HINDU LIT FOR LIFE: Chennai Book Lovers Happy Journey

The most awaited event of the new year for me, since last few years, has been Hindu Literary Festival which comes to a close today. This year too, it brought me in touch with wonderful writers from across the world. The interaction with humble Markus Zusak - Author of the book 'The Book Thief', unassuming and prolific Author Shashi Tharoor - who could produce a well researched book on British Colonialism, based on his viral video. The  wonderful sessions of many authors and commentators, I attended was absolutely enlightening. Spending some time with Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks, getting to know her thoughts and ideas, meeting my old friend and mentor Timeri N Murari as well as some friends from Chennai Blogger's Club added an extra interest to the festival. 

This year's Festival was also special as my two good friends Dr. Chithra Madhavan and Sharon Apparao conducted wonderful workshops which were not only interesting but  engrossing as well.

And as the festival came to an end, the winners of the Hindu Lit Festival are Chennai Book Lovers... who joined in a very Happy Journey (as the auto at the venue declared) on the day of Hindu New Year Festival - Sankranti which also kick started my own literary journey with twin city launch of the Hindi translation of my book "Songs of the Mist" - Kuhaase ke Geet at Mumbai (18th Jan) and at Delhi (4th Feb) by my publisher Story Mirror. Hopefully the year 2017 will continue to be on happy note, as I start off on another journey to Mumbai University where I am conducting my Workshops on "Writing and Haiku" @ SMYCC...

Kiran Doshi (Pic Curtsy Hindu Lit For Life)

But the real winner with a lovely acceptance speech was Kiran Doshi, who received this years coveted Hindu Prize of Fiction for his book - 'Jinnah Often Came to Our House'.

Vivek Shanbhag

The final days of the Hindu Lit Fest was interspersed with many interesting sessions, beginning with Vivek Shanbhag - the Kannada Author, whose mother tongue is actually Konkani, declaring that the first quality of a writer is to be courageous. I could relate to personally as well as to his quote that... 'The Word has so many memories'.

The session with Kanhaiya Kumar - a mellowed down iconic JNU Ex-President began with his thoughts on the topic 'Is India Ready for Revolution?'

"Forget revolution, currently we have a crisis of opposition". He went on to add in his english - hindi mixed talk (for which he apologised to begin with)...

"The current situation of young generation and education system is such that degree has become important, while education is not" - Kanhaiya Kumar

The most awaited session personally for me was of the author of the book "The Book Theif" - Markus Zusak. A very humble person, who when asked to read few lines from his iconic book, not only read as he would usually do but also read it in the way a professional will, which was hilarious.

"Writers love to be miserable, that's what being a writer is all about" - Markus

Markus Zusak

"The good part of the book is that it develops friendship." - Markus

This year the Hindu Lit Fest received record footfalls, as Nirmala Lakshmanan (Program Director and Director of Hindu Group) shared the fact sheet at the beginning of the festival that the festival has generated huge response to begin with. It has pre-registered 15K participants on the day one and I believe it was more than that... Here is a picture which endorses the view...

Leaving you with some pictures with some of my friends... from the Hindu Lit Fest.

Lovely to catch up with Srinidhi Hande - The Famous Traveller 

With famous music lover, Quiz Master and good friend - Sylvian Patrick

And wonderful conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner - Geraldine Brooks

Hope you have enjoyed the journey with me, signing off 2016 Hindu Lit Festival... Cheers

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Hindu Lit for Life 2017 - Day 1                                                  

HINDU LIT FOR LIFE: Day 1 - There is something about Trump?

BUT BEFORE WE GO THERE...
As 14th January is our Hindu New Year, let me treat you with the how the Hindu Lit Festival celebrated it.

The Grand Entrance to the Hindu Lit Festival

... and the beauty of new year

I have been writing about Hindu Lit Festival since its inception and as my friend Nirmala Lakshmanan, the Director of the Festival said that this time has been the most promising start with 15K registrations even before the festival began. Looking at the brochure with the details of its program, I think Hindu Lit Festival has surpassed itself in the content, quality and footfalls and above all the participation of the citizens of Chennai.

And then the session began... with the reluctant artist, opening up the festival.

...and remembering Chandralekha, by Tishani Doshi who in the beginning was even scared to ring the bell....

