JLF: Best of the Best

Following is a guest blog entry from all 3 Greenleaf attendees at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Abba’s favorite sessions:

Goodtimes  #JLF

1.     The Flight of the Falcon

I picked up Jamil Ahmad’s book, “The Wandering Falcon” when I was in Kerala for the New Year.  I loved the book – it is a compilation of short stories about tribes in Pakistan that are loosely bound together.  Ahmad, who is 80, worked with different tribes when he worked for the government.  He noted at the beginning of speech that he was always interested in tribes, like the Fulani and Hausa, since childhood.  So that helped explain why I liked his book so much!  He was a graceful speaker who appreciated the values of the tribes he worked with, and unflinchingly stood up for them. The other author on the panel, MA Farooqi, was eloquent as well so we bought his most recent book, “Between Clay and Dust”

2.     Laughing, weeping, writing

Connie and I both loved this session.  The author of “Absurdistan”, Gary Shteyngart, the author of “The Best exotic marigold hotel” and an Indian author, Manu Joseph, talked about their writing while simultaneously making us laugh hysterically.  Shteyngart joked that very few people in America (600,000) read because they are consumed by technology.  However, he followed up with a poignant explanation of the joy of reading- being connected to an outside world by going inside someone else’s head and being transported to a different place and time rather than using technology to transport yourself.

Stage at Durbar Hall

3.     Women on the path

This session was about women in Buddhism.  Ani Choying, a Buddhist nun whose very moving autobiography I just finished, spoke about how simply asking the question of why or why not helped her get more rights as a Buddhist nun. Kunzang Choden, Bhutan’s first published female author was also interesting so I bought her novel.  Ani said that women have too much humility and that we need to STEP IT UP.

4.     Falling off the map: the question of failed states

This session had panelists from Somalia, Iran, India and Palestine discuss whether or not the concept of a failed state was useful (they unanimously decided that it was not) and then discussed the ramifications of this phrase.   I enjoyed their discussion of why the term offended them and what the world does about the nations that are not necessarily winning.

5.      Saving Face

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the documentary filmmaker who is best known for the Emmy she won this year for a documentary about acid victims in Pakistan, was smart, interesting, brave, and had very important topics to discuss.  She discussed all her documentaries including “Children of the Taliban” and “Lifting the Veil”.  The first is about children growing up in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan (she said they’re forever scarred and are either violent or completely passive) and the second is about women in Saudi Arabia.  I can’t wait to watch all the movies.  

Con’s Picks:  The Best of The Best

1.     “Kinships of Faiths: Finding the Middle Way”

The Dalai Lama in conversation with Pico Iyer.  The eternally inspiring and loving Dalai Lama in conversation with Pico Iyer, his friend and biographer.

2.  “Laughing, Weeping, Writing”

Manu Joseph, Gary Shteyngart and Deborah Moggach in conversation with Ashok Ferrey.  So funny, so smart, so ingeniously wicked.  There is so much to laugh about in the world, and they found lots of it.  3 very funny writers from 3 very different cultures.

3.     Most of the Sessions on NATIONAL DAY

I learned a lot about what Indians care about, disagree on, and hold near to their hearts.  A small number, true, but I felt more informed, and it was more engaging than a newspaper.

Favorite People:

1.     HHH Dalai Lama: What a joyful soul.  Something to aspire to, for sure.

2.     The trio of humor writers.  It was like being at a great party.  THANKS for the laughs.

3.     Michael Sandel:  After the first one, I knew I was watching a master teacher, so I attended all his sessions.  He is a virtuoso of the Socratic method, and shows the world how learning, thinking, and teaching should take place.  BRAVO. I’m going to take his free online E course (the first Harvard has offered) called JUSTICE.

4.     Pico Iyer & William Dalyrymple:  The first was so sweet and smart, the second scary smart and loved to giggle.  Gotta love those characteristics in a smartie!

5.     Nadeem Aslam:  His short reading of his book The Bind Man’s Garden clinched the purchase of several of his books.  This man must be haunted by his talent.

6.     The dictator-facilitator in the Google Mughal Tent.  She didn’t allow saved seats, made everyone state their name and speak directly into the mike, and shamed non-question askers.  She could make a great elementary teacher.

