HINDU LIT FOR LIFE 2015 : And the winner is...

... The amazing audience of Chennai. Where else in the country, you will find such an engaged audience that can ask question across the auditorium and be heard without mike. And Hats off to Hindu Lit For Life team for creating such a lovely event. It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Now, let me take you for a walk among the stars of the festival and some lovely sessions, where thoughts lead to thinking, and thinking lead to creativity that enveloped the beautiful venue.

DAY - 2

A VOICE OF ONE'S OWN... 

A heart to heart talk, where T M Krishna and Dayanita Singh explored their creative self in  the context of expression.

"I never thought that there are other art forms (as expressive and deep as mine), because we are not receptive of other art forms" - T M Krishna

"Singing is about listening", said T M Krishna, "As you experience it, it is also, feeling, smelling. Took me a long time to figure it out." He asked Dayanita Singh about her own art form in terms of lots of people taking pictures all the time, all around with their smart phones, "What's happening in the process, click, click, click...?"

"Click, click is exactly just the click, click. There's not even a word here. For thirty years, I have been collecting words." - Dayanita Singh

THE DEEPER TRUTH OF NOVELS...

The discussion started with the strong perception prevalent in public, in context of Movies, Serials and Internet, stated by David Davidar the the "Novel is dead" to which Irwin Allan Sealy responded,"I write dead novels", with a qualifier that in his opinion, that there can be only two books from the beginning of times, which can be eternal - 'The life cycles of Mosquito' and 'Confessions of Sunny Leone". Damon Galgut refuted the charge as the art form of novel can't be dead, as people need stories. T V Serials and other electronic media doesn't require anything from you, whereas novels, stories, poetry do require extra effort. They offer unique pleasure, not found anywhere else, so people will continue to write and read fiction.

When David Davidar asked whether the writers censor themselves while writing subjects that may evoke controversy and protests, as in the recent case of Perumal Murugan, Sealy said that he does censor himself and feels ashamed about it. I imagine writing and then take two steps back. Eleanor Catton finds it tricky. Personally she would not like to tell someone else's story. There are levels she may not write at. I will hesitate to intervene.

"Writing is hard obligation to be good. Writer must worship the form, the idea; one is working on." - Eleanor Catton

AND THE WINNER OF THE HINDU PRIZE 2014 IS....THE BOOK OF COMMON SIGNS

Ashok Srinivasan for his debut collection of short stories, presented by Retd. Chief Justice Leila Seth. Click here to read more about it....

AMISH TRIPATHI OF SHIVA TRILOGY FAME...
... was, as usual, star of the day for Chennai Fan club.

But for me, it was sessions like...

OUR PLURAL SELVES...
"There's new truth in every rendition of a composition." - T M Krishnan

"Form is treated like step brother, but actually it's like kulhar (the earthen pot, in which the hot steaming coffee was served in the old days), which is radically altering the taste of the drink. Form radically alters the consciousness (of the material, you are writing about). Form is not a passive receptacle. Once it's chosen, you are restricted as well as liberated." - Irwin Allan Sealy

Irwin Allan Sealy

READING RELIGION...
"In 1800 years of retelling the story, the character of Krishna has changed from 'uncle slayer' to what he is now... Retelling is about market, we end up spending hours of T V Time listening to charlatan's like Asharam Bapu and Devdutt Patnaik is making a killing out of it" - Sadanand Menon

DAY - 3

U R ANANTHAMURTHY - A HOMAGE

A somber and nostalgic beginning to the day with long time friends of a great writer Ananthamurthy, Manu Chakravarthy, Noble prize nominee K Satchidanandan and Shiv Vishwanathan, shared their personal moments with saintly Ananthamurthy and his thoughts which were apart from being radical at points, quite close to the reality of India, it's culture and it's political leadership.

Ananthamurthy Quotes by the panelists...

