Kerala Literature Festival 2019 - Day 1

I woke up really early, like around 5:00 am, was ready by 6:30, waiting for my 'fellow bloggers' to show up. We were supposed to have a briefing session by 8:30, which didn't really happen, to be precise. We reached the venue by 9:00 and went to attend our respective sessions. The first one that I sat for was by Amish Tripati - 'Immortal India: Young Country, Timeless Civilization which also happens to be the title of his new book. The others went to their respective sessions and I sat down with a notepad and took down whatever he was saying. It kinda made me wonder, am I a media person? Nope! But they did give me a media tag. Okay, but I'm not a news reporter, and I like to take it slow. So i took my time and did note down the important points. Each session is for an hour, at the 45 minute mark, the audience can ask questions, this is the format for all discussions, except for the fourth stage where each session was for 45 minutes only. This is one of the plus points I've noticed, all events started on time, and finished on time, no delay. To the minute! 

As soon as Tripati's session was over (you can read about the whole session here) I walked over to where T. Padmanabhan was having his talk, and I met Joyce who was 'covering' it. I was never really a great fan of Malayalam novels (i plead guilty!), but however much I've read I owe it to that man, for I had to study his collection of short stories called 'Nalinakanthi' and it contained some of the best short stories I've ever read, and it nudged on the way of Malayalam works. Together we decided to go and meet him, maybe get an autograph too? For almost all of the writers who came to speak they had planend author signing sessions too, and we went to the designated spot after much deliberation and thought. Should we go and speak to him? Should we tell him we're fans? I think we must have looked like a bunch of weirdos who kept staring at him and talking to ourselves, just outside the pavilion, like fans who are dumbstruck after seeing their celebrity figures. After what was 5 minutes or so of discussion between us, we decided to go and get his autograph on our notepads, we didn't have any of his books on hand. As soon as we walked into the pavilion, still trying to figure out how to start talking to him, he got up, shook hands with the volunteers there and walked out by our side. We stepped aside to make way and let him pass. Yeah! He was gone, just like that. We consoled ourselves that we got to see him and hear him talk.

I was planning to attend a session called 'Lord Ayyappa and Untouchable Women' - but that was rescheduled to an earlier time. Missed it. Apparently there were some old schedules still being circulated around through the reception desk. Instead I went and sat for 'The Rhyme Bridge' - by H.S. Sivaprakash and Pratibha Nandakumar. These two Kannada poets were talking to us about the circumstances which resulted in their poems taking shape and ended up reading quite a few, and couple of them in Kannada too. Sivaprakash recited the English translation of his poem and insisted that the vocal tone of the poem can be best appreciated in it's native language even if we didn't understand the language. He was correct. 

We decided to go and start writing about our respective sessions, but that was easier said than done. And people from the media team were under the impression that were were part of the news team, who were supposed to give updates. Uh-uh, no, I did not like that part one bit.
It's not my way of doing things, They clearly had no idea on how we were supposed to work. We cleared up the confusion and decided to take things slow. The book store was officially open for sales but it was too crowded that we were not able to even enter it. The inauguration ceremony was at 5:30. I sat for it and the agenda of the event was quite clear. To shed some light on the madness that has enveloped us, to knit back the fabric of our community that was torn apart by radical elements. We need an event like this, at a time like this when nothing seems to make sense. we need to sit down and listen and think for ourselves. The chief guest for the event was M.T. Vasudevan Nair. Representing this year's guest nation Wales - Alexandra Buchler lit the lamp and the festival director K. Satchidanandan addressed the gathering. There was quite a lot of people for the inauguration despite the fact that it was a weekday.

During the ceremony, my friend Vishnu had dropped by from NIT Calicut and we went together to see Mr. Ramachandra Guha who was talking on the 'Indian Road to Equality at Stage 2.  I was hearing him speak for the first time and it was a powerful session. He commanded the audience with his strong voice and his knowledge. Yup and just like that day 1 was over. I heard Amish Triapti give his theory on Sabarimal issue, saw T. Padmanabhan, Benyamin, saw a whole bunch of writers at the Inaugration, heard Guha speak on Gandhi. It was an okay day. We took a look at the schedule for Day 2 and was hyped, we had some heavy hitters coming in.

