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                              

Hindu Lit For Life: And the winner is Easterine Keri

As usual, I could pick out the winner of the Hindu Literary Prize this year too and it was a pleasure to show the tweet to the winner Dr. Easterine Keri, (Since she does not have a twitter account) I had sent an hour earlier than the announcement. She is a very soft-spoken and highly sensitive person and interacting with her was such a pleasure. Her award winning book "When the River Sleeps" has got me thinking about the spirits, dreams and journeys that has been entangled within the landscape of my own book, "Songs of the Mist".

Alaxander McCall Smith and Dr. Easterine Keri

"When the River Sleeps" is just like meandering through the forest, running eddies around the pauses in living and then breaking free to run with demons and dreams. It is a lovely book, enjoyed it throughly.

Had an interesting conversation with Dr. Easterine Keri and posed for the
book... 

The beauty of Hindu Lit Festival is the relaxed atmosphere, where you are free to chose what you would like to do, or hear or interact with. The stalwarts of literature, Music and creative fields, spend their time in unassuming way and willing to share their thoughts with any one around. After 6 sessions, since Hindu Lit Festival's inception, it feels like home. 

T M Krishna with Balkrishna Gandhi...

Day 2 - day 3 had an impressive array of discussion and interaction lined up. I am giving below some of the images and thoughts from the day for those, who have had missed being there.

Burkha Dutt: The passionate firebrand journalist

Anita Ratnam takes on Barkha Dutt, on her own game...

It was interesting play on the role reversal as Anita Ratnam asked not to speak until she has heard the question... The interview was engrossing, where Barkha Dutt opened her heart and exposed her passion to which she is married to. Unlike the Wikipedia report which mentioned her being married to a Kashmiri Muslim. Some of her thoughts from the interaction...

So I'm told, "oh you're married to a Muslim that's why you're secular." Since when has secular become such a bad word?"

"Rahul Gandhi is the most incompetent in media, I think Arnab Goswami was soft on him in the interview"

"Social media is double edged sword. Twitter is the new PTI"  - Barkha Dutt

Amish: The Rock Star 

Amish - The Rock Star Author

and some of his thoughts...

"The ending has to be such that it keeps gnawing at you for the rest of your life!"

"As long as you don't force your faith on others and your belief gives you peace, then what's the harm?"

"Faith when it becomes blind, it becomes a problem"

"There is no word in Sanskrit called blasphemy. Why? Because it didn't exist."  - Amish

Shashi Tharoor: The Eloquent Politician

A great 9 point presentation on the networked world, where Shashi Throor proved beyond a doubt that India has come of technical age, discarding the ancient Rope trick and snake charmer skin....

Some of his thoughts from two session he interacted with...

"A student who's not good enough to get into an IIT maybe qualified to get into a Harvard"

"We have a Prime Minister who is a doctor who can diagnose the problem, but can't deliver the medicine, " 

"I strongly believe that the politics of performance will defeat the politics of identity," - Shashi Tharoor

Dr. Chithra Madhwan: The Soul Keeper

I have had attended Dr. Chithra Madhwan's many lectures and her passion for safeguarding the ancient temple architecture comes out so clearly in every one of her presentations. Sharan Apparao's moderation was beautiful and brought out the right sense of desperation among the audience for the defacing our cultural heritage and ancient architecture.

Dr. Chithra Madhwan voiced her worry that the insensitivity of people will soon lead to complete disintegration of temples and we need to know where we came from to take it forward. Temples were not only about religion and education. It also functioned as banks, panchayats, library and filled the major social gap in terms of local administration and safeguarding the people living around.

The Forbidden Fruit : The best and the frank session of the Festival

The fearless and frank opinions of the panelist in the session made it one of the best session. I would leave you with some interesting thoughts on the Eroticism and some of the author's who have taken the genre to the new heights...

Amrita Narayan

"When you have layers of shame on collective culture, it's difficult to write," says Amrita Naryanan about her erotic novel.

"One of the criticisms of my book is that sensuality of everyday lives isn't Indian,"

"Sex in India is outsourced to Goa or the United States!" - Amrita Narayanan 

Lionel Shriver

"I need to have strong feelings about what I write, and for the person who read it to feel it too"

"In the west we have moved to a set of new taboos that I call the tyranny of virtue."

"Happiness is a state of motion, a trajectory The idea that happiness is a place you get to is destructive" - Lionel Shriver

Margaret Mascarenhas

"It is my theory that romantic love is a terminal illness. It is not normal"

"Sex, love and violence are part of each other. To have an effective story, something has to happen,"

"The kind of love I would like to cultivate is one where your partner becomes your best friend. It's more soothing" - Margaret Mascarenhas 

With Manil Suri

"I don't think sex is no longer a taboo. I mean, look at Section 377," - Manil Suri 

With Alaxander McCall Smith

"As writer you have to make an imaginative leap of other people's experiences." says Alaxander McCall Smith, who is known to write 1000 words per hour and has written 80 novels and sold more copies than Michael Jackson's Thriller. When I asked him about his writing style being close to P G Wodehouse, to which he smilingly admitted that he had heard that before. When I asked him about why his villains are not actual villians in the gory sense of the words, he said "If you just focus on the bleakness and suffering, every novel would be a tragedy."

Now I will leave you with some images starting with Mr. N Ram of Hindu, who for the first time in 6 years, was actively engaged with the going on of the festival, moderating few session and probably the most frequent questioner from the audience.

N Ram from Hindu

Shortlisted Book for the Hindu Literary Award

Songs of the Mist Quote on Opinion Tree

Leaving you with a quote from my book "Songs of the Mist" fluttering on the Opinion Tree at the Hindu Lit Fest Venue.... 

"Man has always tried to rewrite history, but the mind is unforgiving, more so is the time"

Hope you have enjoyed the journey, see you all next year at Hindu Lit Fest, meanwhile enjoy reading good books and if possible write the book, that is lurking within your heart. I will...

__

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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  Hindu Lit Fest 2016 - Day 1