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JAIPUR LITERATURE FESTIVAL
Antara Das

H I N D U STA N T I M E S , N E W D E L H I S AT U R DAY, J A N U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 2

20-24 JANUARY 2012

DAY ONE

LONG-FORM IS ALIVE
Imagining other worlds
A Palestinian author on why his people do not like to be the focus of attention
Antara Das

litgoss

The New Yorker editor on why life cant be fitted in 140 characters

Arabian days: Shehadeh

GETTY IMAGES

aja Shehadeh, Palestinian writer and activist, is no stranger to literary fests. But the roving fest that hes part of back at home the Palfest that actually takes writers and their works to peoples backyards is a world away from the relaxed candour here in Jaipur. The Palfest has been much written about, and yet, says Shehadeh, every time, it changes writers who participate in it. Shehadeh, a short, slight figure, was on a panel discussion on the Arab Spring. Did the shift of focus over the past year towards popular uprisings against tyrannies in the Arab world shift the focus from the Palestinian cause? Well, we do not like being the focus of attention, he tells me. Earlier in the session, he made his displeasure known to strengthening IndiaIsrael ties, especially the arms deals. He reiterates the point, stressing that India, and the rest of the world, cannot afford to not pay attention. Shehadeh, who lives in Ramalah, had written evocatively about the geography of Palestine in Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, published in 2007. The landscape described there was mostly the West Bank. But it was the discovery of a diary belonging to a great-great uncle that changed the way he viewed his geography. He was on the run for three years, escaping the Ottoman empire, he says. It opened up the vision of a world without borders, which found expression in his 2009 book, A Rift in Time: Travels with my Ottoman Uncle. I had internalised the borders so much that I could not see the openness, he says, adding that it is the work of the artist to help people imagine a different reality and escape present confinements. The basic tenets of the Arab Spring people protesting tyrannical rule may not apply to the Palestinians. But in as much as the first rumblings of protest started a few months after Shehadehs A Rift in Time was published, he would like to believe that he actually helped people imagine different realities.

uessing might be the lowest form of journalism, but David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, hazarded one on the first day of the Jaipur Literature Festival. Remnick, whose book The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama was published in 2010, predicted that the incumbent US president Barack Obama might still win the 2012 presidential elections. Beneath the white awnings of what is grandiosely called the Mughal Tent, packed to capacity with people craning their necks for a view of the journalist, a few hands broke out in a limp clap. The session had been titled as The Disappointment of Obama and not many seemed to be happy to let that disappointment go to waste. Remnick, of course, elaborates on his guess. When it comes to seriousness of purpose, science, thoughtfulness, not taking the American people for granted, this is about as good as it gets, he said. One has to remember the circumstances under which Obama took office, he said. It included being close to a Depression situation, the war in Iraq, another war in Afghanistan , and an endorsement of the use of torture. A huge amount of that has been reversed, he added. Of course, the clown show in the Republican Party was only helping matters, said the Pulitzer-winning jouranlist. The party was ageing, as was Americas white population. As the United States was becoming more

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Happy feet: Phillips

JASJIT PLAHA

FLIGHT OF THE PENGUIN

The Nobel Prize to Barack Obama was ridiculous It was a prize for not being George W Bush
ethnically various which was both the genius and the reality of the country it made certain people anxious, he said. Along with economic troubles was the question of Americas place in the world. To listen to the Republicans go on and on about American exceptionalism its as if nobody is reading a newspaper. It is shocking that the Republicans are not serious, Remnick tells me later. I may not have agreed with [former US president] Ronald Reagan, but the set of ideas that he represented was vivid and vital. I dont know what those ideas are anymore, other than rejectionism, he says. And lowering taxes and lowering taxes, he adds as an afterthought. This is Remnicks second visit to India, and the last time he visited he was 22 years old. It is a good thing for an editor to go out, he says, away from the well-worn groove between apartment and office. I cannot presume to report in India though, he adds. The journalist in Remnick feels that the days of long-form journalism are hardly over. The web has given birth to a new short form like blogs, diaries, or tweets. But there is a real place for depth and investigation. Life cannot be encapsulated in 140 characters, he says, and it will be a tragic abdication of mind and journalism to see it [long-form journalism] wither.

