Jaipur Literary Festival Day 2

Foreign Correspondents Panel

William Dalrymple and Hamid Karzai

Republic Day Looks like Christmas!

Wine from Aman with Richard Whish

Rice Pulao and Chicken Butter Masala

Today was Republic Day in India. The civic buildings are all decorated just like it was Christmas. The schools are closed, there are marching bands. This is a big day! It is also a dry day. No liquor is served. However, if you have a foreign passport and staying at hotel you can purchase liquor. Needless to say, we stayed at the hotel for dinner!

Today was an even better day than yesterday at the Jaipur Literary Festival. The weather cooperated, it was quite warm. We really enjoyed the sessions that we attended. It was much more crowded because schools are closed for Republic Day. Almost half-million people will attend this event. Some of the sessions have Bollywood stars. That causes an incredible surge of people, especially the young, coming to see their film heroes. Indians are used to be packed tight, for us it is part ordeal and part amazement. The producers of the Festival try very hard to control the crowds, but it is a futile attempt. If there was a genuine emergency, it would be a stampede. Oh well!

The first session we attended was great. It was entitled “The Empire Strikes Back”. It was moderated by Pico Iyer. The topic was centered on non-British writers from post-colonial nations. These story tellers are faced with the issue of writing in English rather than their native language. They also face the issue of a culture where now people easily take offense and can amplify their criticism via social networks. One writer said it well: he is Indian-American but locates himself in the hyphen.

The next session was one the Lit Festival does every year. It is a panel of Foreign Correspondents. It was fascinating. Peter Bergan who interviewed Osama  Bin Laden was on it, as was Jeffery Gettlemen of The New York Times and Suki Kim who went undercover in North Korea. These reporters all risk their lives to try and bring the truth to us. One of the most interesting discussions was by Jeffery Gettlemen who described the horrific experience of interviewing a victim of Burmese madness. As the women described what happened to her and her family, he realized he could offer her no assistance. All he could do was record her story in hopes of motivating others to assist. You could tell how tortured he was by this situation. He felt, it was not his role to lend aid but rather his was to serve a higher purpose of getting the word out. He is scarred by the experience.

They discussed the problem and necessity of being imbedded in wartime. You can’t be in the middle of a conflict, you will be killed. You need to choose a side. Only the military can protect you in the middle of a war.

In discussions of the training of terrorists, Bergan predicted that there would no longer be terrorist training camps that can be bombed, but rather there will be virtual training camps on the internet available where ever a would-be terrorist lives. This is very scary!

The next session was William Dalrymple interviewing the former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Karzai is very engaging. His English is perfect, his wit is evident, his clothes and ever-present cape are immaculate. He is extremely self-confident and a great interviewee. He blames Pakistan and the US for much that have gone wrong. He is a significant player on the sub-continent. He is one of those people who can really hold an audience. When he speaks there is no doubt in his voice. The Afghanistan people have never been conquered. Interestingly he liked George Bush better than Barack Obama. He related Bush to a Royal figure and Obama to a teacher.

I am fascinated by Stepwells. Although they might exist in other countries, I have only seen them in India. These architectural creations are carved out of the earth and are fabulously elaborate.

Here is an example.

When I come across one I take a picture and send the coordinates to a mapping site for stepwells. We are used to looking up in the sky to see architecture. These ancient constructions are built below the surface of the earth, one must look down to see them. We attended a panel on them. The content of the lecture was interesting. The person speaking was terrible. It was enlightening in spite of the speaker.

The final session for the day was entitled This is Not America. It is taken from the title of a book by the author: Alan Friedman. He is an writer for many newspapers, including the New York Times. He despises Trump and what  he is doing to America. The other panelist and the moderator were less alarmed by him. The Indian on the panel, basically says: “So what, Trump is a US problem to sort out”, India will do what is India’s best interest. The Australian correspondent felt his proposed military buildup is good for Australia and said that some things Trump does is good and somethings (especially the tweets) are bad. Neither the Indian nor the Australian particularly cared about what Trump is doing inside America to American Values. We totally agreed with Alan Freedman and immediately bought his book!

We returned from the Jaipur Literary Festival to our hotel and where we were met by Richard Whish a friend we had met at the Taj in Bombay. He joined us for drinks on our deck. Cathy and I then had dinner at the dining room here at The Rambagh.