Jaipur Literary Festival 2011 : Some notes

JLF 2011: Notes

A big round of applause to Sanjoy , Nameeta & William , the hosts of Diggi , the staff , the various teams , the celeb writers , artists, media and not the least to the dedicated reading populous who make such events a Festival to Enjoy. Well done!!

The Evocative Inauguration

Blackberry boys ad was the morning curtain raiser on the Vodafone Front Lawns startling Sanjoy on the dais, the dignitaries in front and the hundreds gathered to listen. It died in few seconds and the tableaux unfroze.  

Faith Singh quoted from Kabir’s doha “ all the 52 characters form the words and forms but That one word is not in the 52 but what holds the 52  charecters together ”. This Word is what we honour.
Dr.Karan Singh spoke on the necessity of translations and recitations or readings which truly capture the mind of the writer and impact the imagination of the reader for example on reading T.S. Elliot’s “Wastelands” it had made no sense till he had heard the recording . Karan Sigh then recited “Who” a poem by Shri Aurobindo and with such effortless flow that an audience of thundreds were held within the strands of silence. Here are the verses reproduced which I picked up from the net:

WHO – Shri Aurobindo

In the blue of the sky, in the green of the forest,
Whose is the hand that has painted the glow?
When the winds were asleep in the womb of the ether,
Who was it roused them and bade them to blow?

He is lost in the heart, in the cavern of Nature,
He is found in the brain where He builds up the thought:
In the pattern and bloom of the flowers He is woven,
In the luminous net of the stars He is caught.

In the strength of a man, in the beauty of woman,
In the laugh of a boy, in the blush of a girl;
The hand that sent Jupiter spinning through heaven,
Spends all its cunning to fashion a curl.

There are His works and His veils and His shadows;
But where is He then? by what name is He known?
Is He Brahma or Vishnu? a man or a woman?
Bodies or bodiless? twin or alone?

We have love for a boy who is dark and resplendent,
A woman is lord of us, naked and fierce.
We have seen Him a-muse on the snow of the mountains,
We have watched Him at work in the heart of the spheres.

We will tell the whole world of His ways and His cunning;
He has rapture of torture and passion and pain;
He delights in our sorrow and drives us to weeping,
Then lures with His joy and His beauty again.

All music is only the sound of His laughter,
All beauty the smile of His passionate bliss;
Our lives are His heart-beats, our rapture the bridal
Of Radha and Krishna, our love is their kiss.

He is strength that is loud in the blare of the trumpets,
And He rides in the car and He strikes in the spears;
He slays without stint and is full of compassion;
He wars for the world and its ultimate years.

In the sweep of the worlds, in the surge of the ages,
Ineffable, mighty, majestic and pure,
Beyond the last pinnacle seized by the thinker
He is throned in His seats that for ever endure.

The Master of man and his infinite Lover,
He is close to our hearts, had we vision to see;
We are blind with our pride and the pomp of our passions,
We are bound in our thoughts where we hold ourselves free.

It is He in the sun who is ageless and deathless,
And into the midnight His shadow is thrown;
When darkness was blind and engulfed within darkness,
He was seated within it immense and alone.

Sheldon Pollock, an indologist who has taken on the leadership of Murty Classical Library delivered the Keynote address. Explaining the tradition of Literary Festivals right from the 12 century at Kalyana North Karnataka Pollock pointed out that classical languages were dying out “a litocide or eroside ?” Classical literature draws out the different ways to be human said Pollock and asked  “who appreciates the beauty of a woman her father or her lover ?” He closed his talk asking “who will we love to taste, the sweetness of poetry or the elixir of immortality”.

Orhan Pamuk the failed architect painter and hugely popular story teller is a natural teacher. With articulation and carefully chosen words Pamuk described his book  “My name is Red”, with the joy of colour put on an empty page with textures from  Ottoman, Persian and  Mughal art , the context of Turkish classical literature and the undertones of the Sufi culture , a heavy burden to embrace modernity, religion, and nationalism.

Pamuk said “Past lives in the imagination of the present”. The Museum Of Innocence is written to show what love is from a mans point of view, an obsessive sophisticate.