Penguin India completes 25 years and as can be expected, it has a slew of plans to expand and diversify. Making books by their Indian writers available in digital format is one such plan. Putting more emphasis on mass market commercial fiction is another. Things more in the line of Ravinder Singh's Can Love Happen Twice? as well as more self-help books, says Andrew Phillips, CEO Penguin. There is no reason to be exclusive or not have as wide and as broad a range as possible, says Phillips. Does Chetan Bhagats success at Rupa affect these decisions? Well Chetan Bhagat is a phenomenon, he concedes. So theres no one so big that cannot learn from another.

MUST READ

THE BRIDGE: This is the first Black US presidents journey to the White House. David Remnick writes this biography as a saga that could have been a novel

The reader shouldnt be chaperoned from A to B to C

On leaving things unsaid in books
Bhavya Dore

Mixed media: Poet-lyricist Gulzar (left) and director-writer Vishal Bhardwaj JASJEET PLAHA

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nurse talking to a patient. A boy on board a ship all alone. A fragment of an image is often the starting point for a novel for Michael Ondaatje. The Sri Lankan-born Canadian writer, who won the Booker Prize in 1992 for his novel The English Patient, was speaking at the first day of the Jaipur Literary Festival about the process of writing, where the difficulty in getting precise information is often the lubricant that powers the design and content of a novel. With too much research you pin yourself into a corner, said Ondaatje. When you are unable to find out something, you have more freedom. He was speaking at the packed front lawn venue at Jaipurs Diggi Palace in the session titled From Ink Lake, named after the acclaimed 1990 anthology of Canadian short stories of the same name that Ondaatje had edited.

Ondaatjes starting point for his most recent novel, The Cats Table, emerged from the chambers of his own childhood memories as a boy on board a ship who undertook on his own a 21day journey from Sri Lanka to England. The process was something like turning unremembered autobiography into fiction. Ondaatje said he spends most of the time alone in hisoffice surrounded by fictional characters. Migration have been a steady theme. It is the story of my generation How do you get from here to there? he said. Discussing the delicate balance between rotating through a broad spectrum of narrative viewpoints instead of allowing one character to hijack the story Ondaatje reflected on the significance of polyphony in his novels. Its more interesting to have various voices, said Ondaatje. Politically, you cant have one voice to a story, he added referring to the issue of the margin coming to the centre as both an aesthetic as well as political issue. Ondaatjes artistic identity as a poet

has also inflected his novelistic works, as moderator Amitava Kumar brought up during the discussion, referring to it as his wonderful precision. One of things about poetry is you try and not saying everything, the reader participates, said Ondaatje. I want to keep that element of interaction with the reader and not [have the reader be] be told everything and chaperoned from A to B to C. The less you say the better it is. This quality was also reflected in parts of the film version of The English Patient, as moderator Kumar pointed out during the discussion. There should be something hanging when a scene ends so there is a reason for going into the next scene, said Ondaatje. I learnt a lot from [Walter] Murch [the editor of the film]. The scene shouldnt be too fulfilled.

When you are unable to find out something, you have more freedom
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As the banter flowed freely on the lawns of Diggi Palace all day on Friday, the spirits had already flowed freely on Thursday night. At his session with Michael Ondaatje, Amitava Kumar mentioned a drink named in honour of the author: the Ondaatje Slammer. Kumar said he had tweeted about the drink the night before, and directed audience members to his Twitter page if they wanted to know the recipe. Other alcoholic selections from Thursday night included the Dalrymple Delight, the Boo Hoo and the Kunzru Punch. Amitava Kumar and Hari Kunzru both had planned to read out passages from Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses. Both were not allowed by organisers. On the other hand, no one stopped Kapil Sibal from speaking about poetry. Go figure.

