JLF 2022: Like walking through a food court for the mind
At this year’s edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, our intrepid correspondent often found entertainment when he was least expecting it
I now understand why the Jaipur Literature Festival has been called the greatest literary show on earth. There is more to this claim than a penchant for hyperbole. The scale, certainly, is massive, but what sets it apart is the curation. If people show up year after year – including those who diss it passionately but keep coming back – there has to be substance along with the style. 2022 marked my debut at JLF, and I must say that it was absolutely memorable.
The festival opened with the virtual edition from March 5 to 9, and continued with the on-ground edition from March 10 to 14. I flew to Jaipur for the latter. To get into the mood of the festival, I began reading Barkha Dutt’s new book To Hell and Back: Humans of COVID on the flight from Mumbai to Jaipur. I was so moved by her stories that my eyes were filled with tears. The person seated beside me thought I was crying because of Air India’s food.
This moment set the tone for the rest of my experience. I found entertainment when I was least expecting it. I recall, for instance, a charming old lady decked with pearls who whispered to her friend in the audience, “The only constants in life are my moisturiser, my cat, and Chandrahas Choudhury at JLF.” She was trying to pacify a woman who was upset with the organizers for moving the festival from Hotel Diggi Palace to Hotel Clarks Amer. I wondered if one of the people curating the snarky @JLFInsider Twitter handle was around to document things; turns out the handle is now defunct. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
The biggest talking point among attendees at JLF 2022 – the 15th edition of the festival – seemed to be the location. Diggi Palace has a special place in the hearts of visitors for its charming architecture. The upside at Clarks Amer is that it is spacious, which makes it possible for people to move around comfortably. While some craved for a piece of the familiar, others welcomed the new. Since it was my first time, I could experience it without comparing past and present. However, as a fellow journalist reminded me, “People who don’t know what the good old days were like are happy to settle for less.”
About the sessions, I had a great time listening to Huma Abedin, vice chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for President of the United States, speak about her book Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds and what it means to be a Muslim woman in public service. I also enjoyed the conversation between Ministhy S, Nandakumar K, Fathima EV and Arundhathi Subramaniam on the joys and challenges of translation. The session featuring Dolly Thakore with Ritu Menon, Arghya Lahiri and Sanjoy K Roy scored high on energy and humour. Manoj Bajpayee, Pragya Tiwari and Balaji Vittal talking about Bollywood villains made for another lovely session. Bajpayee lit up the stage with his disarming smile during the session woven around Vittal’s book Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood. Far from scaring people off with his villainy, Bajpayee had the audience eating out of his hands.
There were discussions on the COVID-19 pandemic, climate justice, war, rape, diplomacy, mental health, religious extremism, Dalit history, mysticism, phallic symbols, and cooking. Being at JLF was like walking through a food court for the mind. Many sessions featured first-time authors such as Daribha Lyndem, Anirudh Kanisetti, Rijula Das, Simran Dhir, Shabir Ahmad Mir, Uday Bhatia, Lindsay Pereira, Smriti Zubin Irani, and Shivani Sibal. As always, there were music performances every morning and evening. My favourite was the concert featuring Ankur Tewari and the Ghalat Family.
Arunava Sinha received the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award 2022 while Ranjit Hoskote received the Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Poetry Award 2022. Durgabai Vyam received the Ojas Art Award 2022 in recognition of her contribution to Gond art.
Of course, there were inconveniences and irritations too – moderators who hogged the microphone instead of allowing a longer audience interaction with authors, and audience members who used their time with the microphone to plug their own books. The March sun was brutal, so many a decision about which session to attend was based not on who was speaking but whose venue had better air-conditioning. Durbar Hall seemed the clear winner. The Front Lawn and the Mughal Tent were forbidding in the heat. The Baithak was relatively cooler. Hopefully, future editions of JLF will stick to January.
There were some last-minute additions to the festival such as politician Mahua Moitra, journalist Mujib Mashal, and fashion designer Manish Malhotra. Many attendees missed listening to them because the names were not on the printed itinerary being sold at the venue. Biographer Vikram Sampath was scheduled to speak but had to drop out because of a family emergency. Journalist-turned-politician MJ Akbar was dropped after a backlash on social media alleging that festival organizers were trying to rehabilitate him after he was named in #MeToo incidents.
While JLF 2022 brought together some amazingly talented people, it missed out on crucial opportunities. Since Vivek Tejuja, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Jamie O’Connell and Akhil Katyal were present at the festival, a panel on queer literature in English would have been easy to organize. Both Saikat Majumdar and Anindita Ghose have recently written novels exploring the complications that arise between mentor and mentee when sexual desire becomes part of the equation. A dialogue between the two would have been rich, layered, and meaningful. It also seemed quite unusual that Meena Kandasamy who was invited to speak at the festival was not on the Dalit history panel with Guru Prakash Paswan and Badri Narayan.
Of course, JLF is not only about book love. It is as much about people-watching, eavesdropping, networking and having a blast. Those who say that they attend JLF only to listen to the authors are lying. Nobody is buying that story, including the organisers – Sanjoy K Roy, Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple. After all, where else in the world will you run into author Shobhaa De dancing to Mera Piya Ghar Aaya O Ramji and Nobel Laureate Abhijeet V Banerjee shaking a leg to Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni Re Tohse Naina Milaike? A sight that delighted Writer’s Ball attendees on the last evening.
JLF 2022 was far from perfect but it was hugely enjoyable. That booklovers, authors and publishers could come together in this way after the disastrous pandemic is a big win. May the next edition be even better!
Chintan Girish Modi is an independent writer, journalist and book reviewer.