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.