To be continued...

All photos have been used from KLF official site.

Kerala Literature Festival 2019 (KLF)

As with any blog post,  I have been wondering how to start writing this one. Well it all started early in December when my friend shared a link asking me to apply for the post of official blogger for KLF. Skeptical at first as I hadn't written anything good apart from book reviews for over a year, I signed up in the end. Whether or not I got selected, the decision to attend the event had been made up, if not for the whole 4 days, I would be at the event on weekends. This was the fourth edition of KLF and since it's conception in the year 2016, it has come a long way and has now become the second largest literary festival in India. Held from 9th to 13th of January at Calicut Beach it saw a plethora of writers, poets and musicians. Coming back to my story, unexpectedly I got shortlisted on December 31 and as a final task, was asked to write another article from a set of three given topics. I received the confirmation on January 4th that I was selected.

Well for a guy who's looking for excuses to bump work, this was a blessing, sort of like winning the lottery. I'm currently working in Chennai and booked my tickets to leave on 8th evening, so as to reach there on the 9th as requested by the KLF team. It was around that time the All India Strike by the trade unions was announced, contrary to the popular and more common formats of 24 hrs or 12 hrs, this was a 48 hr strike. I guess when the government itself is experimenting on stupid projects and Tughlaqian schemes, why can't the opposition? Let them do it. Kudos!!

So with the a million (actually 10 or more) questions running in my head, I took the 5:00 PM Mangalore Express from Chennai Central Station and reached Calicut on the 9th at 4:30 AM. I waited for Joyce who was travelling with her father and would reach by 5:30. She was selected as one of the Malayalam bloggers. While waiting for them I checked online for cabs to the hotel. None. By 5:30 they arrived and we took a prepaid auto from the railway station entrance. After breakfast we decided to go checkout the venue and see all of the preparations. On reaching the beach, we could see three stages being erected and boards being put up. There was also a bookstall which, for us was the main attraction, and we were pretty sure that a good amount of money will be 'lost' there. A guy was painting a mural on a wall,  and there was a small buzz, as a hint of things to come. The beach itself was calm, with morning joggers, walkers and people doing yoga with numerous groups playing football. Since it was day 2 of the strike and as we got an autorickshaw I was under the impression that maybe the strike isn't successful. It was not so. By 9 or 10 in the morning the supporters of the strike decided to block the roads and stop all taxis. So after visiting the venue we had to walk part of the way back to the hotel. 

This made me wonder, will it affect the festival? Nah, I chided myself for thinking along those lines.  People who love to be a part of events like these aren't fazed by strikes or bandhs. And that was the case in the next four days. By evening we met Neetha and Shilpa who were also invited as bloggers. So there were two English bloggers - myself and Neetha, and Joyce and Shilpa for Malayalam. We also met Riju who was taking care of things there and when asked about the preparations he admitted that they were sort of lagging behind due to the unavailability of workers in the past two days. He also told us that they will catch up on lost time and will finish all preparations before tomorrow morning. 

The stages were erected on the north side of the beach and we learned that there were four in total named as - Ezhuthola, Aksharam, Thulika and Vaakku. There was a fifth room, where movies were screened - Vellithira, We were introduced to the media team which as well. From them we got to know of a Qawwali performance scheduled for the evening which would be a curtain raiser for the KLF. The stage was full and there were people crowded around it. We seated ourselves near the far right side by by the footpath. The performance was led by Ashraf Hydroz and it was magical (for lack of a more un-cliched word). The cool breeze from the sea, mingling with the music and accosted by the sound of waves created an evening to remember. He ended the performance with a rendition of 'Mast Kalandar' in which the crowd generously offered the chorus.

We went back with high hopes for Day 1