"Illiterates are essential in India as they are able to speak five languages at times, while the literates find it hard to speak more than one" 

"You can not talk of 'Freedom of Speech' until you learn the art of listening"

- Shared by Manu Chakravarthy.

POWERFUL WOMEN IN CONSERVATIVE SOCIETIES...

"Women's expectations must not be set too high" - Jung Chang

"Women know how to handle men without letting their ego hurt. They have been doing that with their children and husband (from ages)" - Leila Seth, First Women Chief Justice India

"Charm of human being is to have contradiction in life" - Leila Seth

THE BOOK ON THE WALL - DAYANITA SINGH

I heard her speaking about her book previous book "The File Room" few months back. This time, when I met her, after the session 'A Voice of One's Own' she  said that she liked my write up a lot and actively promoting it in her circle (You can read it here...) And today I have a confession to make. Before meeting her today, as she had promised to spend some time with me to answer few of my questions on Photography - the vocabulary of her art form, I went to the kiosk where her latest books were selling and asked for the book 'The Book on the Wall' and it was politely informed that it's not available, which surprised me as all her other books were there. As her presentation began, I realised my mistake. She actually never wrote that book... but it was the way she presents her art form. Sometimes she finds a way to make an exhibition out of a book... and sometimes it's actually 'The Book On The Wall'...

And here are some of powerful insights on her art form and the vocabulary - Photography.

"Essence of photography is dissemination, conversation is the key for me. I try to bridge the gap between the artist and book maker"

"Photography as we know it, i.e. getting to a place, finding the right exposure and setting etc. is over. The explosion of photographer's with their smart phones is definitely going to democratise photography. It's now easier to take a picture but then the intention is different for everybody. Some may just wants to share on social media, some to create long lasting memories or some may not want to become a photographer at all.  But for me,  it is to make my photography in such a way that every one can bring their own story to it."

"Taking picture is not enough, think about the form, the story. That's what it's all about - Challenges. I am more of an 'On going moment'.

Some one from the audience asked how to translate a poetry into a picture, she said...

"Don't even attempt to illustrate a poem but find a way around or beside it" - Dayanita Singh

Finally I am leaving you with two images that most of the visitors to the festival can relate with....

From an amazing team of talented students performing theatre  which was part of the ongoing festival through out...

Students from Theater Society of IIT-M

And I had to meet this regular of Hindu Lit Fest and I am sure the visitors of the festival know him by face. He is a Film and T.V. Serial actor, including Hollywood movie Maya, knows five languages, including German and French and have read almost 50K books. He informs me that he visits each and every public engagement of Chennai which I am sure of, as over the years I have seen him to be at all the Hindu Lit Fests I have attended. He is usually the first person to ask questions to the panellist, with or without mike.

As per his visiting card, he is available for 'Film story discussion and translations'.

I hope you have enjoyed the walk among the galaxy of stars from the literary world. Let me know if there are any discrepancies or corrections in the post and share your thoughts... 

__

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

PREV                                HOME                              NEXT

Hindu Lit For Life 2015 - Day 1

UP, CLOSE & PERSONAL: DAYANITA SINGH – THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

A BOOK MAKER WHO USES PHOTOGRAPHY AS HER VOCABULARY…

DAYANITA SINGH is the first Indian to have a solo show at London's famous Hayward Gallery in 2013, who vehemently refuses to use Digital Cameras and computers to design and create her books. She loves making her books by her own hand, armed with scissors, knives of various form and sizes with scotch tape, instead of Cntrl+C and Cntrl+V, which is the usual way the 21^st century world works in almost every field now.

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE....
Dayanita Singh and T M Krishna before
the book launch

Her latest book FILE ROOM is, in my opinion, symbolizes the Digital divide that’s making creativity into something common and superficial. Now you find smart phones capturing images, in every situation, instead of living those moments of 'now'. And as she says, in introduction for the book…

FILE ROOM

… is an elegy to paper in the age of the digitization of information and knowledge.

