The literary event is one festival that many people in the country look forward to and plan ahead for. It’s a huge platform for the present, future and accomplished writers, publishers and book enthusiasts.
I attended the third day of the Jaipur Literature Festival and one talk that I found particularly interesting, in my opinion, was the one about the declined use of the Rajasthani language due to the global use of the powerful English language. An interesting debate took place regarding the consequences of the sudden increase in English speaking individuals and how this language is creating barriers between tradition and modernism. The talk was then compared to the gradual decline of the Sanskrit language in our country, where spoken English is spreading like a domino effect.
The other talk was called the ‘Basic Instinct’ during which speakers shared their personal encounters regarding the first and most influential sexual fantasies that they read and what inspired them to depict sexual content in their books. Lastly, ‘Reading Africa, Writing Africa’ was a in which four Africa based authors shared their encounters as writers in Africa during the 1970’s and the difficulties that they faced with their political and apolitical writing.
Judging by the crowd, most people seemed excited about the presence of Shashi Tharoor and Dr. Abdul Kalam in the literature festival. The Chayos’, Fat Lulu’s and Dunkin Doughnut’s stalls were the new arrivals this year. These joints successfully grabbed attention of the major part of the crowd and served the delicious food and beverages. Also, the showcase of a personally designed Mini Cooper in the entrance attracted a lot of attention with innumerous selfies.
Overall, the day was well spent with the amazingly intellectual talks and the enthusiastic crowd heating up the literary environment.
Meghna Mitra
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