Steve:

JLF was like nothing that I’ve ever attended before, an intense five day gathering devoted to art and ideas expressed through writing and speech. In addition to gathering ideas from authors, the audiences participated very actively through questions (and comments). Because of this, I received a much better sense of what educated Indians think and feel. So let me pick some favorites in the spirit of our joint blog:

1.     “The Man Within My Head: Pico Iyer in conversation with Akash Kapur”.

I’d read Iyer’s book before I knew of this (and reviewed it here). It’s not an easy book to classify, and I was relieved when Kapur remarked on this at the beginning, thus reinforcing my perception and alleviating some of my anxiety that I’d gotten it all wrong. Kapur’s conversation brought out not only the subtly of the book, but also revealed the author, who struck me as a very perceptive, thoughtful, and gentle soul. This program displayed the value of a good interviewer working with an author to further reveal the value of a work.

2.     “Inside the Game, Outside the Game: Shashi Tharoor in conversation with Trun Tejpal”.

Shashi Tharoor is the Bill Clinton of India: he can take a topic of public policy (in this case Indian foreign policy) and talk about with authority, clarity, and insight while making it seem effortless. This guy is very sharp and very insightful. He’s currently a government minister, and he was a serious contender for U.N. Secretary General. Given his commanding voice, personal grace, and mastery of issues, I can now understand why he’s held in such high regard.

3.     Republic Day sessions.

Entrance to Diggi Palace

Several of these sessions were very enlightening. The 26^th is a national holiday that celebrates the inauguration of the Indian constitution, and as it turned out, the conversations will test some of the articles of this constitution in the days and weeks to come.  Ashis Nandy, Edward Luce, Ruchir Sharma, and Gurcharan Das especially shed light on the Indian political, social, and economic situation.

4.     “A Sense of Place: Peter Heessler, Pico Iyer, Akash Kapur and Samanth Subramanian in conversation with William Dalrymple.”

I took two things away from this session: first, travel writers have to maintain a heightened sense of listening and observation that we could all benefit from (and do vicariously through their writing) Second, like Iowa Guru, I got a sense of William Dalrymple (a co-director of the festival) as a lively figure in person as well as a dynamic writer. My admiration for “travel writers” grows.

5.     “Taming the Gods: Religion & Politics with Ian Buruma, Reza Aslan, Ahdaf Soueif and Timonty Garton Ash in conversation with Shoma Chaudhury”.

This is a live issue in India, in Europe, and in the U.S., and this discussion from writers who have knowledge of a variety of religions and polities really offered some interesting insights. Aslan, a University of Iowa Writers Workshop and comparative religion alum, was especially insightful (and blunt) about the contemporary Republican Party.

I’m going to stop with five, quite arbitrarily. Because Iowa Guru gave him a shout-out already, I’ve ignored my Michael Sandel session, and I heartily concur with her take. And the Dalai Lama? He’s in a class by himself. Amazing. I’ll write more later, but, again, this was a real treat.

Things Abba loved abt JLF:

Char Bagh Tent:  One of 5 Venues

Mini-notebook with lined pages AND a schedule

Great DECORATIONS and a beautiful setting

The enthusiasm of my fellow attendees (connie and steve)

GREAT food options (froYo, pizza, paneer shwarma)

FREE TO THE PUBLIC

Great bookstore to buy the titles of the authors

Stuff Connie loved about the JLF: 

I concur with Abba, but have a few extra….
1.  The feeling I had of unearned importance because I was attending an event that I read about the next day in various newspapers. Finger on the pulse, baby.

2.  THEMES for each day:  for their National Day, they talked about the state of politics in India, another was a day focused on Buddhism.  Well done, JLF!

3. Young Writer’s Workshops each day:  Didn’t attend, but a great idea.

4.  For the final debate they had a drummer start playing when the speaker’s time was out.  They need to adopt that for ALL their sessions, particularly for long-winded facilitators and people who have a comment when it’s supposed to be a question.  We learn about that in Kindergarten, folks, it’s just not that hard.

SINGLE REGRET:  JLF also sponsored a musical performance each night from 7:30-10:00 but I didn’t attend a single one.  Too pooped.  Next time I will condition better.

