Jaipur Lit Fest

After I came back from the Literature Festival, I was painting Delhi pink with my Jaipur stories and a friend of mine very genuinely asked, ‘So, what is it like going to the Jaipur lit fest for a person who devours the written word … is it like an ardent sports fan getting to watch the Olympics live?’ While I’m still figuring out what to make of that analogy, the Jaipur lit fest is nothing less than one of the best literature experiences in India. The Diggy Palace ambience provides a good mix of the traditional and the modern – something true even of the way in which literature was being discussed there. Some were traditional reading sessions with question and answers while others were animated panel discussions on some sensitive issues like giving mainstream importance to Dalit Literature. There was something for everyone to savour and exciting as it was, there were times when we didn’t leave the same venue for three back to back sessions. We were spellbound by Gulzar’s poetry readings (and for entirely different reasons we were spellbound by Rahul Bose too!)  While actress Shabana Azmi was the major star attraction for the crowd, her presence also helped to enhance the interest in the book launch of Kaifi and I as she read several anecdotes from her mother’s memoirs and made interesting remarks about the times of the Progressive Writers Association. While Barkha Dutt engaged a large audience on books versus internet and discussed everything from audio books to Twitter to copyrights in cyberspace, Prasoon Joshi and Mark Tully animatedly talked about the path that English has traced in India – from being the coloniser’s language to autowallahs asking us ‘Sir is the seat comfortable?’ in a bid to survive in the metropolitans today. Not only for the literary aware but the fest had enough for music lovers and connoisseurs of French cuisine (alas! Only for those with the delegate passes could enjoy a dinner of French food and Italian wines) French bands performed one evening as a part of the Bonjour India initiative and mesmerised the audience with awesome instrumental and vocals and the next evening the stage was set with Sufi Qawalls from Pakistan.

It was delightful to find that the fest not only celebrated well known figures like William Dalrymple ( he staged a special production of Nine Lives) but also gave space to little known publications to publicise and put up their books on sale and Editors from regional publication houses had travelled down from Bikaner and several other places. Another positive initiative by the organisers was that they had organised a walk to discover the charisma of the old walled city of Jaipur. Amidst such interesting things the only disappointments were the facts that some guest speakers like Jamaica Kincaid could not make it to the event and several enriching sessions had to be given a miss because they were occurring simultaneously at different venues. I think partly due to that we promised each other that wherever we are we will come for the Jaipur Literature Festival next January again and catch up on some more Mirchi vadas!

~ Smriti Sinha