For all the literature maniacs, it’s all at the same place. The Jaipur Literary Fest, which has been described by an international magazine as “the greatest literary show on earth”, is back for the fifth consecutive year and on a much grander scale. The fest has a history of hosting some of the biggest and most well-known names in literature, theatre, art and music such as Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Kiran Desai, Pico Iyer, Nadeem Aslam, Thomas Keneally, Donna Tart, Suketu Mehta, Chetan Bhagat, Vikas Swarup, Hari Kunzru, John Berend, Christopher Hampton, Julia Roberts, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Anoushka Shankar and many others. The five day fest kick starts on the 21st of January at the Diggi Palace in Jaipur.
The fest this year offers the finest mélange of literature, art, theatre and music. Each day will host a variety of events such as thought-provoking and invigorating talks, panel discussions, films, theatre performances, lectures and dramatic readings by renowned personalities. Moreover each day shall culminate in some refined and delightful music. The festival aims at showcasing the best works in Indian languages as well as in English. This year it will host some of the best of literary talent the world has to offer, including a Nobel laureate, a winner of the Samuel Johnson prize, two Booker prize winners, and five winners of the Pulitzer prize for literature. Accompanying them are writers who have won acclaim in the field of travel, literary criticism, history, biography, fiction as well as non-fiction. Some of the eminent writers who will be present at the fest this year include Wole Soyinka, Orhan Pamuk, Haneif Kureishi, Niall Fergusson, Amit Chaudhari, Tina Brown, Vikram Chandra, Claire Tomalin, Mahasveta Devi, Shobhha De, Indira Goswami, Steve Coll, Pavan Varma, Krishna Baldev Vaid, Stephen Frears, Lawrence Wright, Christopher Jaffrelot, Wangmo Wangchuk, Alexander McCall Smith, Krishna Sobti, and many many more.
Some of the most anticipated events are readings from Girish Karnad’s ‘Tughlaq’ by the much acclaimed actor Om Puri, readings by Shabana Azmi from her mother’s memoirs, performances by Titi Robin, Cheb I Sabbah, Susheela Raman, the Baul singers of Bengal, Rajasthan Roots, Djaima and readings and performances from William Darlymple’s Nine Lives.
The fest wraps up on the 25h of January. By the sound of it, there is a lot to look forward to in just five days alone. It’s the perfect way to celebrate the end of exams, especially since its located in the beautiful Pink City!
DU Beat
Journalism has been called the “first rough draft of history”. D.U.B may be termed as the first rough draft of DU history. Freedom to Express.
Comments are closed.