Writes of Passage

The chaos and disturbance from the first day of the kumbh mela that is the Jaipur Literature Festival,descended upon the second day too.

The chaos and disturbance from the first day of the kumbh mela that is the Jaipur Literature Festival,descended upon the second day too. The authors,who had on the previous day expressed their solidarity towards author Salman Rushdie,were not visible on the second day,except Ruchir Joshi,who attended an evening session. However,the topic of protest and censorship continued in public discourse.

Bringing together authors from the regions,where issues of creative expression have been a question,the talk Creativity,Censorship and Dissent had Kashmiri author Siddhartha Gigoo,Bangladeshi author Tahmina Anam,lyricist Prasoon Joshi,and Tamil authors Charu Nivedita and Cheran as participants. And though the speakers said that they will not be reading out any excerpts,the issue clearly hung in the air,prompting the speakers as well as the audience to question if censorship can be taken positively and which is more dangerous,the cultural/religious groups or the government. While Anam,author of The Golden Age,said that censorship is a state at its most fragile,Nivedita,author of the controversial book Zero Degrees,was quite blunt with her statement. Its not that the publication be damned,its publish it and be bombed, said Nivedita.

Other authors also expressed their solidarity on stage on the Rushdie issue. Among them was Booker Prize winner Ben Okri. Known for his book The Famished Road,the author was a part of a talk titled Gandhi,Ambedkar,and the Crossroads at Jantar Mantar along with writers Chandrahas Choudhury,and S Anand. Aruna Rao and Joseph Lelyveld,author of Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India. Lelyveld,to lighten up the atmosphere,even said,Im not the Lelyveld who wrote on the secret sex life of Mahatma Gandhi.

The other two popular sessions were by authors Chetan Bhagat and Amy Chua,controversial for her memoir,Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. While Bhagat was seen swarmed by an army of students for autographs,Chuas session was enjoyed by many for her candid revelations over her book and her surprise over why many readers have failed to see her satire.

The most packed session and probably the only session at which people didnt ask Yeh kaun hai? was the impromptu interaction between filmmaker and lyricist Gulzar and Prasoon Joshi. They both recited poetry,which left the audience exclaiming and shaking their heads in sheer enjoyment. The topics varied from the travails of aging to the glories of dawn.

It was only the second day but the crowd had already swelled to thrice its size as compared to the first day,and it seemed that the strains of discontent had been replaced by the chaos of the crowd. Even though barely 50 metres separated the different venues,it often took more than 15 minutes to reach. In fact,festival organiser William Dalrymple himself was seen playing traffic controller at the venues. The registration for public entry has been closed by the organisers.

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Writes of Passage

The chaos and disturbance from the first day of the kumbh mela that is the Jaipur Literature Festival,descended upon the second day too.

The chaos and disturbance from the first day of the kumbh mela that is the Jaipur Literature Festival,descended upon the second day too.