The best session of the day was reserved for Shashi Tharoor, who was able to manage a book out of a viral video "Era of Darkness" which is doing great but as it goes for a print in Britain but for obvious reason not with the same title...

Though it is not difficult to say, why the change of title but here are some of his quotes from his talk, which might let you know...

"They not only colonised the country, but also colonised the mind"

"Manu's thought was always there since 2000 years as Caste was, but the British were able to systemise it, which even continues today."

As I listened to him, tearing apart the systemic approach with which British went on being hypocritical about the reasons they were in India, I did not realise that I was sitting next to Geraldine Brooks, the pulitzer prize winner journalist, who in her next session talked so lovingly about the India, she has come to recognise....

"India has so many examples of moral leadership, who could stand opposite to oppression" -  Geraldine Brooks

And as she launched into the reasons for her book 'March' which won her the award in 2006, she was able to pinpoint the different way it came about. She was looking forward to an answer to the question she had in her mind...

"What happens to an idealist, when he goes to war?"

'The decay of ideals in times of war' and probably is the reason I find her voice resonating with me as she said...

"I think there is return to kind of nationalist Militant-ism" as she watched the twin towers going down, rhetoric of whites supremacist and the winning trump card - which brings to me to the most interesting phenomenon...

THE AGE OF TRUMP

Ok, there is no denying to it that it has arrived. Mark's Kurlansky - An American Author and journalist, who's daughter Talia (She co-authored a book with him at the age of 12) said that the day Trump became president - elect, her english teacher said...

"I am so sorry that my generation failed yours"

But I believe, as long as artists like Molly Crabapple, who called 'Spade - a spade' in declaring the Trump Mantra of 'Lets Make America Great Again'... is nothing but a call to 'Lets Make America WHITE Again"...

there is still a chance that the old generation has not failed the young generation. As in the end of the session, Brooks said, in an answer to the question from the audience...

"Art, freedom, thinking thrives most when its under threat" 

Amen!!

Looking forward to next few days .... Hope you have enjoyed this journey with me in Hindu Lit Festival. Please let me know your views..

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Hindu Lit for Life over the years             A Chennai Book Lover's Happy Journey                              

CURTAIN RAISER: Hindu Lit Fest 2017 - In discussion with the founder Nirmala Lakshman (Director - Hindu Group)

Hindu Lit Festival over the years...
Hindu Lit Festival 2011 || Hindu Lit Festival 2013 || Hindu Lit Festival 2014 || Hindu Lit Festival 2015 || Hindu Lit Festival 2016

I have been regularly writing about Hindu Lit for Life Festival since its inception and immensely enjoy three days of festivity along with thousands of Art and Literature lovers of Chennai. So I was thrilled when our book club  “Sans Serif” proposed to invite Ms. Nirmala Lakshman - founder of Hindu Literary Festival for a discussion on Hindu Lit Fest. Clearly it was an opportunity to get ‘behind the scene’ of this amazing event that has me wondering about how the multiple celebrity authors, prominent literary figures and iconic artist get together to enthral the wonderful audience of Chennai. And all the credit for this lovely interaction goes to our book club’s most enthusiastic book lover - Ms. Devika Anand who some how managed to steal precious time from Ms. Nirmala’s busy schedule.

Ms. Nirmala Lakshman at Sans Serif Book club at Apparao Galleries

In very short span of time, Hindu Lit for Life Festival, popularly hash tagged in social media as well as on twitter as #LFL has become one of the most prestigious literary events, because of sheer passion of Ms. Nirmala Lakshman and her enthusiastic team at Hindu as well as unstinted support and encouragement from Hindu Management. Ms Nirmala also pointed out that the festival’s idea, conceptualization and execution has its root in 20 years of constant caring for arts, culture and heritage through weekly publication of Hindu Literary Supplement. But another thing that I personally believe has added to the creditability of the festival is the fact, as Ms. Nirmala said during our conversation that Hindu Management has had a ‘hands-off’ approach and non-interference in the process of selection of Books, Authors, Artists and awards.

As we finished our book club’s monthly discussion on Paul Kalanithi’s poignant book “When breath becomes Air” (Still going strong on New York Times best seller’s Chart), Ms. Nirmala arrived on the dot.  As the book club members gathered around her to greet her as long time friend, for me as a relatively new member (3 years) to the book club, it was heartening to know that Ms. Nirmala is not only founder of Hindu Lit Fest but also one of the founding members of our book club too.

