Jaipur Literary Festival Day 3

The Travel Panel 

Appetizers

Dinner

Let’s stipulate that a literary festival doesn’t lend itself to interesting pictures! So there aren’t many.

We really enjoyed today’s sessions. I expected it to be very crowded, it was, but not quite as bad as I expected. I got into every session that I wanted to attend. I think because we are veterans of the Jaipur Literary Festival (this is our 7^th), we know how to navigate through the throngs of people.

The first session was on “Hitler and His Times” the two panelist were an interesting contrast. The first author Norman Ohler wrote, Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich. The book explores how basically Hitler became a drug addict. Germans had discovered Heroin, Crystal Meth and several other powerful drugs. Hitler became addicted to these drugs that were administered by his doctor. The actions that Hitler took cannot be dismissed as a drug induced, he had spelled out long before his drug addiction what his evil plans were. None the less, according to the author, he was definitely an addict. The other author on the panel was Anna Funder, who has written about both the East German Stasi and an interesting novel based upon true events about Nazi resisters.

I then caught the ending of Amy Tam’s session, she is quite an accomplished story teller. The audience loved her.

I went to Charbagh (one of the venues) to attend the Travel Writers panel. This is an annual panel with different writers each year. We love to travel and it is always fun to attend this session. The writers simply read for about 10 minutes from one of their travel related books. I was totally enthralled by an author I had never heard of: Robert Dessaix. He read a passage from his new book: “The Pleasures of Leisure”, that I could totally relate to. It was wonderful. I immediately bought the book. This represents one of the joys of attending a Literary Festival. You come across books that you would never have otherwise known about.

The next session was entitled “Armed and Dangerous”. Two authors we like - Manu Joseph and Amitava Kumar were in dialogue. They were witty and interesting as they discussed their novels and views about writing fiction that is based upon real happenings. They were both very droll and funny.

The next session Prisoner of Conscious, had Ma Thida discussing her harrowing time imprisoned in Burma. A surgeon by training she felt she had a higher obligation to help her country. She almost died in prison. When you actually hear a person's testimony of the horrors they endured to achieve justice it is overwhelming. One reflects upon what you would do in a similar situation and what extraordinary courage some people possess.

The next session was an interesting session on Nordic Temperament. They had representatives from the various Nordic countries – Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, etc. Bottom line, they are happy. They don’t complain. The feel the happiness stems from a basic trust in governmental institutions and a national feeling of equality. The family is not key, as it is India. The government provides for them. The main problem they face is immigration and how to deal with it. They need a more younger population to support the aging population, but worry that immigrants, which they need, are not being accepted by their population and integrating into the existing society.

There was a brief book launch of a book of photography where all of the pictures were taken with an iPhone. It is a very clever idea for a book of photography.

The final session was on South East Asia. The book Blood and Silk looks at the SE Asia countries such as Thailand, Burma, Malesia, Singapore, Indonesia, Viet Nam, etc. The author is very pessimistic about their future. Democracy everywhere is on the decline. Religious intolerance, mainly pushed by Saudi Arabian money, is rampant. Only Viet Nam is a success, with a Communist government delivering to its people, much as China has, security and prosperity. The cost to the people is an authoritarian government.

Upon returning back to the Rambagh, we met Richard for drinks at the Polo Lounge. It was then off, once again by Uber to my new favorite Vegetarian Restaurant:  Meraaki Kitchens. It was an excellent day.