Image from the book File Room (Curtsy Dayanita Singh)

When I got invite from Sharan Apparao of the famous Apparoa Gallery in Chennai, for the launch of the book – File Room by Dayanita Singh, I had no clue that I am going to have an ecstatic journey through the labyrinths of creative minds. Minds? Well, I did forgot to mention that I actually went to hear T M Krishna, the famous Carnatic music vocalist, who was launching the book “File Room”.

Go Away Closer
Curtsy Dayanita Singh

I have had heard of Photo journalists, Photographers of different genre like Fashion, Sports, Digital etc. but I had absolutely no idea what is photographic artist is, till the time I heard Dayanita Singh talk about her journey. From studying to become a script designer at NID, to Documentary Photography and finally to creating books with the script of analog images (for those, who have not used or even seen those big bulky camera’s with actual ‘physical’ film rolls and the infinite wait to see the results, it’s like the difference between e-book and physical book that you can hold close to your heart, while you dreamily fill your vision of love mixed with sighs of the characters from the book).

But before I go about sharing my impressions from the talk by those two amazing artists, let me give you a brief bio…

DAYANITA SINGH

Dayanita Singh is a bookmaker working with Photography. She was born in 1961 in New Delhi. She studied Visual Communication at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. She has published ten books: Zakir Hussain (1986), Myself, Mona Ahmed (2001),Privacy (2003), Chairs (2005), Go Away Closer (2007), Sent a Letter (2008) Blue Book (2009) Dream Villa (2010), Dayanita Singh (2010) House of Love (2011).

T. M. KRISHNA

T.M. Krishna (born in 1976) is a Carnatic music vocalist. Krishna's first concert was at the age of 12, at the Spirit of Youth series organized by The Music Academy, Madras. Since then, he has travelled widely in India and abroad and given over 2000 concerts all over the world, performing regularly in major international music festivals. He has performed at prestigious venues including the Kennedy Centre, Theatre de la Ville, The Esplanade, Sydney Opera House, Chowdiah Hall Bangalore, and The Music Academy, Madras.

Met T M Krishna earlier in Hindu Lit Festival...

As the program started with the launch of the book by T M Krishna where he spoke about the book and his impressions, beginning with a beautiful question. Why a particular photograph is called Black and White Photography. As an artist, he felt that the Black and White encompasses all the colors in between. It’s for the viewer to see all the colors, and they do see all the colors, that those two contrasting colors bracket in.

Then moved on to highlight, probably the best impressions that captured the essence of the book “File Room”. He says that as he went through the images, it represented something like his mind, where if you open one file, many different files opened simultaneous (just like the synaptic connections of nerves firing within) and left the viewers with a feeling of finding that story which is unique to him or her.

As Dayanita Singh rose to speak, she was visibly happy to see that some one at least know

Dayanita Singh
Pic by KVSRINIVASAN

what’s her book is all about. She spoke about her incredible journey to be what she could be. Her creative journey started with an accident as for her class project, she was asked to capture different moods of a person and she chose to shoot Zakir Hussain, who was performing in a concert at IIM Ahmadabad. As she prepared to take her first picture, she was pushed by the security in the jam-packed hall and fell on her back, which fortunately did not broke anything other than her pride. As she went out to give vent to her frustrations, she found Zakir Husain, walking around (at the time he was not so famous). She reached out to tell him, ‘Some day I will also be a great artist and then no one will be able to push me’. And Zakir Husain calmed her down and asked to her come to his morning riaz (practice) and take as many pictures as she wants. Dayanita said that night was the life changer for me and made me realize what I want to do in life. From this encounter, and travelling with his troupe for 6 winters as a student photographer her first book came out in 1986 …

ZAKIR HUSSAIN

A teacher, as she said, who instilled in her, a desire to work 18 hours a day and stay focused.

