Pen Drive

Besides its smug armour,the first day of the fifth Jaipur Literature Festival also got sunlight.

Hype real or fictional in any language is a powerful godfather. Besides its smug armour,the first day of the fifth Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) also got sunlight. Surging crowds with school girls in long pants,discreet authors and a large audience wanting to be noticed,trooped into Diggi Palace. Moods were on a high,but so was the security: every visitor was frisked and handbags checked. And no,Salman Rushdie,wasnt there. He will only speak to audience over a video link during the festival.

Sri Lanka-born Canadian Michael Ondaatje,the author of The English Patient,was the big draw. A fully packed session notwithstanding,the discussion between him and Amitava Kumar was lacklustre. While the writer stood by his belief that laconic people are often the most interesting, Kumar tried to fill the silences with long questions. However,when Onjaatje started reading from his recent work,The Cats Table,a silence descended on the sun-dappled front lawns of Diggi Palace. In a voice rich in texture but restrained in emotion,he read an extract from the book,which chronicles a sea journey from Ceylon to London,partly based on his own journey as an 11-year-old boy. There was a line between fiction and non-fiction and I snorted it in 1976, he said. Off stage,he tersely,yet quietly,refused to take a media query even as he carried on a signing spree at the signing booth.

David Remnick was the other most wanted author of the day. Journalist and writer Samanth Subramaniam engaged with The New Yorker editor on The Disappointment of Obama in a debate on American politics. Remnick kept churning out smart one-liners,topping his own witticisms when he said,Obama won the Noble Peace Prize for not being George Bush.

The other sessions werent as well-attended but they kept the audience riveted. Rosamund Bartlett,author of Tolstoy: A Russian Life,passionately spoke on Tolstoy the man; Anna Pavord,the author who writes on gardening,gave a quirky side to the festival by talking about what she knows best tulips; Hindi poet and author Ashok Chakradhar kept the audience engrossed with his poetic renditions. Interestingly,Oloixarac,a young and good-looking Argentinean author,unknown in the younger intellectual circuit,drew a rather large crowd. She is pretty and the talk turned out to be interesting too, said Ishaan Tiwari,a Delhi University student,on his way to get her autograph.

The festival peripheries were dotted with handicraft stalls like Dastkar and Umang. There was a stall by designer Ritu Kumar,displaying Label,her line for younger clientele. For those wanting a lasting memento of JLF,there was even a tattoo parlour. Most students hung around here during the sessions buying kulhaad chai for 10 rupees and papari chaat for Rs 20.

The festival merchandise store cashed in on printed T-shirts ,mugs and even jackets. Concluding the day was the vibrant and vigorous Rajasthani music and performances by Jaipur Kawa Brass Band,Chugge Khan and Nathoo Lal Solanki,among others,along with local folk dancers and fire-eaters.

Live tweets from JLF by The Indian Express team at @ iexpresslive

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