The Lit For Life, My Way - Day 3

The Third and final day of the Lit for Life - my mother and I arrived halfway through the first session, so decided to give it a miss. So we stood by the MLS stall, waiting for the next talk, John Keay's. As we were waiting, who should walk up, but the man himself! Quickly, I ran down, and called out to him, and asked if he would like to hear a little bit about our 200 year old library. He seemed interested, and walked up the stairs to our stall. I began talking, but he stopped me soon enough and said, "Oh yes, I know all about the Madras Literary Society". We were delighted, and I told him what a rare occasion it was that someone actually said they knew about us. We took a few photos with him, he had a look at our table, but then I think he remembered he had a talk to get to, one he was giving, and suddenly said he better be off, and that they were probably wondering where he was, and getting worried, and left.

John Keay at the MLS stall

My mother went in to find a seat, and someone I'd known who'd moved out of the city came up to the stall, and we began talking. He was a bit disappointed to miss Keay, but was determined to get his books signed later. He too then went to find a seat.
Then a woman came walking up to me at a fast pace, and pointed to the the direction of the door, "John Keay", she said, "Let's go". This was Nivedita Louis, someone I'd known for over two years, and a local historian of the city. She was also a bit disappointed to have just missed Keay, but she managed to talk to him later at the book signing. She and I went in, and found my mother, also waiting for the previous talk to get over. The three of us found seats, and looked forward to the talk. We expected it to be fabulous. Was it? Well...
John Keay came onstage, and began with a presentation on his subject, Alexander Gardener, an American of Scottish descent. A gun-for-hire type, he travelled central Asia before landing up in the employ of the Sikhs, and then eventually retiring to Kashmir after the collapse of the Sikh empire.His memoirs are one of the biggest bases for the narrative of Ranjith Singh's rule, and the bloody aftermath of succession. It was reported, by a commissioner who traced him later, that he bore multiple wounds on his body, not least of which was a hole in his neck, that he had to clamp shut with forceps whenever he ate.
After twenty minutes of the presentation, the interviewer, Shiv Vishwathan, said "You know, John, at some point we're going to have to have a conversation!". Apologetically, Keay wrapped up the rest of his presentation, and sat down.

John Keays' presentation on Alexander Gardener

Shiv Vishwanth's questions, (or rather, question, as he went on and on over the same point) was on Keay's views on the violence he talked about. Being a professor who taught about violence at college, that was his field, and he was unable to ask any relevant questions. He just wanted John Keay's view, and kept imploring that the "real John Keay" come out and give his opinion, and whenever Keay tried to speak, he would say, "No, no, I'm going to push you!" and carry on with the question, so much so, at the end there was no time for any other questions, and even Keay's response to that question was only partial. But at some point he said, "It is not a historian's place to give opinions, I simply state facts as they are", and this drew loud cheers from the audience.

Shiv Vishwanathan questions, and questions some more

Coming out of this talk, everyone was just getting over the bizarreness of it, when they went for their book signings. I was asked to take photos for a couple of people, which I did, while my mother (who is featuring an awful lot now) went for coffee.

Then it was back to the MLS stall. In the morning there was only one volunteer, but more had poured in now. I now had a long break before my talk at 3:30, so I decided I would stay by the stall itself.
At around 1, a man turned up, who said he had a 1923 Shakespeare to donate to the library. We gratefully accepted and kept it aside. Like this, today was a day of surprises. Many people turned up, and after a single question, signed on as members. Some just walked up and said they wanted to be members, what was the process?

The table that day. Lots of people gave their emails to be on the mailing list.

Nivedita came to me beaming later, and told me she had got her copy of Aurangazeb signed by Audrey Trushke. She had been unable to attend any of her talks, and so this was a welcome surprise to her.
Later I met my friend from school, Upaasana. She was heading for a talk by Manjula Padmanabhan. Readers will remember her as the non-feminist from the 'why we should be feminists' panel. I told her as much, and she went "Oh great! Lets see how this goes". I still haven't met her after that.

