It was more than just a conversation about books. For three days, The Hindu Lit For Life in Chennai cast a literary spell over 2000 people at every session, divided across two venues. Packed audiences listened, engaged and conversed with writers, thinkers, directors, dancers, musicians, chefs, poets, politicians, publishers, artists and actors… Thought was provoked; boundaries were pushed; a recent threat to freedom of expression thoroughly condemned.
Freedom of speech was at the heart of this year’s Lit for Life, said Dr. Nirmala Lakshman — Curator of the festival and Director, The Hindu Group of Publications — at the inauguration. “The value of books lies beyond commerce,” she said, adding that there was a pressing need to protect the idea of India, celebrate diversity, and look at old ideas in new ways.
“It is unusual for a festival to adopt a statement, but very appropriate,” said N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi and Sons Ltd, as he placed on record the resolution passed at the festival in support of Tamil writer and teacher, Perumal Murugan, whose book Mathorubagam was at the centre of a recent controversy. “Literature and society become poorer every time the forces of intimidation and censorship are allowed to prevail against the forces of creative utterance,” the resolution read, and called upon “State and Central authorities, political parties, and civil society to respect and protect freedom of expression as an inalienable fundamental right.”
Very fittingly, the very first session married the reader and the writer, with a memorable quote by Eleanor Catton, the youngest Booker prize-winning author: “Reading is 90 per cent of the job of a writer’s life.” She put a different spin on the timelessness of books, calling it a “peculiar experience“ that while writers grow old, books don’t; and reading one’s old work then becomes akin to reading a love-letter to someone you no longer love!
The festival quickly moved to a brisk condemnation of the “intimidation and bullying that’s going on”. “Speak up and be counted,” said Nayantara Sahgal, award-winning writer and political commentator. In conversation with journalist Geeta Doctor and publisher-writer Ritu Menon, Sahgal asked, when a million people march in France against the savage attacks, why can’t we too do it?
The audience at The Hindu Pavillion, for a session titled ‘Free Speech in Peril’ seemed inclined to do so. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, historian, writer and translator, spoke movingly of Perumal Murugan’s “literary suicide note”. Justice K. Chandru, lamented that the people who claimed the book was offensive, ironically, have never even read the book! Sashi Kumar, chairman, Asian College of Journalism, said it is deplorable that the state is abetting this process of banishing a writer. And the time has come, N. Ram said, not to be conservative or timid in our defence of free speech.
As if to drive home how unbearably common violence can be for some, the panel on ‘Feminine Form: Site of Violence’ raised important questions on the status of women. Quoting from judgments, books and popular cinema, Justice Prabha Sridevan said women are treated like a “territory” to be conquered, and rape is simply dismissed as “she asked for it”. Sharing the stage with journalist and researcher Ramesh Gopalakrishnan and writer Ammu Joseph, U. Vasuki, national vice-president AIDWA, asked, “Is there a completely rape-resistant dress?” When there’s a bid to lodge a police complaint, the inevitable question is “if this goes out, who will marry your daughter?” This, even if the victim is just three years old.
Free speech was back in the picture in the session on ‘Good Governance’. Sanjaya Baru, author of The Accidental Prime Minister , said he was here because The Hindu , in an editorial, had defended his right to write a book. The panel — including journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, former CAG Vinod Rai and Sashi Kumar — vigorously and engagingly debated on leaders and governments and the role of media. The media is a “kangaroo court”, Sardesai said, and looked for “heroes and villains”, while remaining uninterested in the process of governance!
Governance was also the focus of author Jung Chang’s beautifully illustrated talk on ‘The Birth of Modern China’. Charming the audience with a reference to her outfit (similar to what was worn a century ago) and moving them with a glimpse of her grandmother’s shoe (smaller than a man’s palm because of the practice of binding feet), Chang spoke about growing up in a regime that censored and outlawed everything, including a 16-year-old’s first attempt at writing (the toilet received the first and only copy!).
