In a nutshell, I was both hugely disappointed, and pleasantly surprised by the fest. The JLF (which was held from 21-25 January this year) changed the way I will read books, shop for them, and think about authors. But, I do wish that there had been more space, more time between events to chat with readers, and more room given to the publishers and editors.

I found out more about the ‘reading culture’ of the day and age we live in than would have been possible by a walk through some of our best, or unknown bookstores.

Part I: Jaipur Literature Festival – Overview

First, the venue. Diggi Palace is where the festival has been held since the start. I did not get to see the palace, the sessions are held in the lawns and in the durbar hall. From what I have heard from JLF veterans the festival has been growing exponentially, and very soon the crowds will become unmanageable. I saw evidence of this on all the days I was there, except funnily enough, on the last day of the festival. On the first three days there was barely standing room in the most of the venues. So, if you are planning to go for the festival next year, carefully plan which sessions you want to attend, and get to the venue way before time. If you can’t get in, stand outside the tent and listen in. The acoustics are fine. That’s what I had to do sometimes.

Sessions: There is something happening in all of the four venues all the time. Starting from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m there are book readings, panel discussions, and interactions with the audience. After 6 p.m. the music performances begin.

Of the many sessions I attended, the ones I really appreciated were the ones in which the publishers got to interact with the authors and the audience. For me, those sessions were full of valuable knowledge. In my opinion, the book reading sessions could have been better utilised by having the author talk about his/her writing experience rather than simply reading from his/her book. But well, in a way, the book reading sessions helped me get acquainted with authors I had not read.

The speaker-audience connect:

What I really liked about the JLF was the egaliatarian-ness of it. Entry is free and you could find yourself sitting next to the author of your favourite series, or a lady who has read every single word ever written about Jane Austen, or a young boy who can demand from Roddy Doyle, ‘Why do you have so many dogs in your books?’.  For me, the most important event at the Lit Fest was where I got to listen to Alexander McCall Smith and asked him to sign my copies of his books. I even got to speak with him for 4 minutes 35 seconds!

And there were so many well-read people there! At the risk of sounding bookist, I was amazed at the wide variety of readers we have in this country (and the world). I should get out of Mumbai more often! There were readers who could converse with ease on esoteric subjects with authors who write mighty tomes on the subject, and there were intelligent conversations I overheard during tea and dinner between people who seemed to have been reading their way through life! There were several schoolchildren there as well, and they picked up an eclectic choice of books from the only bookstore at the venue. Large groups of them would flit from one venue to another, but I was kinda happy that most of them didn’t seem like they were hating the festival or were being forced to attend.

The Rest of It: While I wasn’t rushing from one venue to another, armed with my notebook and warm woolies, I was perenially looking for a place to sit and gather my thoughts. Because of the packed schedule I was unable to sit for several sessions that seemed to be more important than the one I had attended. So my advice, go with friends and split up. They have uploaded videos of some of the sessions, but not of quite a few that I had missed. Take notes, after you attend the fourth session of the third day, you start forgetting who said what and if you had heard this author say this about that author or vice versa. Move around during tea and dinner time. Dinner is served only to paid delegates, speakers, organisers and members of the press, there aren’t too many eateries around Diggi. It will be next to impossible to chat someone up at the venue because you just don’t have the time. 

Part II: Speakers

I will start with Devdutt Pattanaik. Unfortunately, I did not get to attend the session in which he was the speaker, but managed to listen in on the session where he was the moderator (the speaker was Roberto Calasso). And I was blown away by the exactness of his language. The precise, neat, complete way in which he can explain some of the most complex subjects of mythology. You really must read his works.

And Alexander McCall Smith. He is the real real reason I went to Jaipur, to be honest. I wasn’t thinking about the rest of the festival. Did you know that he writes at least 5000-6000 words a day, and he nearly never rewrites his first draft! Well! No wonder he manages to write so many books a year, and more power to him!

Geoff Dyer: Witty! I really liked listening to him talk about Travel Writing, and I hear that he is writing another book, this time based on his travels in the south of India.

Brigid Keenan: How had I ever missed hearing about her? She is also a travel writer. A hilariously reluctant travel writer. Scared of every form of transport, convinced that the vehicle or the driver is totally dangerous. I recommend her book ‘Diplomatic Baggage’ for those who want a different kind of travel writer to read.

Claire Tomalin: A diligent researcher I have begun to idolise. She has delved into the lives of so many literary greats (Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens’ mistress) and presented really important details about their writing and personal lives that she has managed to unearth.

