The Entrance Gate of Jaipur Literature Festival 2011
It was my first brush with such a huge number of authors at one place, all coming together to make the occasion all the more happening. Yes, it was at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2011 that went on from 21 to 25 January. As we headed towards the venue of the festival, that is, the Diggi Palace, a strange thought came to my mind. The city did not bear a festival look inspite of such celebrated festival happening there. It was only when we neared the official venue that we could spot the colourful banners at the entrance. In my five days stay there, I spotted just small signboards put up by the sponsors outside a few shops. But let me add here that it was not at all a let down. After all, literature has still not become a celebrity, although a few authors have tried to earn name and fame by glamorizing their public image.
There was food enough for thinking minds that have a literary bent of mind. There were all, right from veterans like Ruskin Bond and Vikram Seth; Nobel Laureates like Orhan Pamuk and J.M. Coetzee; modern writers like Jaishree Misra and Abha Dawesar; and new entrants like Jai Arjun Singh. The only thing is that the list was not as small as it might seem. It was a long one rather so couldn’t be given as such in a few sentences here.
Apart from the literature being served on a platter, there were a quite a few things that were attractive enough to catch your fancy at the very first glance. Here are a few glimpses of the temptations that were laid out well to catch you unguarded.
A display of the wide variety of products at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2011
Finally to add, I would like to mention, the experiences I gained were so wide that it would not be possible for me to sum up all in just one post. I’ll be writing a series of posts on the highlights of the Festival, about major authors, their books, the discussions and also a few exclusive interviews that I conducted.
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