Namita Bhandare on the Jaipur Literature Festival. An Asian Window exclusive.
The big buzz at the Jaipur Literature Festival is the confirmed participation of Fatima Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto’s niece who is scheduled to fly in on January 24 and will stay on until January 26.
The daughter of Benazir’s murdered brother, Murtaza, 25-year-old Fatima is a columnist who was bitterly opposed to her aunt. Her farewell to her aunt published in The News, however, looked back without anger.
I will most likely be in Jaipur for the third installment of the Lit Fest. I was there last year when the event rocked with Salman Rushdie (pre-divorce), Kiran Desai, William Dalrymple and a bunch of other literary stars. Check out the official website for details here
If you are going to be in Jaipur, don’t miss the festival, the venue for which is the utterly charming Diggi Palace from January 23 to 27. Confirmed participants include Gore Vidal, America’s most eminent man of letters who will be interviewed by NDTV’s Barkha Dutt on January 26 and will be speak with William Dalrymple on Sunday, January 27. That sounds a bit confusing, doesn’t it? Will he appear in two forums? Is Barkha’s interview going to be public (she did a Q&A last year with Salman Rushdie)?
The other big star, Ian McEwan, meanwhile, will be interviewed by the other big TV star, Sagarika Ghose on Friday, January 25. Watch out for fireworks when two of India’s biggest women TV anchors from rival channels come head-t0-head with the two big ticket literary stars at the fest. May the best (wo)man win!
There’s a lot more lined up — hats off to the organisers for putting together such a star-studded event. Nayantara Sehgal speaks to Namita Gokhale on day one. Film-star Dev Anand speaks to the charming poet, Tishani Doshi. And graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee will be chatting with Indrajit Hazra, journalist and published novelist who has quite a fan following in his own right.
There’s a bit of an old and new mix: Pavan Verma with Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi (not together though). All in all, a good event that captures some of India’s most energetic, emerging voices in literature.
By the way, is it my imagination: but last year I seem to have remembered that the whole fest was open to all. This year, there seem to be quite a few ‘by invitation only’ events: the premiere of McEwan’s Atonement (the author will be present), a literary lunch — whatever that means — hosted by Ritu Dalmia of Diva and a Harper Collins literary launch (no information on what or who).
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Yes, Fatima is the only hope for Pakistan from Bhutto family- she is the real Bhutto by blood and intellect. I am a regular reader of her articles and it’s hard to believe that she can have this oservation and intellect to write these articles in a very young age. Her writings are based on very facts and concern of the welfare of masses is remarkable. But before she walks in to the real field of politics, she has a lot of chalenges to face. Intellectual like Dr. Mubasher Hasan could be a very dependable guide but do not have enogh votes which counts in democracy and the people who have votes are not dependable at all. So please Fatima, take care of yourself first and then politics. We do not want to lose you for nothing. You can lead but lead the nation carefully and wisely. All the best, An unknown founder of PPP and a former PRO, Iranian Embassy, Saudi Arabia.email.piplaw@hotmail.com
thanks for giving news
but also give venue detail and duration hours
thanks
From Namita:
Om Singh, you are referring to a one year old post. Fatima Bhutto came to the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2008. For more details and programmes of this year’s festival you can click on: http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/
Thanks for writing in.