Jaipur Literature Festival 2015 (JLF)


What an amazing day at JLF.
Clouds was covering the city and temperature was lower than other days.
Registration process was quit a thing :P weird,irritating but kinda funny and the crowd holding for sure.
There's particular events that i've attended.
At first astounding, astonishing in understandable word awesome Opening Ceremony Featuring Rajasthani Musicians and Sonam Kalra sang at the opening of the Jaipur Lit fest followed by a wonderful rendition of the national anthem by Vocal Raasta and young Rajasthani manganiyars singing incredibly.















After that...

"Seven Deadly Sins In Our Time" 
Homi K Bhabha , Ashok Vajpayee , Esther David , Eimear McBride and Anita Anand Introduced by Namita Gokhale. 

Bhabha discussed whether committing sin is a compulsive part of human genealogy, and divided society into three sections: the virtuous, the sinner and those who are in “a twilight zone in between.” Bhabha cited Gandhi and Nelson as examples of extending empathy to sinners on principle, despite receiving criticism for this. He compared the dichotomy between the saint and the sinner to “the competitive members of the large Indian family compelled to stay together.”

Ashok Vajpeyi, Hindi poet and literary-cultural critic stated that suffering should always be mitigated, and “if you are the reason for somebody’s suffering, then you are a sinner.” He also shed light on the fact that the ‘deadly’ sins were not always deadly, and on the contrary, could even be the fuel for positive change. He used the example of the Indian struggle for independence, which was fuelled by proactive anger. He also observed that although they are meant to represent peace, in his view, “all religions have become violent and are away from their innate essence.” Anita Anand added that “religion has always been hijacked by fundamentalists throughout the history and the number has increased.”

Esther David, Jewish-Indian author and artist described her regret at not standing up for people during the 2002 Gujarat Riots because she had been paralyzed by anger and fear. She said she felt her inaction at that time was her greatest sin.

Eimear McBride, said that the notion of sin was “a grey area.” When asked how the mechanism of sin worked for her character with an Irish Catholic background, McBride observed that when families were disrupted by it, it could have a “drastic affect” on the psyche of the society, by virtue of the domino effect that builds up.

Anita Anand, British radio presenter and journalist, said that sinning is “absolutely inevitable and the concept of the sinner is ambivalent,” because to criticize the sinner was “a double-edged knife” that always cuts both ways. Anand observed that a tension exists between laws and social norms, since they have differing views on sinning.

After that...

"The First Crusade" by Peter Frankopan introduced by William Dairymple.
The First Crusade, one of the most extraordinary events in mediaeval history, led to a massive ramshackle army of knights and peasants leaving Western Europe in 1095 at the invitation of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus, travelling across the width of Europe and the Levant and establishing a series of militant Christian Kingdoms along the Eastern Mediterranean.  The brilliant Oxford Byzantinist, Peter Frankopan, talks about his award winning new study, introduced by William Dalrymple.

than amazing musical performance presented by Govt. of Maghalaya.

After that...

"And Then One Day"  Naseeruddin Shah in conversation with Girish Karnad By Kanupriya Dhingra.
Karnad asked Shah if ‘creating a character was a burden’ for him, to which he replied that it was real life models that appealed to him, and the challenge of a new kind of role: ‘I should not have performed the character before’. Karnad craftily found a way to get Shah to read excerpts from his memoir. The actor appeared overwhelmed while describing the sensitive relationship he had with his father.



Surely glad that I was there.

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