The Lit for Life, My Way - Day 1

The annual 'Hindu Lit for life', literature festival came around for the 9th time, this January. I have only been for 3 so far(2016, 18 and this year's, 19), but having vaguely followed it for the other years of its existence, I knew what a big deal it was - and rightly so. I decided that I would attend all three days this time, and, as it was free, there was no two ways about it.

The first day, I was there by 9:30. I had signed up to volunteer at the Madras Literary Society's stall on the second day, but it would be my base for all three days. I kept my bag stuffed with books, and my camera, behind the stall, whenever I went in for a talk. This year, the festival aimed to reduce waste as much as possible, and so had encouraged people to bring their own bottles, and fill them at the venue. I conveniently forgot mine all three days.

That morning, as I pinned on my MLS badge, and looked around at all the people coming and going I wondered how well the stall would do.  Our stall was by the side of the semi-circular front corridor where all the stalls were, overlooking the entrance and the open space where people moved around from one venue to another. The MLS stall had not been provided a table, and that morning would be spent with volunteers of both MLS as well as The Hindu running around, looking for one, and it would slowly come towards lunch time. When it did, we piled it up with our products, to entice potential members forward(or in other words, made a mess that would make anyone curious).

The co-ordinators of our MLS stall, after we got our table

The first talk I attended that day, was an interview of Lemony Snicket, allegedly Daniel Handler.
Snickets books have been read by most of us of my age group early on, and have been for us the introduction to a non-happily ever after, and ambiguous endings. This was the question the interviewer began with, about whether he was greeted by shocked parents  everywhere he went because of his books. Handler's response set the tone for the rest of the talk. Well yes, he said, but I live in America and people are always shocked and appalled. For the next forty minutes he had the audiences' attention, and was waltzing around with the interviewer's questions, while she tried her best to figure out what he was actually doing, and why was he dancing with her questions?
Most people agreed that she was unable to understand his humour, and that the interview might have gone better if she had been able to understand it, but personally, it was great, and I enjoyed the talk the way it was.
Outside for the signing, he signed my first book of the series with an "with all due respect" . My mother, who was taking pictures informed him that I had intended to bring all my Snickets to sign, but she had made me choose 2. "Who is this woman?" he asked?  "My mother" I answered "Ah yes that explains it," he said. "Have you ever thought about running away from home, Nandan?", and he signed, "To Nandan, who has a suspicious mother, Daniel Handler, <allegedly, L.S >" in the next book.

Daniel Handler 

Giving him my cousins' book, he asked why she wasn't here. I said she and my sister went out for lunch. "Ah well, we wouldn't want to bring that here, now, would we?" he asked and signed, "To an alleged cousin".

After a short stint standing at the MLS stall, I joined my parents for lunch. They shared a biriyani and thayir saadam. I had noodles with momos. The plates and spoons were all eco-friendly as well, and the waste generated was considerably less, something to commend all partners of this Zero waste venture for.

My next session was at The Hindu Showplace. This was a new venue, and I was unsure as to how to get there. A volunteer sent me up a flight of stairs, which took me behind the stage. I retraced my steps, and came all the way around the building, and found my way up.

The Hindu showplace. Sometimes half empty, sometimes overflowing,but never exactly full.

This next session was on "The Literature of Myth: The use of Myth and Legends in storytelling". The speakers were Sharanya Manivannan, who had written a book on Kothai, or Andal, a Vaishnavite poetess from the 9th century. Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni, a writer of the epics from the eyes of women(Ramayana from Sita's perspective, and Mahabharatha from Draupathi's perspective).And Ravi Shanker Etteth. I think he was a political cartoonist who used mythology in his cartoons. The whole session was moderated by Jonathan Gill Harris, an English Professor at Ashoka university.
Sharanya spoke quietly but it had impact. Chitra Bannerjee had a slightly loud voice, with melody in it , and she spoke confidently. Ravi Shankar Etteth tried playing to the audience, in the sense, he tried making the audience like him. After his second response, however, some people began to wonder if he was drunk. After a while people began correcting him from the audience.
A few points that stuck with me from the discussion were: Myths evolve. They are molded by each retelling. It is not sacrilege to retell an epic or a myth. There are many contemporary versions of the same legends like the Ramayana.
Jonathan Gil Harris, surprisingly was much more formal and staid than when I saw him on stage the next time.

Seated: The moderator, followed by the speakers, in the reverse order of their names on the screen

The last discussion I attended for the day was Audrey Trushke's presentation on Aurangazeb. She split the presentation, with a little more than half of it talking about Aurangazeb, his life, and what she had found about him, and a little less than half talking about how he was being used as politically, the making of the book, and what she faced online(trolling, hate messages, anti-semitism). She displayed some of the reviews given to the book that were as unscientific as could be, some of the messages she received on twitter, and some of the insults thrown at her. It seems a talk of hers in Hyderabad had to be cancelled due to protests by a certain group who believed Aurangazeb had been a Muslim extremist, something her research did not agree with.
During the questions session, a man got up,and began to ask what scientific proof she had, and then began shouting, calling her a coloniser, how dare she come here and tell us about our history, and more on that line, similar to what we had just read in the slides about the abuse thrown at her.The man was booed down, and she did answer his question, saying she was a historian, and she used historic tools. She knew Sanskrit, Persian and Hindi, and could read primary sources on Aurangazeb. The man was relentless and continued to shout, and was eventually forced to leave. I was told later that those in the MLS stall outside heard him.
Some people complained that she didn't spend enough time talking about the king, and some complained that she talked too much about herself. I disagree. Though she could have spent maybe 5 more minutes on Aurangazeb, most of what she said was in the book. She has not been called to just promote the book, has she? The making of it was relevant, and was necessary, as this is a lit fest and not a history fest.

When she was signing my book, I noticed to my delight, that she was also left-handed.

Audrey Trushke's illustrated lecture.

That brought an end to my day. I said hello and had a quick conversation with a school friend,and then was off. That was the end of my first day at the 9th lit fest, and there were still 2 to go!

The semi-circular corridor with stalls. MLS's can be seen at the far end, empty at the end of the day.