India’s neighbours were the focus of another session. Salil Tripathi, Samanth Subramanian and Nirupama Subramanian spoke of wars and war-crimes and deaths, but Samanth Subramanian also talked about what it meant to be a Tamil journalist in Sri Lanka. “Everybody looked at you with suspicion,” he quipped.
The festival — whose textures and tones were put together by programme director Rachna Singh Davidar, and programme consultant Prasanna Ramaswamy — roped in not just words, memories and images, but also music, theatre, dance, religion, cinema, food and photography. So bestselling author Chetan Bhagat chatted with Chennai theatre personality Karthik Kumar; Prince Rama Varma and T.V. Gopalakrishnan punctuated their session with humour and humility; and chefs Aditya Bal, Kunal Kapur and Manu Chandra spoke fondly, with Shonali Muthalaly, about what shaped their food memories.
The searing introspections of musician T.M. Krishna and photo-artist Dayanita Singh took the audience through their search for a voice in their respective art forms and censorship of that voice. If the voice is crushed, when the offering is trampled upon, what do you do?, asked Dayanita. Krishna’s reply: Why wait for censorship to respond? Both agreed that the response should be to keep talking!
A session on ‘The Deeper Truth of Novels’ also touched upon self-censorship. Talking to publisher and author David Davidar, Eleanor Catton and Irwin Allan Sealy, Damon Galgut commented that the novel showed the way the world is, not what it should be. And raised an important question in the audience’s mind: if you’re fighting the novel, as in the case of Mathorubagam, aren’t we simply fighting ourselves?
In the evocatively titled ‘This Land, Our Country’, Sashi Kumar, introduced senior journalist P. Sainath as someone who represents ‘a journalism in short supply in the Indian context’. In a session, that combined videos and still-photos, that had the audience frequently applauding, Sainath (founder-editor of the recently launched digital platform People’s Archive of Rural India) spoke about the archive creating a space and voice for 833 million rural Indians, and how it is “attracting content from highly skilled professional journalists, because much of it does not fly in their channels or papers”.
Pushing boundaries in Tamil cinema was engagingly discussed by actor R. Rohini, directors Vasanthabalan and Vetrimaran, and Professor A. Ramaswamy. Cinema made a comeback in ‘Starlight’, a discussion between actors Tisca Chopra, Nimrat Kaur and filmmaker Latha Menon.
“Every time I open my laptop, I see a parallel universe,” said Amish Tripathi, India’s highest-selling author, in a conversation with film critic Baradwaj Rangan. Tripathi spoke charmingly about his tough journey as a writer, dealing with fame, the secret of writing (“music and cream biscuits”) and won over the audience when he called Rajinikanth a rock star. From fiction, the talk turned inwards to memoirs. Justice Leila Seth (with T.M.Krishna, Irwin Allan Sealy, and V.K. Karthika) delighted the audience with her take on writing with honesty. When you are older, she said, it is easier to tell the truth; you don’t care about other people’s opinions!
The last day began with a tribute to the late U.R. Ananthamurthy, whom Professor Shiv Visvanathan endearingly referred to as “India’s greatest gossip”, and a man who celebrated diversity. Writer and critic, Professor N. Manu Chakravarthy recalled him throwing challenges to the notions of Sanskritisation. Ananthamurthy opposed fundamentalist forces who crushed the kind of Hindusim he sought to uphold, said poet and writer K. Satchidanandan.
It was a crushing of women’s voices in conservative societies that was discussed next by Justice Leila Seth and Jung Chang, in a conversation with Vaishna Roy. In response to Roy’s question about why, even in societies with powerful women leaders, (power) did not percolate, Leila Seth replied that for a women to be treated as equal, she has to be ‘equal plus’. In the session on powerful people — and their lives — Jonathan Gil Harris (with Rajmohan Gandhi and Charles Allen) rightly maintained that we are fascinated by the lives of powerful people. “The biographies of less famous people end up as novels,” Gandhi added.