Mridula Koshy: I picked up ‘If It Is Sweet’, a month ago and wasn’t able to take it in more than a page at a time, but that’s because the images she conjures with her words tend to stay on in my mind long after the the last words on the page have played out. I heard her speak about the art and the importance of short stories and I realised that this is a woman who can really make words do her bidding. She weaves her thoughts into words beautifully.

Nilanjana Roy: She was the moderator for quite a few sessions, and I ended up attending those sessions for her, even if I did not know the speakers on the panel. I loved the way she would reign authors and the audience in, finding similarities between what was said and what was once written by someone, adding depth and value to what the authors were saying.

Lord Meghnad Desai: I had read his columns in newspapers and expected someone who would always be way too serious for me. How wrong I was! I was entertained immensely by listening to his thoughts about Sita, and the kind of wife she was. I am preparing to wade into the fat tome he has written about Indian history.

Michael Frayn: An author I found in BCL one June many years ago, and in whose book I found some important advice which I cannot share in a public forum such as this. He is the author of the hugely successful play ‘Noises Off’ which I would have loved to see.

There were many, many more authors I would have loved to write in detail about, and I will. Soon as I get my thoughts together and read their books. If you could share with me your experience reading the works of any of these authors, do write in.

Oh yes, one thing did strike me as very odd. The Tehelka Readership Survey, the results of which were published to coincide with the festival. It got it all wrong, about everything. Sample size: 1152 people. Nine cities. And what they found was that Delhi and Mumbai have the lowert book budget, that women make up only 15% of the reading public (in English), and that not a single reader surveyed in Chandigarh or Delhi read for pleasure. The findings of this survey were unanimously slammed by Ravi Singh (Penguin India), Urvashi Bhutalia (Zubaan), Amitava Kumar (author) and V. K. Karthika (Harper Colins). And I am glad they slammed it in no uncertain terms. A sample size that small doesn’t make sense at all!

Lisbeth Salander intrigues me. I have never ever read anything like her before.

She is quiet when she should speak, she is violent when it is least expected, she refuses warmth and affection, she can focus like as if she is inhuman, she is super independent, brainy, and practical, and she is detached to the point of being unalive. Stieg Larrson has created an unforgettable anti-heroine in Lisbeth. I can never understand what she will do next.

A little history: Larrson was a journalist, and from what I can see in his books, he was an excellent researcher. He had delivered three manuscripts to his publisher, and died before the first one was published. They say that there is a fourth book, to the Millennium series, but it is unfinished.

So, the books in the Millennium series are:
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (you must start with this one, but it is VERY gruesome)
The Girl Who Played With Fire (less violent when compared to the first one)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (the fattest fattest one in the series, and according to me, ties up all loose ends)

It is so rare for an author to be able to sustain interest in a series of books that have the same characters. But, I was hooked from the first time I heard about this tattooed, bisexual, violent, petite, anti-social, brilliant woman (who rides a Harley Davidson in the second book, good lord!).

I tend to gush about Lisbeth, I think I may like her… a lot.

Coming back to the book, I wonder how the book is in the original Swedish, has anything been lost in translation? There are no literary flourishes in the book. The language is simple, to the point, and journalistic. The other characters, especially the journalist Mikael Blomkvist (very well drawn-out character), and his colleague and lover Erica Berger are very interesting too. The story goes back years, and there is lot of information about the war, the secret police and computer-stuff (I can’t reveal much about this).

A word of warning to those who are thinking about picking up these books: there are gory descriptions of violence, especially violent acts directed towards women. Trust me, I can’t stomach reading about a slap, so it is very strange that I read each word in these books, some of the rape scenes are so unflinchingly described. All the sadists, rapists, violent b*******… you get the idea. But, what kept me reading is how Salander gets out of the elaborate plot to get her locked away, and how she manages to help others, sometimes grudgingly.

Try reading the first one, and then you won’t want to stop. Unfortunately, for those who are surprised at finding how much they liked the books, there won’t be any more. There might be movies, which I am sure I won’t see, but there won’t be more Salander. Pity.

I read ‘Five Point Someone’ by Chetan Bhagat in early December and saw ‘3 Idiots’ yesterday. So, it’s fair to say that the book is still fresh in my mind. Now, I hear that Chetan Bhagat is upset about not getting enough credit for the story of the movie. Read what he has to say here, A Book, a film and the truth.
Also, Livemint reports, “While Bhagat believes that around 70% of the film is based on his book, the makers of the film have previously said that only 2-5% of it is based on the book and that it was like an original script after the changes….“My family sat in the theatre shocked, as sequence after sequence came from the book. 2-5% means three-six minutes, and I had told my family to look for the few FPS (Five Point Someone) moments and note them. However, there were so many that it became impossible to keep track. The plot line was same—people meet at ragging, the first class with definition of machine, the friends separate… From Alok (Raju) jumping to stealing the papers and calling out from Cherian’s (Virus’) office—the book came alive on screen”….”