 

Among friends (Pic Curtsy T Suresh)

As we settled down, Ms. Nirmala took us to the very beginning of Hindu Lit Fest. From the confines of a five star hotel, 7 years back to its present pristine and natural ensconced venue of artistic and literary activity at Harington Road, it has been quite a journey. From few thousands in the beginning to tens of thousands of footfalls in year 2016, the Hindu Lit festival has become an annual ‘must do’ thing for Chennai Literati, arts and culture aficionados and specially, as she mentioned, for the young student community. 

Pic curtsy T Suresh

Initially Hindu group financially supported the event completely but as the festival grew up in size and attendees, there was increase in costs involved so sponsors were invited and there had been internal talk for introducing some sort of season tickets for certain seats too. Presently the Hindu marketing team does get some sponsors too, but contrary to the popular belief, it is quite hard for even Hindu to get some major sponsors.  Hence the major part of the funding still comes from Hindu Group.  As Ms. Nirmala pointed out, the students group is the main reason that there are still no tickets for any of the events during the 3-day festival.

Another misconception people have about the festival being Hindu Group’s own initiative that it is easy to get the Authors to come to the event. She emphasized that it is actually very hard to get them to confirm. Some of them respond late, or not confirm their joining in till the last moment or don’t even respond. But the good thing is that once they are in the festival, they enjoy themselves a lot. In the festive atmosphere, they like to interact with audience and hang around the venue to talk with people. It was hard in the beginning for them to get going but once they experience the hospitality of Chennai audience and organizers, most respond enthusiastically.

Book Club Members

Regarding the Hindu Literary award, she says the selection process starts months ahead of the event. The consultant team selects books that are on the list, or are talked about as well as recommendations from authors and literary groups. These are passed on after intial screening, to the independent panel of Judges. Hindu has no role in this process apart from the financial commitment and organizing the awards ceremony, which is the culmination of the 3-day festival.

Winner of Fiction Writing over the years...

As the Hindu Lit Team is getting into the 2017 Lit Festival, there are some interesting new things happening too. This time there is a talk about Children’s Festival as well as people from the world over approaching to attend the events. For the first time, few Norwegian Authors will be joining the 2017 Hindu Lit Fest.

One of the members asked about clashing of two of her favorite author discussions held on separate venues at the festival, to which she remarked that it is good to have divided loyalties.

To a question on the value of celebrity delegates, she responded saying that the celebrities are important and our marketing looks forward to it, but we don’t compromise. On a lighter note, she added that it is very hard to manage celebrities and the resulting crowd, but we some how scrape by. At one time, they even had to call police to manage.

The interesting sessions ... our own Sharan Apparao in one of them

But as one of the members pointed out, she agreed that most of the people / celebrities who attend, are impressed with the culture of Chennai and well behaved audience. Many of the delegates have commented that the Chennai is the most amazing place to talk about literature and culture. But yes, there are some peculiar characters, who come to the lit festival, specially barge in on the Q&A sessions, for their 15 seconds of limelight. They are the ones who grab the mike at the word go.  Most of times the moderator or one of the speakers handle them on their own, some times we do manage with our volunteers all around.

 

Over the years, I have personally gained some good friends
and mentors - Thanks to Hindu Lit Fest...

To one of the questions, Ms. Nirmala responded by saying that best way to ‘kill’ a good session is to have a bad moderator. So selection of the moderators is crucial to the success of each and every session. This selection is done in consultation with festival team as well as from group of her friends and added with a smile, “And yes I have good group of friends like most of you here.”

It was wonderful session to be among friends....

You can visit some of the past Hindu Lit Festival at the following links..

Hindu Lit Festival 2011 
Awarded to... Rahul Bhattacharya

Hindu Lit Festival 2013  
Awarded to... Jerry Pinto

Hindu Lit Festival 2014 
Awarded to... Anees Salim

Hindu Lit Festival 2015 
Awarded to... Ashok Srinivasan

Hindu Lit Festival 2016 
Awarded to... Easterine Keri

Looking forward to 2017.... Hope you have enjoyed this journey with Ms. Nirmala Lakshman. Please let me know your views..

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Hindu Lit for Life 2016                                                         TEDxChennai