From words, the dialogue moved to print, and the democratisation of photography Presenting ‘The Book on The Wall’, Dayanita Singh had the audience gasping — while seven cameras were trained on her — as she presented her fabulous works, which, she remarked, did not need to be ‘framed on the wall to be considered contemporary art’.
Discussing ‘Images and Imagery of Memory’ with dancer Alarmel Vallu and journalist Sushila Ravindranath, director and playwright Singeetham Srinivasa Rao said — in support of the millions of digital filmmakers whose work he finds interesting and important — “If you don’t agree with them, keep quiet; but don’t interfere with their work.” Egyptian political commentator and novelist Ahdaf Soueif said she too was keen to carve a space “for a particular kind of voice”, which was fast closing down. She hoped to reach young people unfairly thrown in prison through newspapers (the only reading material allowed inside) with translated instalments of her book.
From West Asia, the conversation flowed east with author Aatish Taseer, in conversation with cultural activist Ranvir Shah, saying that his desire for Sanskrit stemmed from a very simple wish: “to hear a voice from classical India”. And before the evening concluded with a performance, there were ‘Stories from Madras’, entertainingly told by historians and writers V. Sriram and A.R. Venkatachalapathy.
Presenting The Hindu Prize 2014 to Ashok Srinivasan for The Book of Common Signs , Justice Leila Seth said she hoped the freedom of expression is alive forever. It was a call that rang loud and clear in a festival that was a true celebration of words. And the courage to stand up for them.
Title sponsor: Aircel; Powered by: Hindustan University; Associate Sponsor: VBJ; Travel Logistics Partner: NTL; Bookstore Partner: Starmark; Hospitality Partner: Taj Coromandel
FITTING FINALE
Lotus Leaves, Water Words: A Reading Performance, directed by Prasanna Ramaswamy, elegantly and movingly traced the 2000-year-old story of water, with texts and passages in three languages, and included several forms of story-telling (dance, drama, poetry, prose, song and satire). The play was staged on a near-empty space, and the only props, besides nine plastic chairs and two umbrellas, were the actors’ voices, their hands, and fluid movements; exquisite lighting and music (guitar and drums) helped bring to life the ecstasies and the agonies of water — when it pours in rain, and when it’s exhausted by exploitation. Fiery in parts and fun in others, the play was ably performed by P.C. Ramakrishna, Anita Ratnam, R. Rohini, Sushila Ravindranath, Nellai Manikandan, Niran Vicktor Benjhamin, Anandh Kumar and Revathy Kumar — and a cameo appearance by Nirmala Lakshman. It was a beautiful finale to the three-day festival.
IN THE SIDELINES
In her translation workshop on ' Word Worlds' , Mini Krishnan, Editor – Translations at Oxford University Press, ran 28 slides covering the diversity of Indian languages, famous translations, fraudulent but successful ones, theories from the 9th, 13th and 20th centuries, and circulated ten handouts to each of the 33 participants.While she led the group through the exercises, Krishnan said she was pleasantly surprised at the tenacity of debut translators, and the insight of many who were looking critically at literary passages for the first time. The group had Tamil, Hindi,Telugu, Kannada,Bengali, Malayalam and Sanskrit in the ‘class’ so the energy of multi-lingual India was on display.The translators also did their own rendering of a 150 words (non-fiction).
