Making of a book..3 JLF 2009

Making of a book..3   JLF 2009

Bala suggested a string of activities like Khajuraho Dance Festival, Pushkar Fair, or the Jaipur Literary Festivals for 2009. Since JLF was the first event in January of 2009 we decided to start with it.

      Being novices at Lit Fests we were unclear on the protocols, but one thing was certain, “Admission Free”. Bala repeated this over every mail and Sujatha & I were most sceptical about what ‘free’ meant. In any case we booked flights, made accommodation arrangements in a friends guest house and synchronised our dates to land in Jaipur within hours of each other.

     We made an early dash for Diggi Palace, drove right up to the fountain and then took stock of our surroundings. Smiling girls were waving colourful brochures and I was reassured… it was like the travel tourism conventions that I had much attended. We registered and moved to the Durbar Hall and hung around the aisles till a cheerful girl with an Australian twang suggested we sit down. She pointed to the front row chairs.

        Bala nor I are rarely taken aback, so this was a first. We are only attending we mumbled apologetically and pulled back. The bright girl wouldn’t hear of it. With breezy informality as though we were old chums, she waved us to the front seats, and satisfied we wouldn’t bolt out she left to marshal the others in. That was JLF 2009 and it wove a magic of words and verse from the very first day listening to Vikram Seth and William Dalrymple, writers from Pakistan who spoke with a familiar idiom and the balmy evening of Rajasthani Folk music presented by Nathoo Lal Solanki and Chugee Khan. I was bewitched and fell in love with JLF.

       Jaipur 2009 was also the year I embarked on visit Tiger project. Going up to Jaipur, we decided to pay a visit to Ranthambore Sanctuary and embarked on a mad adventure with helpful train conductors, adventurous game park staff and the services of a racy auto driver. Like a gathering of forces to the battle front, Bala and I availed of the train conductor’s cell phone and relayed our train information to the Safari guide who snatched us out of a still moving train, bundled us into an auto and rode out on his bike in a cloud of dust to the waiting jungle jeep. It was a good portent and though we saw no tiger, we saw ….. That was when I realised that sight is expansive or myopic depending on our attitude. It’s our attitude that allows us to see and observe or miss it all. And it was at Ranthambore that I met Marti and Ollie from Brooklyn New York.

      Back at JLF we were missed, and flattered when the lady with the laptop who was in most of the sessions we had earlier attended, enquired if all was well as she hadn’t seen us for two days. This was my first festival friendship Namita Waikar from Pune who is now a dear friend. 

      That night I sat in the guest house bedroom with dim lighting and wrote the account of my visit.

      “It is a warm winter afternoon in January and the sharp sun touches up our already flushed faces to a rosy hue. We are entering the Ranthambore sanctuary, the home of over 25 tigers and 6 cubs, leopards, sloth bear, samba, nilgai, peacocks and the playful tree pies. Was this safari only about the tiger or was it about an experience to see the wonders of the wild in their natural habitats? If it were only ‘project tiger,’ we could be sorely disappointed, but if its the anticipation of the thrill of the unexpected, the glimpse of the fleet footed, the flying burst of turquoise blue, where every sense is straining, scanning and observing, eyes unblinking, mouth slightly open and the body held in stillness, then the safari is a game for its own sake. I need not sacrifice the wonder of the safari to the disappointment of not seeing the tiger. I enjoy the present.” ( Except from short Story ‘Complete”: part of the collection “Unsuspecting Accomplices & Other Stories”).

          I made several secret resolutions that night:

1. Make every effort to publish “Rope-snake: pot-Space”

2. Attempt to write a novel

3. Search for the Tiger or Tygre

4. Try & visit JLF every year

 …..to be continued in a couple of days

Unforgettable Literary Pairs

Dennis & George Wilson: Dennis the Menace