The opening ceremony of JLF 2017 took place on 19 January at the front lawn of Diggi Palace. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, Also present was the celebrated yogi Sadhguru, iconic experimental poet and activist Anne Waldman and the legendary award-winning poet and lyricist Gulzar. Folk musician Nathoo Lal Solanki led a group of drummers who performed at the event. A concert of folk and classical music by the Shillong Chamber Choir was held at the venue.
Speaking on Day One of the JLF, festival producer Sanjoy Roy said, “The only means to bring about change is knowledge and education. Our colleagues are out there taking authors to over a hundred schools who won’t necessarily have access to the festival. Similarly people at Ekta Foundation are bringing a number of kids from various Indian states to bring together a sense of what tomorrow can be. That is what the festival is about.”
Talking about the importance of writers in our society, he said, “Writers give us a sense of our tomorrows. In our very chaotic world of today, ever evolving to the miasma of noise and visual images, the only thing that can help us to make sense is literature, writing and wisdom. That is the reason year after year we come together bringing incredible speakers that you can find from across the world here at Jaipur. It is the only place where you can sit here at the front lawn and travel the world and understand different cultures, languages and people. Here you may perhaps open your mind just to see for a brief moment that we can all live together irrespective of our differences.”
The festival is also considered a promising forum for aspiring authors, as it facilitates an interaction with established writers of their choice.
In the past, JLF has hosted such acclaimed authors as Eleanor Catton, Ian McEwan, J.M. Coetzee and Pico Iyer among others. This year’s list, too, doesn’t fail to impress, with names like Alan Hollinghurst, Paul Beatty, Arunava Sinha, Anne Waldman and David Hare high on the event’s billing.
Expressing her delight that JLF 2017 is hosting a facsimile document of the 13th century Magna Carta, which is considered to be the founding document of human rights and advocacy, Vasundhara Raje said, “As the largest democracy in the world, it is a huge tribute to us in India that it has come here.”
On the account of one of the largest literary festival Diggi Palace is beautifully decorated. Rows of flowers, artworks and fountains can be seen around various venues inside the palace.
Festival co-director Namita Gokhle at the opening reception said, “We live in the best of times, we live in the worst of times, but literature remains undisputed.” Gokhale expressed her excitement at this year’s programme, and remembered John Singh who passed away last year. Singh was a leading arts and cultural conservator who founded the Jaipur Virasat Festival. “The legacy of this festival rests on John Singh, the inspirational figure who, along with his wife Faith Singh, laid the foundations of this festival.”
Eminent poet Gulzar complemented the festival organisers for going past the glorious ten-year mark. American poet Anne Waldman was the star of the show, whose poems were read out to a packed venue. The performance poet and activist recited her poem-song “Anthropocene Blues”, which paints a portrait of a broken age, in which “nothing is not affected by the hand of man.”
In the past, JLF has hosted such acclaimed authors as Eleanor Catton, Ian McEwan, J.M. Coetzee and Pico Iyer among others. This year’s list, too, doesn’t fail to impress, with names like Alan Hollinghurst, Paul Beatty, Arunava Sinha, Anne Waldman and David Hare high on the event’s billing.
At the JLF, it’s literature during the day, and music during the night. The evening music performances, hosted at the Clarks Amer hotel, are an integral part of the JLF experience. Soulful renditions of popular tunes, as well as original compositions are presented at this venue by top musicians. On Thursday evening, the stage at the Clarks Amer hosted ensembles like Rajasthan Josh and Neeraj Arya’s Kabir Café. Both these acts put up a memorable performance, mesmerising the audiences with their folk tunes.
A business segment of the JLF, Jaipur Bookmark also drew a decent crowd. Various publishers, literary agents, translation agencies and writers met here to carry out business deals and listen to speakers from across the world. This year’s event attracted delegations from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, France and Norway along with key Indian language publishers. The First-Book Club, a new writer’s mentorship programme, also took place here. Aspiring authors were given an opportunity of special one-on-one sessions with industry professionals as part of this event. The experts shared their rich experience and expertise with the participants. A session on copyright laws was also held, along with a short session on literary exchange taking the works by Mahasweta Devi and Rabindranath Tagore as case studies.
But the best is yet to come. The best talks, readings and debates are lined up for the final two days of the JLF, which is set to conclude on 23 January . The crowds, too, are expected to thicken. If the post-session book-signing queues are anything to go by, we are set for another well-attended edition of the JLF, an event that fully deserves the title of the biggest literary festival on earth.