Film critic and Senior Deputy Editor at The Hindu, Baradwaj Rangan’s workshop on film appreciation, ‘Die, Author, Die’ , the participants were first asked to observe a painting, a poem and music. Once that foundation (that translated to the elements of cinema: the cinematography, the writing and the music) was laid, they watched clips from The Godfather, The Searchers, Yuddham Sei, and spoke about personal interpretation of films.The young and enthusiastic audience, Rangan said, interacted and participated, and didn’t seem to mind that the session ran over by an hour. In the workshop on Art Appreciation ‘Writing on the arts’ , conceptualised and moderated by curator Sharan Apparao, eminent art writers, critics and researchers gave the participants an overview of writing, researching, marketing arts. They also stressed on the need to keep art writing simple, develop the right attitude towards art (love, passion and pride), researching the subject well, and, importantly, not treat it as a subject that can be relegated to the junior most reporter! Panellists Geeta Doctor, Sadanand Menon, Anita Ratnam, Dayanita Singh, Dr. Muthukumaraswamy, Renuka Narayan and Pradeep Chakravarthy enthralled the diverse and packed audience.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Aatish Taseer with Ranvir Shah at 'The Way Things Were'. Photo: R. Ragu
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Baradwaj Rangan during his workshop, Die Author Die. Photo: R. Ravindran
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Alarmel Valli, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and Sushila Ravindranath at 'Images and Imagery of Memory'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: The Birth of Modern China : An Illustrated talk by Jung Chang. Photo: M. Vedhan
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Madhan Karky at his workshop 'Lyric Engineering'. Photo : K. Pichumani
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Mini Krishnan at her workshop 'Word Worlds'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Nina Mcconigley at her workshop 'Writing what you know'. Photo : K. Pichumani
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Lotus Leaves, Water Words: A reading performance. Photo: R. Ragu.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: N. Ram, A R Venkatachalapathy, Justice K Chandru, and Sashi Kumar at 'Free Speech in Peril: The issues at Stake'. Photo: R. Ravindran
People looking at the various verses tied to the Poetree. Photo: R. Ragu
The Hindu Prize: Justice Leila Seth presents the award to Ashok Srinivasan. Photo: R. Ravindran
In support of Perumal Murugan: N. Ram, N Ravi, Nirmala Lakshman, A.R. Venkatachalapathy, Nayantara Sahgal, Leila Seth, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ritu Menon, K. Satchidanandan. Photo: R. Ravindran
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Prabha Sridevan, Ramesh Gopalakrishnan, Ammu Joseph and U. Vasuki at 'Feminine Form: Site of Violence'. Photo: KV Srinivasan
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Chef Aditya Bal, Chef Kunal Kapur, Shonali Muthalaly and Chef Manu Chandra at 'Shaped by Food Memories: A panel discussion on our complex relationship with food.'
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Rajdeep Sardesai, Sashi Kumar, Sanjaya Baru and Vinod Rai at 'Good Governance'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Dr. Sharad Paul at 'Skin: A biography: An illustrated lecture.'
Sharan Apparao, M.D. Muthukumaraswamy, Dayanita Singh, Anita Ratnam, Renuka Narayanan, Pradeep Chakravarthy, Geeta Doctor, Sadanand Menon
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: T.M.Krishna and Dayanita Singh at 'A Voice of One's Own.'
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Pralayan, K. Parthibaraja, Living Smile Vidya and Gnani Sankaran at 'Tamil Theatre: Voices and Forms'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Tisca Chopra at 'Starlight'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Manu N. Chakravarthy, K. Satchidanandan, Shiv Visvanathan at 'URA: A Homage'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Amish and Baradwaj Rangan at 'Gods, Demons and Others'
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Charles Allen, Jonathan Gil Harris and Rajmohan Gandhi at 'The Lives of Others'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Chetan Bhagat and Karthik Kumar at 'Half Girlfriend'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Eleanor Catton.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Prince Rama Varma and T.V. Gopalakrishna at 'Speaking Songs'.
Audience at the dramatic performance of excerpts from the shortlisted books
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Post a letter to your favourite author.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Rajmohan Gandhi, Meena Kandasamy, Ahdaf Souief, Damon Galgut at 'Power to the People in our Times'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Renuka Narayanan at 'Reading Religion'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: A. Ramasamy, Vetrimaran, Rohini and Vasanthabalan at 'New Narratives or New Ways of Narration'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Sadanand Menon at 'Reading Religion'.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Dramatised performances of the shortlisted books by Chennai college students.
The HIndu Lit for Life 2015: Nimrat Kaur at 'Starlight'.