A veritable cocktail

No verses, but poetry

An 11-year-old boy boards a ship bound for England without realising that the journey will change his life forever. Meet Michael and get on-board this spellbinding voyage.

Tell me the truth, or Ill make it up

No amount of litfest-hopping can make this man lose his wit
Bhavya Dore

WHY YOU MUST READ

Literary critics: Protestors against Rushdie in Jaipur on Friday

hile Salman Rushdie has put an end to speculations about attending the Jaipur Lit Fest, there is a rumour emanating like smoke through a keyhole that the writer will be there attending, without participating, the fest in cognito. Now before some imam from Deoband, or some SIMI-literate, or a sniper hired by the Mumbai mafia gets too worked up about the meaning of in cognito, one can say that Rushdies presence in the guise of a local Muslim or a journalist who outnumber the writers in this years festival by 3:1 is still in the realm of magic realism. The truth is, Haroun al-Rushdie may already be in Jaipur with those protesting against his now cancelled visit.

SPOT RUSHDIE IN THIS PHOTO?

ohammed Hanif feels a little like a travelling salesman these days. The Pakistani novelist, speaking at a session on Friday, likened the writerly existence to a journeyman lifestyle. There are so many litfests these days that it feels like my job, he joked. I hardly feel like a writer. Jaipur is his fourth litfest appearance in the past three-odd months in India. Getting a visa, however, is as much drama as anything. They turn it into a cliffhanger. Will you go, will you not go? he said, referring to the visa process, where a visa might arrive just 18 hours before its time to board the plane. Hanifs new book, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, came out last year, a novel that was born out of an image. Responding to a question on whether it was written from an impulse of defending the lot of the Christian community in Pakistan, he dismissed that as a possible motivation. I dont know if you can write novels to defend people, said Hanif. If I wanted to defend people I would go out and join a political party instead

I dont know if you can write novels to defend people. If I wanted to defend people I would go out and join a political party instead of sitting in a corner and making up stuff
of sitting in a corner and making up stuff. I wouldnt recommend that, he said to laughs. Its not like you wake up one day, read a headline I dont think it works that way. Responding to an audience question, Hanif said the situation of the community was pretty bad both in terms of discriminatory laws as well as inherited social attitudes. Hanifs first novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes born out of the whodunitlike question of how did General Zia die partly came from his exploratory instincts as a reporter. Very soon

I realised nobody knew and people who knew wouldnt tell me, said Hanif. So he just went and ahead and made up his own story. If you dont tell me the truth Ill make up my own, which is what a lot of journalists do by the way, said the writer. His fictional version of events however, has often landed him in conspiratorial corners with retired generals who assume it to be true. They would say, What a brilliant book! Now tell me who told you this, said Hanif. I find that a bit scary. These dudes are running the country. Hanif is among a clutch of Pakistanis writers to have emerged on the literary scene in the past few years, a development that has given rise to a rash of discussions around Pakistani writing. Half a dozen writers from 180 million people doesnt mark a trend, said Hanif. One editor sees two novels emerge and does a story, another magazine does another story. Then one editor goes and commissions a story on Why are Pakistani writers getting so much attention?

Hari Kunzru
BECAUSE hes an unashamedly literary writer who went in the direction opposite the one taken by most writers. His first novel, The Impressionist, made him a lot of money and was critically successful. After his second novel Transmission, this former journalist at Wired UK, he published a short story collection. After his third novel, My Revolutions, he came up with his anti-novel novel Gods Without Men. Read him because Kunzru is artistically brave.

MUST READ

A lowly Christian nurse at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Karachi falls in love with a wicked member of polices Gentlemens Squad. This is not for the faint-hearted.

For full interviews, updated news reports and plain old gossip from Jaipur, as well as to post questions to your favourite authors visiting, go to

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