I am not aware of all the facts. But, considering that this was a big-budget film, and featured one of the country’s biggest stars, imagine the process of marketing this film, and the process of scriptwriting… One would expect that, but naturally, lots of people would step on the author’s toes. And yet, I wonder….

See, I edit books. So I am acquainted with the pain and exhilaration an author feels watching his/her book come to life while he/she is writing it, and getting it edited, and watching it go off to the printers.

I watched the movie yesterday. The second half of the movie does not feature episodes from the book, BUT, it is a natural progression of what the characters might have done. The characters are based on the book. The first half features several key episodes from the book, and tells it like it is in the book. So, in my opinion, what the filmmakers have done is what fan fiction writers do with J.R.R. Tolkein and J. K. Rowling’s books. Expand on it, take the characters and watch them do new things. The credit must go to the author for the story. The script is another thing. I have seen movies based on books, and the author gets obvious credit, as does the scriptwriter. But denying the author’s contribution, that is just mean. And makes the filmmakers look like the villains, I hope they realise that.

By Alexander McCall Smith

… is ‘La’s Orchestra Saves the world’ by Alexander McCall Smith.
I have decided to start the new year on a comfortable note. Words that soothe me, pages that rustle softly as I turn them, characters I get to know as well as I know myself, and the certain knowledge that this love is not a weak feeling.
I went book shopping today (and yesterday) and picked up so many! I will be reviewing them all soon, and I hope to hear from you as well. Thanks to the Joy of Giving Week, during which I met several well-read readers, I found many authors I have grown to like.
Here’s to a good year, a fervent desire that the right words come to us easily when we want them the most, and a year filled with good books, as comfortable as a shaft of sunlight on the floor of a quiet library.
So, which book is taking you into the new year?

First up, APOLOGY. For all those who haven’t got the book you so rightfully won, there’s been a delay with the courier, I promise you they will be with you soon :/ I hate delays myself so I know how angry you must be feeling. A thousand apologies.

Second apology, I haven’t been updating the site. My computer broke down (I know! Sounds lame, I know :/) and I couldn’t log onto the blog admin from the laptop.

ANYWAY! Here we are, a fresh month stretching ahead of us and lots of books to read through it. And here is the shocking news: the British Council Library in Mumbai is moving to a new location. And it will take me a bus and two trains to get there. Suddenly nothing seems worth all that effort. Although the Library is offering home delivery (did they read our comments???) I have a sinking feeling they will not deliver books beyond Mumbai city-limits and I live a lightyear away from city limits. So I am not very happy with this news.

Julian Barnes (1982)

And now to the book I am reading. A very interesting read called Before She Met Me, by Julian Barnes (first published in 1982). I picked up this relic in BCL. It is a very slim read – 151 pages, but by golly this guy can write alright!The book is about a rather silly man, a historian, who leaves his wife for a woman who has spark and spunk, and several ex-boyfriends.  So, historian that he is, he gets rather obsessed with her past, and since she was a very small-time actress she does have some past that isn’t worth talking about. Sounds sordid, but it isn’t, the book is refreshing and engrossing, offering the reader a deep look into the mind of a person jealous and possessive beyond reason. I find myself smiling (and maybe even nodding my head) at the way he describes how much he longs for his new wife. It is heart-numbingly peculiar and to tell you the truth — disgusting — there is no other word for it. But what I am marvelling at is not this jealous husband, but the words Julian Barnes uses to bring to life this crazy fellow. A sample, this is Graham, the historian, telling his crazy writer friend (’frank but not honest’) about what he feels about his new wife:

“I always clear the table after dinner. I go through the kitchen, and scrape my plate off into the kitchen bin, and then I suddenly find myself eating whatever she’s left on hers. Often, you know, it isn’t anything particuarly nice — bits of fat and discoloured vegetables and sausage gristle — but I just scoff it. And then I go back and sit down opposite her, and I find myself thinking about our stomachs, about how whatever I have just eaten might easily have been inside her…. what an odd moment it must have been for that food…. And that sort of makes me feel closer to Ann…”

Maybe I have typed in the wrong passage and this may have put you off the book, but I would still urge you to read it for the way the writer explores the mind of an ordinary man struck with a powerful emotion.
There, that’s my job done What are you reading? Anyone participating in Nanowrimo this year?

