A report on the Jaipur Literature Festival-2012

February 1, 2012: The Jaipur Literature Festival-2012, the most prestigious celebration of national and international literature where top writers and authors from across the world gather to share ideas and thoughts started on Friday 20^th January, 2012.

With almost 250 speakers addressing more than 1Lakh people over five days, the festival has grown exceptionally over the past few years. Enthusiastic readers, beginners and bloggers also assemble in 'Diggi Palace'  during the 5-day event annually held in January. The concern to preserve classical literature and to make it popular through translations is gradually occupying centre-stage at the 6^th J.L.F.

Much hype was already created by media about Salman Rushdie (author of 'The Satanic Verses') not attending the fest because of threats to his life, which resulted in presence of a huge crowd at the venue.

Day-1 (20^th Jan.)

Some of the great names in literature, theatre, films and journalism were present at the Diggi Palace on the first day itself. From the ambience to the food, music and entertainment, everything was larger than life which saw people from all walks of life. While Salman Rushdie's absence was a disappointment for the guests, the presence of many readers, critics, socialites, students, entrepreneurs and activists increased the spirit of the fest. Also, it was decided that Rushdie's session will be held through a video link at some time of the fest.

The guests of honour on the first day included Gurcharan Das, Amitava Kumar, Pavan Verma, Gulzar, Ashok Chakradhar, Shoma Chaudhary, Kapil Sibal, Tarun Tejpal, Deepti Nawal, Girish Karnad, Michael Ondaatje and many others.

Around 25 sessions were scheduled on the first day at 5 halls namely, 'Durbar Hall', 'Mughal Tent', 'Baithak', 'Front Lawns' and 'Samvaad' all inside the Diggi Palace.

While a session named 'Do Deewane sheher mein' under Gulzar (famous Academy Award winning poet and writer) and Pavan Verma was the main attraction on the day which gathered the maximum crowd, 'Khili Battisi' under Ashok Chakradhar (popular poet) also managed to pull out people in large numbers. Both these sessions were majorly based on popular and classical poetry. 

Talk of the day

'The Truth of Politics' under Kapil Sibal (Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Govt. of India) in the evening was the talk of the day as a listener among the audience stood and got up on the stage speaking words against the corrupt system in India. He was then forced by the organizers to step down and sit on his place. 

Day-2 (21^st Jan.)

Along with literary deans, thousands of young readers were spotted on second day of the fest. The day offered sessions on debates and dialogues over a range of issues like 'Creativity, Censorship and Dissent', 'After Bin Laden', 'Chutneyfication of English', 'The Better Angels of our Nature' and many other topics. But the session which saw the presence of M.J. Akbar (Editorial Director of India Today) and Aruna Roy (social activist), named 'Gandhi, Ambedkar and the Crossroads at Jantar Mantar' was the one acclaimed by all the listeners

Talk of the day

The session under Chetan Bhagat (popular young novelist), 'In search of a Story' was the one which managed to pull together large numbers filling the Mughal Tent. The mere presence of Chetan Bhagat drew youngsters towards the venue.

The first weekend day at the Jaipur Literature Festival tended to be the busiest Saturday as massive crowd gathered and in spite of extensive preparations made to accommodate them, the Diggi Palace seemed to look a small place. The day ended with fabulous performances at the Music Stage by Sabri Brothers, Papon and Shruti Pathak presented by 'Coke Studio' (popular music show on MTV) at night.

Day-3 (22^nd Jan.)

As it was a Sunday, the passage to the Diggi Palace looked unwelcoming, with heavily armed policemen flocking every few yards and a stretched line of school children waiting for admittance. The large cluster of hundreds of people, at the gate, needed half as policemen to bar their access inside the venue.

This cluster of people was because of Oprah Winfrey (American Media Proprietor and Talk Show Host) who had come to India and to Jaipur to attend the fest. She had a session named 'Oprah in Jaipur' with Barkha Dutt (Anchor, NDTV 24x7) at 11 a.m. Oprah's fans galore at Diggi palace with posters and autograph books to have a glance of their favourite anchor and cheered for her during the session.

Other than this, the day had sessions like 'Raavi Paar' under Gulzar and Mohd. Hanif, and 'On Pakistan' under Fatima Bhutto and Karan Thapar which discussed issues and literature of Punjab and Pakistan. 'Journalism as Literature' was the session looked forward by media personalities and students.

There were various book launches also during the day. The book named 'The Best thing about you is…YOU!!' by Anupam Kher (popular actor and writer) was launched by Shashi Tharoor (Member of Indian Parliament). As soon as Anupam Kher arrived, the fans jumped over him for a photograph and an autograph. People also witnessed the launch of a book named 'Treasures of the Indian Kitchen' by Leena Prakash which was done by Chetan Bhagat.

