return.
The true great man or woman is the one who does not belong anywhere.” He ended the talk with a thought: “Is not exile, a form of love?”
No wonder and thank god, he is a poet!!
The last day of the festival arrived and I was exhausted. So I decided to take it easy and attend some talks that I was inquisitive about and had no idea what those territories held in store. My general selection method of the talks had been based on some familiarity. Any aspect that was familiar was on my to attend list. But the last day I decided the familiarity has to be with the unfamiliarity of the subject or the author or the genre or something else that I could think of then. So the two talks that I attended were:
“The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life”: Bettany Hughes introduced by Avantika Sujan which was the talk I had not encircled on my interest schedule, but well, ended up being exactly what I would have been interested in. A valuable discovery was that a quote that I have adored since long and truly think defines how I see life was actually something that Socrates had said. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” To elaborate on this and to explain the social situation today, Bettany Hughes exclaimed, “Often in our world it does not matter what we do, but it does matter what people say we do.”
The second talk, which surely was an unexplored territory for me, opened up a new area of thought for me. The talk was “In Exile”: Sahar Delijani, Ma Jian, Fady Joudah, Hisham Matar, Anchee Min moderated by Ramita Navai. I had never heard of either of these authors. It was the fact that all of them were living in exile and writing revolutionary stuff about their motherlands, sounded interesting and different. The conversation was emotional in a very different way as compared to the Naipaul talk of the previous day. The emotions exhibited here were of longing and in some cases hatred. Then there was that weird aspect of coexistence of fear and courage. Some of them would be persecuted if they went back but still, when away from their lands, they were not afraid of writing the reality, knowing very well that their writing can harm them in the worst possible way. Their emotional turmoil is evident when we revisit the following statements made by the authors:
Sahar Dlijani says responding to a question about her views on dictatorship and how she accepts decisions taken by such a system - “Dictatorship anyway results in self exile.”
Anchee Min, surely one of the people who have seen the ugliest face of the society, exclaimed when asked about how she managed to steer through - “I could be defeated but I could not be conquered.” Adding later on in the conversation, “Also, sometimes the social madness dehumanizes you.”
Ma Jian, the second Chinese panelist, did not speak English. He lives in exile in London for the past few years and does not interact in English. He writes his novels in Chinese and all of them are translated by his wife. I found it very interesting that he did not learn English to make his life easy in an English speaking society. But then I didn’t have to wait for long for an answer. In his words (as translated), “In exile, I am my language, and so, I am.
Exile is like being able to see a mountain even when you are away from it.”
Hisham Matar, came across as a very peacefully revolutionary personality. When asked about wanting to go back to his motherland or not, he delved deeper into the philosophy of exile and said - “We can never totally authentically return to anything. You are always moving forward.”
Carrying the philosophy forward, much like a poet, Fady Joudah said: “Exile is always an idea of return.
The true great man or woman is the one who does not belong anywhere.” He ended the talk with a thought: “Is not exile, a form of love?”
No wonder and thank god, he is a poet!!