“The human heart is the same everywhere but human life is different every where due to culture history etc. Yet the mind can enjoy different realities at the same time.” Kemal the obsessive lover in the book was a modern day Romeo with sex at the beginning and then goes on to being the historical pining Romeo. Kemal  is a collector bringing in objects to narrate a story a memory of Fusan. A museum houses a collection, a collection with a story Gathering is without purpose just acquiring.

Pamuk described himself as a writer of stories of objects, a sentimental craftsmen of objects using words  just as some are writers of emotions. Possibly says Pamuk as I am a failed painter. Orhan Pamuk admits that he adds stories to objects as opposed to a writer of an object story.

”Cancer is tired of having cancer, the shame and secrecy. With pills I buy a year.” Katherine Russell survivor for 17 years shared her moments with Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee , author of Emperor of Maladies and Dr Kavery Nambisan author “ The story that must not be told”. Dr Kavery is sensitive, delicate and articulate having spent a good deal of her time in India in performing surgeries in rural settings.

Dr Siddhartha is optimistic having interviewed hundred of case histories. “The medicine treats the disease, the patient has to effect the cure,” says Dr Mukherjee.

A compassionate yet provoking discussion, stressing the need for accurate information to be made available to the public.

A historical Narrative on the role of the Sikh Empire and its decline .  

Navtej Sarna : Zafarnamah

Visvajit Singh: Kissa Shah Mohammad Sufi poet who records the 1^st Sikh War

Zafarnamah are the exquisite Persian verses which form the letter Guru Gobind Singh wrote in 1705 to Aurangazeb deploring the treachery of his generals on keeping their word given on oath on the Koran, Aurangazeb’s intolerance to other faiths and resorts him to go back to the brotherhood of men.

In 1704 the city of Anandpur had to be vacated, and the Guru himself had to escape from Chamkaur Sahib towards Machhiwara jungle. Even at Machhiwara he was surrounded by enemy forces from all sides, in spite of the word given for safe conduct. In the jungle Guru Ji met two Pathan brothers Nabi Khanand Ghani Khan who are dressed in blue. He was escorted by them who referred to him as Uch-

Ka-Pir (a holy man from Uch). Guru ji writes “when all is said, when all is tried, justice is not given , it is right to pick up the sword , pick up the fight.”

After the Aurangazeb’s death a war of succession broke out between his sons. The third son, Mohammad Azam declared himself the Emperor. The second son Muazzam later Emperor Bahadur Shah set out from Peshawar to claim the throne. The Guru Govind’s follower Bhai Nand Lal who had earlier served in the Muazzam 's court, brought him a letter written by Muazzam. Muazzam had sought Guru's help in securing the throne, and had promised to pursue a policy of religious tolerance towards the non-Muslims. The Guru sent a band of his followers under the command of Bhai Dharam Singh, to help Muazzam. Muazzam's forces defeated Azam Shah's forces and Muazzam ascended the throne as Bahadur Shah. He invited Guru Gobind Singh for a meeting and the Guru was received with honour.

Vishvajit Singh read his translation in Hindi of Kissa Shah Mohammad, which praises the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and records the sorrowful annexation of Punjab by the British. A tragic tale of how battles were won but victory was of the enemy due to the deceit and treachery of the Sikh generals. This is how the Koh I noor came to the Sikhs “After the assassination of Nader Shah in 1747, the stone came into the hands of Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. In 1830, Shah Shuja, the deposed ruler of Afghanistan, managed to flee with the Kohinoor diamond. He then came to Lahore where it was given to the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh; in return for this Maharaja Ranjit Singh won back the Afghan throne for Shah Shuja-ul-Mulk. Later on the British through the annexation of Sikh Kingdom also took off the diamond.”

A pan view of a turning point in Indian History and how the Sikh & Marathas stood up against invaders to keep them out. A tragic tale of how battles were won but victory was of the enemy due to the deceit and treachery of one’s own people. Fascinating and surely a must read to get a connection of how these events shaped the course of our country and the continuing play of politics over human interest .So relevant!