So you can tell that I am hurting from my latest read, a book of short stories. It is called The Best of Best Short Stories: 1985-1995, edited by Giles Gordon and David Hughes.  This is the first time in my reading experience that I have loved each of the stories in a compilation. There are stories by Margaret Atwood, Shena Mackay, Janette Turner Hospital, Edna O’Brien, Frederic Raphael, some names are known, some are pleasantly friendly discoveries. They are all extraordinary stories! After each page I wanted to… write! That spark  is rarely ignited, and when it is I am like a raging river, or so I like to think.

Anyway, so the problem is that the book is over. I read the stories in any random order and now I find that I have read them all.

And I am very upset, I feel lonely. How could the book leave me now?  All those afternoons we spent together over lunch. I need to hunt down the next ‘Best…’ of course, but that isn’t proving too easy. The void this book has left is huge, and it will take a lot of books to soothe me now. I need something well-written that will teach, inspire, humour me. I am a demanding reader.

Which brings me to the fact that reading is rarely appreciated. All those pages, all those hours you should have been working, and what do you have to show? No National Reader Awards! No free library (updated every day!) at the end of the rainbow? At the most you get a nod of understanding from the fellow reader across the book, maybe a bookseller who gives you a good price, a friend who gives you a book you wanted, a sudden find in a bookstore, something you have been looking for for a long time, and you think the book angels are giving you an early gift.

But other than all this? Nothing. Do your favourite authors drop by for tea and smile conspirationally with you, give you a tip or two on thinking up a good plot? Alas, no. We readers are a neglected lot.  Where are the free books, the free gadgets, the ‘just ask and you shall have’ dinner dates with the galaxy of super authors?

So, I am just going to thank you. For reading. For reading this blog post, books, the newspaper, everything, anything. You, my dear reader, are a good reader.

So my question, how would you like to be thanked? Really thanked?

I am not a gadget person. I only use what I need and do not keep in touch with the latest gizmos and their innumerable updates.

Except when it comes to e-readers. So, I bit my lip and read the article announcing the impending launch of the Kindle in India on Oct 18. Damn, just when I was saving my money for my retirement home. So the new e-reader brought out by Mama Amazon is already a bad boy in the e-reader market. With the considerable clout that Mama Amazon wields, the Kindle is not leveling the playground, it purchased it lock, stock and barrel and turned it upside down and makes all the rules. So, personally, since I don’t like bullies, I would settle for the underdog Sony Reader, the Iliad, or somesuch, but they seem to be taking an awful lot of time deciding what they want to do or if they want to do it in my corner of the world. Meethil, in his article Rekindle Reading with the Kindle has all the need-to-know information covered up tight, so I am not going there. Dammit that man has a very well thought out argument for e-readers. Especially that part where he says the publishing industry will be influenced by e-readers and that paperbacks will become cheaper.

This gadget has brought me to my knees. I know I don’t like it, I know I won’t be very careful with it, but dammit it will save me money and it will keep me occupied during my long commutes to and from work and while I visit my farflung relatives. I am still pretty confused about what I am doing. Especially since we have already discussed e-readers. I have already agreed with you about the ‘unnecessity’ of e-readers, and that e-readers may be as environmentally harmful as they say books are. So, I am still mulling over this one.

But, I think I will be buying it, but only as a backup library. I am pretty sure that paper is not going out of fashion any time during my life. I have heard several arguments for and against e-readers, the most important, maybe the only argument that matters is that it replaces the reading exprience and that experience is sacrosanct. It’s in our DNA you don’t mess with the way we read. I agree. So why would I buy the Kindle? 4 reasons:
1. Rs 450. For new books that are usually in the 600-800 range, this is a steal.
2. Portability: I have a bad back and can’t carry heavy loads, but I have extremely long commutes (3 hours one way) this will help me utilise my time
3. New books. For someone who doesn’t have a library close to home, I spend an awful lot of time making up lists of books I want to have, and then I wait for a sale to come my way, and comb my way through each book, list in hand, finding what I came for. With an e-reader, i don’t have to do that. New books, magazines and newspapers are at my beck and call.
4. Anti-piracy: I am hoping that reading becomes a more honest habit. With cheaper versions available, I am hoping people don’t buy cheap photocopied versions from the footpath seller. A second-hand book is ok, but a cheap paper, cheap ink photocopy is a kick in the author’s sometimes painfully unsatisfied tummy.

