After a hiatus of two years when the world withstood catastrophic devastation in the wake of the Covid-19 that unleashed unimaginable suffering and chaos, the literary fraternity comprising heavyweight writers, intellectuals, poets, scientists and thinkers gathered once again in Jaipur to reaffirm that marching onwards in the face of adversity is not impossible. 

No stranger to the world of performing arts, social action and the corporate world, the Jaipur Literature Festival is organized by Teamwork Arts that is a distinctly versatile entertainment company and has built an unparalleled track record of taking the Indian arts to countries around the globe. 

It was therefore perplexing at the outset for several speakers, including this writer, to be greeted with constant to and fro in terms of organization of the festival. The annual gathering that was originally scheduled to take place in January was postponed almost at the last moment as the Omicron variant of coronavirus made its presence felt in many parts of India. Then the majestic Diggi Palace, the customary home that had become the heart of the festival, lost the status of primary venue of the literary gathering. It was declared that the sprawling Clarks Amer Hotel, which earlier hosted only the musical evenings and concerts on the sidelines of the festival, would this time become the primary venue and host parallel sessions at Front Lawn, Durbar Hall, Mughal Tent and Baithak. 

Grand event 

But that did not kill the excitement. After all, it was going to be the first time in the past two years when an event of such a massive scale would be held in a hybrid mode, comprising both online and on-ground sessions. The online edition served as the prologue of the Jaipur Literature Festival and prepared the internet-savvy reading community for what awaited them in the Pink City. 

There were some visible changes ~ lesser crowd, better organized venues, spic and span washrooms, ample room for visitors to sense the literary vibe, more space for the festival bazaar that displayed traditional Rajasthani handicrafts and other items for visitors to explore and purchase.  

The security was much better and entrance and exit gates were handled more efficiently; visitors did not have to wait in long and serpentine queues like before to have their belongings checked. The festival charged INR 200 for entrance from every visitor and it was for the first time in its history that it was not fully free for anybody and everybody to attend. This was perhaps the festival’s USP that had earned it the status of the “World’s Largest Literary Gathering”. 

A million strong 

Festival insiders say this was done to ensure that all Covid protocols were strictly adhered to as it helped cut down some uninterested visitors who would throng the venue just for fun. Nonetheless, by the end of the third day of the festival itself, ABP News reported that the number of visitors had touched a million! 

The festival bookstore was at the center of attraction this time around. It was positioned strategically and was the first thing the visitors saw once they entered the venue. The bookstore was more spacious and displayed books by participating authors without charging a price from them. (Yes, most commercial bookstores in India follow an absurd pattern where they either directly, and quite shamelessly, demand money to display books or follow a method of maddening preference and bias. Even then, they claim a moral high-ground and make their commercial business appear as social service.) 

As a debut author, I was quite surprised to find that my book was displayed prominently like other participating authors and I did not have to fight for it. Most publishers do not do much to publicize books, they focus on a few big names where the stakes are high.    

Freedom in Jaipur 

These are little things that matter and grant the dignity to authors that they are denied of quite often in our country. Having been a regular visitor to the JLF ~ as a student, journalist, panelist and now as an author ~ my biggest takeaway from this year’s edition was that despite all ups and downs, challenges and perhaps lesser resources at the organizer’s disposal, the Jaipur Literature Festival managed to keep the flame of freedom alive. Kudos to them for achieving that with aplomb! 

The reason I say this is simply because there was not a moment when anybody from the festival asked me (and I believe it must be the same for my fellow speakers too) to say certain things or not say certain things. There was no interference whatsoever in how the sessions were conducted and what was spoken from the stage. The speakers ranged from various walks of life and had different political and social outlooks. For example, I was on a panel “Nationalism, Patriotism and Deshbhakti” with Makrand R. Paranjape, Gurmehar Kaur and Badri Narayan, which was moderated by Mukulika Banerjee. All of us had different points of view on the given theme of the session but we were all able to put across our perspectives to the audience and were treated (almost) equally. 

It is important for writers to understand instead of arguing with each other. The Jaipur Literature Festival, in that sense, once again created that avenue where not only did the readers get a chance to listen to and interact with their favourite writers, but the writing fraternity too engaged in constructive conversations as opposed to destructive criticism. 

(The author is an independent writer and the author of The Psychology of a Patriot. Views are personal. He can be reached at writesaket@gmail.com)