Mao: The Unknown Story by  the husband and wife team of writer Jung Chang and historian Jon Halliday,

Biography of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong(1893–1976) and depicts Mao as being responsible for more deaths in peace time than Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin.

Jung Chang & Jon Halliday had the audience in mesmerist silence listening to stories of Mao evil actions. “Mao was not a mad man , he was an evil man”. What Mao said

and did and what the propaganda machinery painted of him are two different aspects.

Contrary to popular beliefs Mao had a small role to play in the Long March and in fact the people on the March requested Stalin to get him to Russia. The Authors suggest Stalin knew Mao’s qualities and Stalin believed that Russia & Communism were best served by Mao’s continuance in China. In 1932 the Party voted to get him kicked out but Stalin kept him on with his support. Stalin didn't want Mao either in Russia. Let China live with him.

Mao on Women

Mao Zedong, famously declared that "women hold up half the sky". In fact the women knew that the statement meant backbreaking labour to keep the propaganda going.

His true legacy 70 million deaths just between 1958 & 1962 40 mil people died. The Great famine was a creation of Mao, he used the food to buy nuclear hard ware from East Europe, he used it for building arsenal, for atomic power and missile technology. "Educate the peasant to eat less", or "half of China may have to die" were his remedies to starvation and for his projects to succeed. Mao was indifferent to human life and in many provinces the food allowance was 1/2 kg oil and 1/2 kg meat for a year.
Mao hated the peasants and was not pro peasants. During Mao urban rural divide was 25:1. He waged a war on peasants. In 1962 Zhou Enlai and members ambushed Mao and stopped the policy of bleeding the food out from the country for the Mao projects. Contrary to popular belief the 1945-49 civil war was not an uprising of the peasants but a war between the governing party and the communist party.

When asked about the iconic inspiration of Mao by many factions in India Jung suggested that it was ironic that Mao waged war on the peasants and in the civil war peasants did not support communism.  

A little know detail, Mao was a voracious reader especially Chinese classics.
Pallavi Aiyar, Jung and  Halliday with their discussion created a widescreen visual of narratives in RDX Dolby sound that Mao was bad not mad.

Junot Diaz and Sonia Faleiro discussed what it means to be a Dominican immigrant and grow up in the poorest of poor neighbourhoods of New Jersy in the 70's. Pulitzer prize winner and Professor at MIT Junot is an engaging bundle of hard reality with the vulnerable softness of a person who has grown up knowing all his lessons from observing, interacting and loving his people. If Orhan Pamuk is a teller of stories using objects Junot is a story maker using feelings as narratives. Richly laced with profanity which were used as simply as commas and exclamations, Junot shared his writing process with candour and irreverence.
”US is not interested in communities, only in individuals. It selects a winner. Am I that one?”
” Marginalisation of people of colour “. Jumot  says “my America is a black America my language , black language. “
”Do not write to seek approval, only to have a conversation. Writing for approval is stifling. Have less approval more conversation with  one’s self.”
” Relate with others see the self in them, then there's no approval or sanction required.”
On dictatorship ” dictatorship produces silence, obliterates history. Better to live without history than recollect a history of dictator deeds like disappearances, murder, etc. Dictatorship erodes the national character replaces it with silence.
”The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao” won him the Pulitzer. In  February 2010, Diaz contributed a highly negative critical assessment of the presidency of Barack Obama to The New Yorker writing in his essay "One Year: Storyteller-in-Chief": Hence the title of this session with Faleiro.

We have a fascinating story of Jamali a Sufi poet in the court of Sikander Lodi who lies buried in a tomb next to Kamali his homosexual lover. Jamali Kamali by Karen Chase is her verse narrative of the story handed down in the oral tradition but never penned. Quite another take on memory was from National Geographic Photographer Annie Griffith. She observed that in dealing with people across different lands language is never an obstacle, sometimes interpreter’s straight jacket the conversations. In 2008, Griffiths published A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel, a photo memoir about balance and the joy of creating a meaningful life. Asked how much she retains the frame of the photograph, Annie replied “I remember the space outside the context and journey and each photo serves as a rewind of memory. A photo is a visual short story”.