Talk of the day

A very interesting session 'Survival Strategies in the Time of Twitter' under Shashi Tharoor, Chetan Bhagat and Suhel Seth (actor and blogger) was a fascinating one and gave a chance to the visitors and listeners to interact with these popular personalities over social networking media, its do's and don’ts and whether it should be banned or not, thus making this day of the fest a huge success.

Day-4 (23^rd Jan.)

Talk of the day

Yes, the second last day started with a session which fulfilled all the requisites to become the 'talk of the day'. A session of National and International Award winning authors and writers like Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi with Vishal Bharadwaj (Film-maker and Musician) and Gulzar was called 'Kahani kisko kehte hain' and discussed the aspects and importance of story, script and screenplay needed to make a film or build a write-up.

Javed Akhtar poured upon the listeners the most touching poems and fables through his fabulous way of telling. Akhtar's second book named 'Lava: The drama of words' was launched there upon by Gulzar sahab.

Another nice session on the topic 'Saahitya, Samaj, Samay: Hindi ki Kadamtaal' under Om Thanvi (writer) and Prasoon Joshi was worth listening as it discussed the evolving forms of Hindi language.

Many sessions of international authors like Richard Flanagan, Michael Kruger, Ben Okri, Annie Proulx, Lalla Ward on the topics including 'The Afropolitans', 'The Magic of Reality', 'Adaptations' and many more were visited by a number of foreigners who had come across the globe to hear their favourite writers and give a treat to their ears.

To keep Rajasthani cinema, culture and language alive a session named 'Rajasthan in Cinema: Beyond Locations' under Ila Arun (popular actor and singer) and Govind Nihalani (film-maker) was kept to attract the listeners from Rajasthan as well.

Day-5 (24th Jan.)

The last day, but not the least in terms of topics, started with an equal crowd like the previous four days. Creative Director of the Festival and acclaimed writer, William Dalrymple attended the fest with the session named 'Return of the King' and yes, it was a return of a king in William's form!

Another session 'Hunkaare baat aachhi laage' was held at 'Baithak' under famous litterateurs like Lata Sharma, Om Prakash Bhatia and Shyam Jangid. A book called 'Jaipur Quilts' by Krystyna Hellstrom was launched by Mrs. Beena Kaak (Minister of Woman & Child Development, Tourism, Art & Culture, Rajasthan). So these sessions affirmed the spot of Rajasthani culture amongst various forms of literature. 'Raajneeti: The Craft of Politics' under Praksh Jha (film-maker) and Rahul Bose (actor and social activist), which discussed in brief the political system of our country and what we can do for its betterment was also a subject which listeners liked.

Talk of the day

The talk of the day was the issue on Salman Rushdie's video-link session which had to be cancelled because some people who were protesting against Rushdie were sent in the audience to disrupt the proceedings. On it, Sanjoy Roy, the Chief Organiser of JLF said, "This is unfortunate even when the video link was not on the controversial book 'Satanic Verses' but on a book called 'Children's Dreams'. Yet, cancellation was necessary to avoid violence." Sanjoy almost broke down while speaking this.

Conclusion

At the end of the festival, Sanjoy Roy concluded, "We thank all the authors and various national and international writers who with their presence raised the bar of the fest. And this could not be possible without the audience who turned up in large numbers, so thank you all. We'll come up next year as well, bigger and better. Thank you!"

It was a great show indeed. Its merits being the tight security system this time around, this did not allow, even some of the celebrities to enter without a check.  But everything which has merits also contains some demerits.

And the facts which can't be changed about this JLF were as follows:-

1. It was unfortunate that Salman Rushdie was unable to attend the fest both physically and virtually. The sufferer was the lit fest and the gainer was the appeasing government. The glory of Islam couldn't be dented if a man had written a book.
2. The Diggi Palace is an emblem of heritage of Jaipur and JLF is organised here every year. But this time because of the massive crowd, the place appeared very small and we could hear the foreign visitors cursing the population of India.  
3. What if smoking in public has been declared illegal? Smoking was not prohibited here at the JLF and we could find more women smoking openly, than men.
4. The way between the Front Lawns and the other venues took an average of 15 minutes to clear due to huge gatherings, which delayed some of the sessions.
5. The lines for the toilets engendered dissatisfaction of a full bladder among people.
6. The arrangements of drinking water were not satisfactory.

 But whatever the issues may be, the 6^th Jaipur Literature Festival was the most successful of the previous JLFs and it continued to mix authors, celebrities, politicians, film stars and general public as equals. It will not be exaggerated to give it the title of 'India's Literary Cannes Festival' or 'Saahitya ka Kumbh Mela'.