It will take at least a year for the e-reader to make practical sense in India. I will continue to buy my books the traditional way (read, second-hand, or on sale) for Rs 10-250. But for some strange reason I am hesistant about missing this bandwagon. I am not sure I should let this Kindle go.

I am sure e-readers make the act of buying and reading books easier. the only thing that worries me is if i am being disloyal to books if I do this. I know that I will a) be reading more, b) not be wasting my money if I buy an ‘experiment’, because I read the first chapter for free, c) get books as and when I want them (without waiting for a convenient day) and without needing to wait for the price to fall.

Will go and stand in the crowd and crane my neck to find anything that tips the balance :/

(Don’t worry, no spoilers here)

So, I just finished reading two Dan Browns (Deception Point, and The Lost Symbol). It took me three days, and I read while I ate, while I listened to my sister on the phone, in the bus, while making breakfast.. you get the idea.
Now, the reason why I mention this is not because I want to show you how crazy I am about reading, but to point out that I couldn’t keep the book down.

And it is not because Dan Brown is a good writer. This bears repeating, Dan Brown is not a good writer… when it comes to novels. The thing is… the information he gives, about spiritualism, the ancient texts, symbolism and history — that’s what keeps me reading, each word. But, the problem is, his plots seem to be hastily contrived, made to order to fit the information and the characters seem amazingly stereotypical.

I would prefer if Brown wrote books on symbolism, without having to write about car chases and sudden knocking on the door. All that is very annoying. Reading a Dan Brown novel feels like reading a screenplay and this author loves chapters, a book of 500 pages and more than 100 chapters?! Nah! I kept rolling my eyes after each twist in the story.

Very few authors can make history come alive the way Brown can, I think his books are interesting, but with all the cliffhanger-bits taken out.

Have you read the latest Brown? (Take care don’t give the plot away). Incidentally, can you recommend authors who can make history sound interesting? I am especially interested in Indian history (already read William Dalrymple and John Keay).

Does an author’s work end when the last word on the page is written, and when the last book is signed in a store full of readers?
I think not. Powerful words written by a good author can change your whole life, pick you out of a foul mood, help you make that one important decision, give you strength, make you happy, amuse you, taunt you, bring on the tears, defy your beliefs and show you how you can be the person you are.

And then there are authors whose very lives are inspiring. Important people whose words live beyond the page, whose actions affect the way we see the world.

Sir Terry Pratchett is a hugely popular author. And several people here have written to say that he is their favourite author. He is surely my favourite author, for his books are always the right book at the right time, no matter when you read them. In fact I was thinking about his books when I wrote those words in the first paragraph.

He has written many books, and I especially love the Discworld Series. I love the way he writes, the images shoot at me, faster than I can think. The witty jokes, the strong characters, the wily rascals and the all too real, all too human people/ and orangutan/ and Conan/ and Talking Cat/ and so on… Pratchett showed me that words can have fun. A writer can make words work hard. Language is not boring, you do not have to be afraid to write down what you are thinking, the way you are thinking them.

Sir Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. I was reading Making Money when I wondered why there weren’t so many jokes as before, I was halfway through Nation (and grumbling about the book not being funny at all) when I found out that he has this disease which will take away his memories. And make it impossible to write the same way again. For a reader this is seriously sad news.

But, he is coming out with more books (Unseen Academicals releases on Oct 6). He hasn’t stopped writing. I am surprised that I thought he would. But the man who wrote Granny Weatherwax, Commander Vimes and Tiffany would fight anything. For me, this is where life looks up and sees a giant and feels humble. This is what an author does. Writes. Despite.

It is too painful to contemplate what will happen next. I feel sorry, I feel incredibly helpless. His sharp mind? My favourite author? Did it have to be this way? At the moment I feel angry, upset that there is no cure for this disease that affects so many people, in such dark ways. Pratchett continues to channelise his anger and uses his name and his writing to bring attention to Alzheimer’s, he is also speaking out about why increasing funds for researching dementia etc will help people. He is, by my reckoning, a damn good author, in more ways than one.

Which is why, his books are the Super Nice Book At The End Of The Week. Which is the best Pratchett book you have read yet? For those who haven’t read Pratchett, what do you think of humorous fantasy fiction which is witty, intelligent and offers a deep insight into contemporary society. Do write in, I am hoping to send the link to this post to Pratchett. I said, hoping

I will be announcing the winners of the Super Nice Book At The End Of The Week later today. It has been an incredibly satisfying week. I connected with several really avid readers and I hope to meet many more. Although this giveaway is over, I will announcing more very soon, so please do fill up your contact details here, so I may send you updates.

May you never run out of good books