Curtsy Dayanita Singh

The other teacher that influenced her life was an eunuch, Mona Ahmed, who was staying in a cemetery. A work assignment for London times (which eventually never happened as Mona Ahmed thought that she is from New York Times and felt that if it gets published in London, where many of her friends are, will find it not in good taste, so took all the rolls from her and dumped it in trash) got them together, which lasted a lifetime. But eventually Dayanita created an amazing visual biography of a double outcast Mona Ahmed through the words written by herself and portrayed by the analogue images from Dayanita Singh, known as...

MYSELF MONA AHMED

A mix of photobook, biography, autobiography and fiction, Myself Mona Ahmed (Scalo, 2001) keeps renewing its importance in Dayanita Singh’s oeuvre because of the direction in which her work is evolving.

Curtsy Dayanita Singh

And throughout her lectures she kept the audience enthralled with her easy talk and ready wit, interspersed with her fine, overpowering images being displayed on the projector.

To read an excellent report on the launch please do read "Where Images Do The Talking" by Elizabeth Mathew

At the end of the launch, as an amateur photographer myself, I tried to capture her through my smart phone (hated it, when I realised that I forget to bring my camera). But then how do you go about taking photographs of someone who is the world’s renowned photographer herself… well here are the results.

Behind the scene ...
Dayanita Singh And T M Krishna

A cameraman prepares for the best portrait

Wondering if that's the best way...

Finally I leave you with some of the books and photographs of Dayanita Singh that captured my imagination.

GO AWAY CLOSER

Go Away Closer is a novel without words. It concerns series of opposites in Singh’s India: presence and absence, reality and dreams, tradition and progress. She is able to express the emotion underlying these often abstract concepts, because her photography springs from her own intimate experiences.

 

Go Away Closer - Text and Image curtsy Dayanita Singh

HOUSE OF LOVE

"House of Love" is a work of photographic fiction that takes the form of nine short stories. Working closely with writer Aveek Sen, whose prose follows a journey of its own, Singh explores the relationship between photography, memory, and writing.

Text and Image curtsy Dayanita Singh

DREAM VILLA

In Dream Villa Singh explores how the night transforms what seems ordinary by day into something mysterious and unsettling.

Text and Image Curtsy Dayanita Singh

BLUE BOOK

Blue Book is a series of images made during Dayanita Singh’s wanderings in the industrial landscapes of India. Presented by Dreamvilla Productions, India (an alias and nom de plume designed to mask Singh’s authorship), the book will be displayed in galleries and museums as a work of art.

Blue Book - Text and Image Curtsy Dayanita Singh

PRIVACY

What can a photographer in India capture on film other than disasters or the exotic? Dayanita Singh was preoccupied by this question after she had spent many years documenting the poverty in her homeland. Her answer was a return to the world from which she came, to India’s extended, well-to-do families and their fine homes.

Text and image curtsy for the books - Dayanita Website

___

Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

PREV                                     HOME                                       NEXT

Limping to the center of the world - Timeri N Murari             Sufi Singer Abida Praveen

HINDU LITERARY FESTIVAL 2014: And The Prize Goes to Anees Salim.... DAY 2 & 3

DAY TWO

The discovery of the day Two was T M Krishna’s “A Southern Music” and it filled my heart with an elation that comes from being in the presence of pure creativity and passion.

Gopal K Gandhi listening intently to T M Krishna's take on Music..

T M Krishna is a pre-eminent vocalist that I have had gathered from the intro from ‘Hindu Lit For Life’ Brochure but his clarity of thoughts and depths of his passion for singing made me connect to the Carnatic Music at much deeper level than I thought possible without knowing the language and grammar of the style. His story about the first time the music moved him to tears is an example how one can connect to the music without knowing anything about it. He says “One specific experience with music that has always stayed with me is a morning concert with DK Pattamaal. I left the concert in absolute tears, bawling. Was I sad? No. Was I depressed? No. But that's the moment something clicked in me; that is what music is."