At some point, someone came to the stall, asking where the Hindu Showplace was. I was sent to show them, and place them on their way, and I did. On my way back, I met the city historian, Chithra Madhavan, and asked her to drop by our stall. She seemed a bit busy, so I said if she didn't have time, she could come back later. She said no, that wasn't the issue. We were then standing near a table where people left their bags before going in for a talk. She told me her friend had given her a box of brownies, and she couldn't find them. She then went away looking for the friend.
When I got back,someone had donated a couple of books of poetry.
Sometime after that, I saw Audrey Trushke, and, emboldened by what happened with John Keay, I said, "Excuse me, we have a 200 year old library(motioning towards our stall)...Would you like to...?"She gave it a second of thought, and said "No thanks, I'm good".
I was a little shocked as to what that meant, so i just said "Oh, alright...". The other volunteers said, Well, it was worth a shot.
 I stood around, helping as much as I could, until it was 3:30, and I went in for a whirlwind of sessions. From now, until the end of the day, I had session upon session to attend.
Masala Shakespeare had Jonathan Gil Harris talking about how Shakespeare would have, if alive written for screen, not stage, and Bollywood, not Hollywood. The point that struck me most was how Shakespeare would have been multilingual, living in a society before English had been formalised as such, and how he incorporated various meanings of similar sounding words to create his puns. In a riotous presentation filled with puns, amusing  narratives, and amazingly interesting pieces of trivia that combined to form a totally wow performance, I learnt a lot about the great bard, and what a great teacher Jonathan Gil Harris was.

The name of the presentation, that went from Hindi to Tamil to show he was not North-centric

Jonathan Gil Harris

Outside, when getting my copy of First Firangis, his earlier book signed, he said "Hello again! Hows your library doing?"I was so amazed that he remembered me from the previous day that I could just about manage a "Hi! Yes its, fine..."
He signed my book, we took a picture, and I was off to the next talk, which was in the same main hall - and who should it be, but the one and only Daniel Handler!
This time accompanied by his wife, Lisa Brown, they gave a talk on the writing and illustrating various books - together as well as apart. The talk was called "It was a dark and funny night", and it was a mix of humour, dark humour, their novels and personal stories, that occasionally got dark, but were saved by Handler's humour. He mentioned at one point how, if you like to talk about death, Lisa's the perfect person to talk to. The talk took its own course, but was guided by the slides, which they would shift between, the rate changing according to their own whims.

From here, I rushed to The Pavilion, an open-air area, in a buildings courtyard. On the way, I stopped by the MLS stall, and said hi to the librarian, as well as Martha Patti, an elderly lady who has been with MLS for over 40 years, helping out in the library, and known to most members. I then learnt that Jonathan Gil Harris had come to our stall, after the book signing, when another volunteer had called him. I was happy.
At the Pavilion,A R Venkatachalapathy was moderating a talk with Kombai Anwar, and Pa Cheran. The topic of discussion was a book published in 1950 that had as its central character a man, a Chettiar who goes to fight for the INA, and his life back home as a result. This book was considered by the panel an excellent sociological study into the Tamils of the post-War scenario, and talks of Tamil communities from all over. Pa Cheran, settled in Canada, but a Sri Lankan Tamil, brought in the views of one emigrated, and how it is for him there, and the differences he sees in the three societies - modern Canadian, modern Tamil and post-war Tamil. There was also some discussion on the Sociological aspect of Tamils as a group.

The release of the book by the organiser of the Lit Fest. 

From here, as soon as the question session began, I ran to the MLS stall, picked up my bags, and, joining my mother, went in to the main hall for 10 reasons why Gandhi still matters, by Ramachandra Guha.
Well what are those 10?
1.Satyagraha, which he gave the world
2. Freedom
3. Citizenship, not on the basis of faith
4. Not a narrow-minded regionalist
5. Both a patriot as well as an internationalist
6. Pre-conscious environmentalist
7. Was able to grow and evolve
8. Made leaders out of followers
9. Willing to see the opponents point of view and see a middle ground
10. Transparency of political life

With these points elaborated, and after I got my book signed(while telling him that we scanned parts of it to study from for our boards) an intensely amazing, and amazingly intense, Lit fest, came to an end. That day, all speakers had made it a point to thank the lit fest, and remark how, though it was not the largest, it was certainly the sharpest, and brought the best intellectual debates. Jonathan Gil Harris had said that Chennai had become like a second home for him in India, thanks to the Lit fest, which he loved attending year after year - especially since they invited him year after year!
As for MLS, it was extremely fun volunteering this year, and for the library, has proved to be fruitful.


Now the 9th Lit fest is done, but we will wait eagerly for the next one.In the meanwhile, the city of Chennai has only more cultural events in stock, not least of which, in August, Madras Month!

Until next time!