The Jaipur Literature Festival

 I’d read about it, and heard about it, but I wasn’t prepared for the dizzying line up of literary heavy-hitters we witnessed today on the opening day of the 5-day literary event know as the Jaipur Literature Festival.  It was, to borrow a term from our driver, mind blowing.  There are, I believe, around 182 authors from who knows how many continents represented.  The day started with a group of Buddhist monks chanting on center stage, and we were held raptly for the next 8 or 9 hours. It’s taking place in a gorgeous venue called Diggi Palace, with space for about 6 separate halls/auditoriums, so it’s very tense while we are making our daily dance card.  We had to divide and conquer today, and I imagine our individual interests will necessitate the same in the next 4 days, but it was an exhilarating and exhausting experience.  I was trying to think when modern people sit and consider some of the very diverse and stimulating topics that were raised today, but I couldn’t come up with anything.  It seems, to me, a great luxury to be part of the dialogue.  We missed our 4^th member of the tribe, who would have been in a dither trying to decide which discussion to attend and which to miss.  We were thinking we should make this a family reunion place every year, but that seems just greedy at this point.

Today’s highlights included hearing Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting For Stone, one of my favorite reads of the past couple of years, several authors of yoga tomes discussing the roots of yoga, The Flight of the Falcon author Jamil Ahmad, and, oh yes, Pico Iyer interviewing HHH Dalai Lama.  The HHHDL was delightful joyful, playful and insightful all at once.  I could have listened to him for hours more.  He shared some interesting similarities between the inquiry method of science and the tradition of Buddhism, which I found both compelling and fascinating.  I hope to have the energy to report more tomorrow; this life of the mind is exhausting business. 

The HH Sawai Bhawani Singh Cup 2013

When a sports event is sponsored by The Gem Palace and the chief guest is Princess Diya Kumari of Jaipur, that may signal you’re not going to get hot dogs and a beer in the stands.  We’re talking Jaipur Polo, with serious blue blood attendance and blue blood behavior.  We were invited to the match by our landlord, who is a member of the Jaipur Polo Club, which I believe meant we were able to sit in the grandstand, where we clearly didn’t belong.  Abba and I tried to be cool and blend in, but I was a little nervous I would have an Eliza Doolittle moment when she screams for her horse at the Ascot to “…move your bloomin’ arse” while all the stuffed shirts watch half-asleep.  As a Floridian in front of us remarked, “You know you’re at a society sport-event when more cameras are pointed toward the stands than the field. “

The Pipes and Drums Lead the Team On

Rugby-like Scrum Starts the Gam

Up Close of Action

Tea Is Served.

Winners Congrats to Losers

Princess Awards Losers

Princess Awards Winners

We got there at 3:00, which, it turns out, is early for a 3:00 match.  We watched beautiful people stroll in, greeting the other beautiful people with air kisses and the occasional restrained hug, women holding their gorgeous palous of their gorgeous saris, while the men sported those ridiculous baggy-thighed jodhpur riding pants and the occasional cravat. We learned the following:
1.  It’s the quietest sports event we’ve ever attended.  Think funeral home or hospital room quiet.  People whisper when they talk and as a result, I couldn’t hear most of the conversation.

2.  There are only 4 players on each team.   The players are rather like free agents, in that they join with each other at will to play matches so it’s really just like a game of pick-up….to a degree.

3.  All the players ride with the mallets raised high in the air when they race down the field and it looks fierce.

4.  Each player gets a handicap and they try to put together teams that are equal to play one another, or start with handicapped scores if not. How very civilized.  Do you think the Timberwolves get a handicap when they have to face the Spurs?  Hell to the no.

5. The ball is hard to see. 

6.  The horses run really fast and stop quickly.  Also, they don’t look like they are having a lot of fun.

7.  They serve hot chai tea during the game to everyone in china cups. Free!

8.  Everyone gets a trophy at the end of the game.  Like in elementary school.

9.  The sport has its moments and it’s very dramatic when the horses go galloping by in chase of the ball, but it’s hard to photograph.  Otherwise, there’s a fair amount of nothing-much-going-on time.

Pulao in front of me of gorgeous Sari

Following is a brief photo essay of our experience at the Jaipur Polo Club. All in all, it made me miss the more raucous nature of an American football or basketball game.