Though the session was about his recently launched book, "A Southern Music — The Karnatik Story" (published by Harper Collins) but the audience was in for a bonus as Sh. Gopal K Gandhi, the moderator termed to the live demonstration in order to explain the role of lyrics in the music. Here is what he has to say…

“Grammar is not a technical process, it's part of that experience. Do I need grammar? Yes. To experience music or sing it, I need grammar but it has to be inside my heart” T M Krishna

His love for the music came out very strongly in the way he talked about it. Interestingly, it was quite endearing to hear him refer to Music as ‘Her/She’. But the most profound thought I internalized was about the journey as he said, “Her path is lone – not lonely. One has to do this journey on one’s own to really experience the beauty of the music. Yes, I think music is enlightening if only one is devoid of perceptions of other things around him or her, then she manifest the deeper understanding of the soul within.

And I agreed with Sh. Gandhi when he ended the session with words, to a thunderous applause and standing ovation to the Genius Soul of Carnatic Music T M Krishna "A dazzling enigma, one who can't be ignored and certainly cannot be explained. In short, he is simply a musical phenomenon."

Gulzar Saheb

On the other side at the courtyard, a legend was talking about Music too… Gulzar sahib talking about his Book “I swallowed the moon”. As someone asked him about Moon, he smilingly replied that he has the monopoly on “Moon”. His poetry rendering were so beautiful and sublime that one can get lost just listening to him and I almost missed the Session of Romila Thapar’s “Past Before Us”.

Another Session at the courtyard worth mentioning is the one called GRANTA'S LUMINARIES where Taiye Selasi – Writer, Film Maker and Xiaolu Guo Writer and Photographer, were in conversation with Parvathi Nayar. Xiaolu Guo, who grew up in China and later moved on to England says that the places she lived made her stories and shaped her. While Taiye Selasi started her life in UK but says that the story telling culture of her parents influenced her writing. (Her father is from Ghana, her mother is half Scottish and half Nigerian).

Xiaolu Guo used to write in broken English but still got accepted and as she said in her book, “Birds have their bird language, beasts have their beast language but English is different."

As a photographer, Taiye Selasi says, “Whenever people praise me about my photography and how beautiful it is, I always respond saying, "No! The world is beautiful and I am just capturing it."

Abraham Verghese

In the session “A Renaissance Man” Abraham Verghese took us to his personal journey from being a celebrated Doctor (The Aids Man, who was notorious in his own department where he was practicing for bringing hoards of Aids Patient from neighboring states) to an award winning novelist whose book was on New York Times top list for 2 years. I loved his thoughts on literature, “Literary Novels gives you tools, ways to carry into your life” And his expectations of readers is “Writers provide words, Readers provide imagination”. On reading other writers, he candidly says, “ We are always building on the shadows of other writers”  and gives a great advice to the aspiring authors in the audience, “Read a lot of books as Good Books dislocates you, changes your path” Quite True!

DAY THREE:

Lights, Camera, Censor: Moral Policing in Cinema

The Hero Of The Day

Probably the most awaited session of Hindu Lit Festival, as it involved Kamal Haasan – A great Actor, director, whose brush with Indian Censors Board has been very, very interesting. The house was packed to the brim and the expectant crowd rose into a roar of applause as he made his way to the stage. And yes, he did not leave the crowd wanting with his interesting quotable quotes, which at one point in the session he himself said, “Most probably I will be quoted out of context for the things that I am saying on the stage now”.

It was news to me when he revealed that Binaca Geetmala, the most famous song program in the iconic voice of Ameen Sahani, listening to which I grew up, went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka as it was called then) because Harmonium (an Indian Musical Instrument) was banned since it was considered to be from Haveli Culture.

One of his heartfelt complaint was, “Why Multinationals are being allowed to put any price for the cold drinks, while the Govt is putting cap on the ticket prices” Another one beautiful quote I really loved was that 'The Cinema is the only medium that supported inter-caste Marriages. It promoted love'. I agree.

