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
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