Samode Palace

We decided to take a day-trip on Saturday to the nearby town of Samode, to check out a haveli [traditional type of house from Raj times] that had been featured in some Bollywood movies, and the country side in general. The simple exterior of this late 19^th century palace is highly deceptive.  There are 3 levels of grandeur, one more gorgeous than the other, erected for a powerful noble of Jaipur. The noble could choose to hang out in the room where you play games, the room where you watch dancers, the room where you watch people in the other rooms, or rooms where one just sits and chills.  The adornments include mirrors, floral and geometric paintings of painstaking detail, marble, murals, and precious jewels.  I heard myself saying WOW over and over as I entered gorgeous room after gorgeous room, but after a while I just dropped my jaw and stared.  It was maybe the most ornate collection of jewel-like rooms I’ve seen, other than perhaps some places in Turkey.  And the architecture of a traditional haveli is so very cool as well, with its small door-like windows, arched scooped doorways, and the carved window screens.

The palace has been converted into a heritage hotel, and S. and I did some quick calculating, and we think we might be able to afford an overnight visit when it’s not high season.  Oh, and the setting is very quiet, very secluded, and very green.  We had lunch in the restaurant, which was also beautiful and delicious. There is beauty everywhere you look, but if I get to stay there, I’m setting up camp in the room with the mattress on the marble floor that allows you to lounge and listen to the fountain.  Not moving from there, I don’t think.  PHOTOS:  http://flic.kr/s/aHsjDFgrQf

I couldn’t click fast enough, so enjoy the splendor here: .  BTW, we all agreed this kind of luxury was made just for the likes of the Inscrutable Panda, so come back, and check it out. BUT......there are monkeys, and they are agressive-agressive.  We were trying to go up some stairs that would lead to a temple, when two monkeys swiftly appeared on the step before S. and one thumped him right on the chest, and refused to let him pass.  Thanks be to God that I was not in the front, I thought immediately.  Even at the back, I was freaking out.  Then 4 or 5 monkeys jumped over the branches above us in the trees, a baby monkey hissed at us, and everyone wanted tribute.  We had none, but we also were sure if we gave something, they would want more.  We beat a quick retreat and saw the beautiful Mughal gardens instead.  Whew.  I took those steps as quickly as my legs would let me, but they were quite sore from the Nike Training workout Abba and I did the day before.  Still, I went pretty quickly because those monkeys were scary.

Nature Trumps Sonia, and a Great Museum

The big deal in Jaipur all week has been the preparations for the convening of the Congress Party, with party chair Sonia Gandhi, and the P.M.  Manmohan Singh.  It’s a big deal meeting which happens only when they feel like meeting, as far as I could decipher. Various people were picking up some of the garbage, painting some of the curbs, pouring new asphalt, etc and in general trying to make up for months of maintenance inactivity.  Then came the Congress Party people to add their banners, and their flags.  The place was looking fairly presentable, when on Thursday evening, nature struck in the form of a very infrequent thunderstorm.  The winds blew fiercely, leaves fell everywhere, and rain and hail appeared on the scene, wetting down the collection of desert dust that covers everything, and making a muddy mess over all the preparations.  Friday morning it hailed again, then city employees started in awith the repairs.  S. and I enjoyed the thunderstorm immensely, and it reminded us of how we enjoyed some of the seasonal change in Iowa.  SOME of the seasonal changes.

We were at a mall last evening to fulfill Abba’s request for Pizza Hut, and when we tried to leave we found ourselves locked in, as the motorcade took its sweet time passing by on the distant street.  It seemed overkill to us, but Sonia Gandhi’s family does have a violent past, with her husband Rajiv assassinated and her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi before him also assassinated, so perhaps I’d error on the side of caution as well.

Yesterday was a state holiday, so we took a fun field trip to the small neighboring town of Amer to visit the Anokhi HandBlock Printing Museum. The museum is inside a beautifully restored haveli, and the preservation project earned a UNESCO award for ‘Cultural Conservation’ in 2000.

Abba just finished a week’s apprenticeship in small neighboring community of Sanganer at the hands of a block print master, a master who spoke only 2 words of English to her, of which one was “mistake”.  She made some beautiful creations, as usual. At the museum we enjoyed seeing different examples of classical wood blocking printing and a man making some wood blocks.  We were smitten with the quilted examples that to the quilter’s eyes resembled those from Gee’s Bend.  See below and this FLICKR link for more. The museum was well put together and had a great view from the roof.  All in all a great outing.