In context with one of the woman makeup artist, who Kamal Haasan wanted to hire, was not allowed to work as it was only male bastion, he said, “what women do, when they get frustrated in their profession, they get married”. To another question, he remarked, “We always need some one to shepherd us but I am not a sheep”.

He ended his interaction with rephrasing of a beautiful thought of Gandhi Ji, “Be the change you want” to “I become the change I demand” to thunderous applause from the audience.

Beyond The Vagina – Thoughts on Sex and Sexuality

Naomi Wolfe

Naomi Wolfe was in her full flow again, continuing the advocacy of women’s liberation and thinking beyond The Beauty Myth. She declared that there’s lot more ‘Beyond The Vagina’, “Receiving the wisdom from past is wrong. There’s so much research in the last 2-3 decades that has changed the way we look at it” She said every women’s reaction to sexual stimulation is different as the distribution of neuro-sensitive nodes, unlike men, are all around in a beautiful mesh of nerves that’s unique to each individual woman. So in effect every woman is different. You have to ‘learn’ every woman every time (To make a woman happy and connected). It cannot be process oriented. The women cannot switch off from her brain the disrespect, stress etc of the morning to ‘go for the sex’ in the evening. In the ended, she ended her talk on one of the most sane advise I have ever heard, “If you want your women for the rest of your life, then respect her for the rest of your life” and then in her own inimical style she left the stage to connect with women in the audience and to know what they go through in India, which of course was an eye opener for her…

Her voice rang in the audience, when she said, “"Rape is not a sex crime. It's a form of mutilation. It's a form of assault that's so permanent that its effects are felt throughout a lifetime." And I remembered her words from yesterday, “It (Rape) continues because these people aren't jailed and prosecuted. Countries where people have been prosecuted and punished for rapes have lesser rapes. That is first and probably the most powerful step towards stopping rapes”.

In the end I leave you with some thoughts that stuck with me, after so many days has passed...

“Job of a travel writer is to cover the reality that is behind the superficial aspect of a place” – Colin Thubron

“Travel writing is a form that has reinvented itself, century after century” William Dalrymple

“Now when I come to Chennai and see all the modernity and the development of the place – like I notice the flyovers and the metro rail work – I still feel that Chennai is still there underneath it. The essence of Chennai is there waiting to be uncovered”. William Dalrymple

"I think good writers are not frightened about writing bad. I think writers just don't want to face the tyranny of a blank page. Have the courage to write badly" - Jim Crace

"I do get this terribly suspicious look when I say that I'm a writer. My defense is my book. I kind of hold it out as a shield." – Shannon

"I think that the main thing that young writers have had to deal with is the Internet. On one hand, while it’s been very useful, it has also been a bad thing. You have to accept that some people just won't like your book and it's going to be all over the internet." – Shannon

It was a pleasure to interact with Shannon Samantha about the life
of a writer..."Its the passion that gets one to write"

“There is a burning desire to write. There is so much nonsense going on in the country and it is neglected. I find no problem in motivation, there are no hours in the day to write about what I feel” Shovon Chowdhury

“Each post on Face Book is like a little knock on the door or tap on the window. I don't see any contradiction in doing literature on Face Book. Twitter is not that much different from haiku” Shovon Chowdhury

“If you're writing a book about the near future, you must write it faster too”. Shovon Chowdhury

“If you want to say something, go for it. Who knows it will create a new form” – Mamang Dai

... And The Hindu Prize 2013, selected by the Jury, under the leadership of renowned author, Mr. Timeri  N Murari, goes to Anees Salim for Vanity Bagh which was collected by his publisher….

It was my pleasure to be with Sh. S Muthiah, MBE in the last two days and share some thoughts along with coffee during the breaks between the sessions. His article on Hindu Lit Festival 2014, is probably the most profound re-cap...  click here to read... 

__

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

PREV                                HOME                              NEXT

  Hindu Lit Fest 2014 - Day 1                      Hindu Lit Fest 2014 - Day 1