Readers
Writers Festival 2014
In the ‘World of Books’, the writers
play a very important role, for the very act of writing stems from them. On the
other hand, the readers play an equally important role; because if we were not
passionate about books, took delight in varied writings or critically analysed
the nuances and syntax of sentences in books, the very act of writing would go
in vain. We, as readers, literary critics and book lovers, are here to play
that important role in the ‘World of Books’. The French literary critic and theorist Roland
Bathes, in his essay ‘The
Death of the Author’, said, “Each piece of
writing contains multiple layers and meanings. The essential meaning of a work
depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the passions or tastes of
the writer. A text's unity lies not in its origins or its creator, but in its
destination or its audience. The author is merely a scriptor (a word Barthes
uses expressly to disrupt the traditional continuity of power between the terms
"author" and "authority"). The scriptor exists to produce,
but not to explain the work and is not the subject with the book as predicate.
Every work is eternally written here and now, with each re-reading, because the
origin of meaning lies exclusively in language itself and its impressions on
the reader.”
The
appropriately named, The Writers Readers Festival 2014(4th-7th Oct)
at Kala Academy, to the contrary constituted a pantheon of writers and only a
handful of ardent readers. The organizers had left no stone unturned with their
worthy contingent of writers from home and abroad, reading workshops,
interesting panel discussions and a book shop. Readers have a promise to keep
in the thriving industry of books, and complacency might just be our loss and
only ours to lament. Our allegiance is to the word, its celebration and glorification
and none else. If books and eminent writers are being presented to us on a
platter, a committed reader would rejoice and devour the word, in abeyance of
everything else.
Thomas
Keneally, the star author of the festival, took centre stage in many a discussion.
In his early eighties, with a writing career of fifty years and still writing,
he impressed the audience with experiences and anecdotes of his writing sojourn
interspersed with a ringing tone of hearty, belly-rumbling laughter. Shortlisted for the Booker prize four times, he finally
won the award with Schindler’s Ark in 1982. A piece of narrative
journalism morphed into a book, made famous by the film Schindler’s List
directed by Steven Spielberg. Rooted in an
ethos when word was sacred, a grandfather come to town, he regaled the
audiences with his raspy voice and old world charm peppered with a humorous recount
of the writings, then and now and his crusade for the republic of Australia. He
rightly endeared himself to all listeners when he humbly apologized for the
brutal killings of Indian students by Australians in Melbourne, in the last
couple of years. His moments of delight and satisfaction were mirrored in his
memories of a meeting with a woman reader on the skiing slopes of USA, who couldn’t
but stop herself from conveying to him the delight she had experienced in
reading his books.
Romesh Gunesekara,
aptly given the epithet guruji by Sudeep Chakravarti, during a master’s class
on narrative voices, too echoed the feeling of pure joy and contentment that
certain writings bring to us. Literary festivals, writings, publishing,
marketing are but endeavours towards that ephemeral bliss of the word that
writers and readers aim for. His book Reef shortlisted for the Booker in 1994,
and recent writing Noon Tide Toll was enumerated at discourses through the
festival. His fine diction riding on a wave of lilting verbal pronouncements
was delightful to the ears in the Black Box ambience.
Chinaman,
authored by Shehan Karunatilaka, is a beguiling book, like the chinaman art
of a bowler in cricket. Great stylistic
writing by Karunalatika, the book appears gullible to the reader, painting an
evocative picture of cricket and an alcoholic journalist’s search for a lost
cricketer. It kicks in the chinaman when the narrative unravels its intricately
woven theme of strife-torn socio-political milieu of Sri Lanka in the late 20th
century: of boy gangs and merciless ripping open of flesh in a bus of daily
commuters. The writer came across as a person of gravity, a deep thinker and
interrogator, questioning and then exposing the grinding truth in harsh black
and white colours.
Miguel
Syjico, the Filipino writer from Manila, left a significant mark at the
festival. Born into a dynastic political family of the Philippines, he opted to
be a writer. His debut novel, Illustrado won many awards. He proclaimed that he
would continue to be a thorn in the flesh for politicians through his writing.
Through parody, he imbues his characters with conflicting ideas, to expose the
phony through exploration of human psyche. He said he is continuously debunking
his own prejudices, inclinations and limitations through his writing journeys.
Kirsty Murray,
the children’s writer from Australia, delighted readers with her strong views
on themes of books for teenagers. She expressed a vital need for writers to
write about subjects that children experience in their adolescence. She hailed
writers like Ranjit Lal and Manjula Padmanabhan from India who have written
about sensitive issues like female foeticide and terrorism and other everyday
realities in Indian neighbourhoods. Her book The Year It All Ended about lives
of teenage girls deals with the repercussions of World War I and death.
Stephen
Mccarty endeared himself by his very affable disposition and interesting set of
steering questions as a moderator for panel discussions. Prajwal Parajuly’s
candid responses aimed at a plain, authentic author at work.
Home-grown
contingent included poetry readings from Tishani Doshi, Meena Kandasamy, Mamta
Sagar, Revathi Kutti.......Sudeep Chakravarti, the journalist-turned-author,
masterfully anchored discussions and expounded on his writings through troubled
lands. He also stressed on the use of social networks by writers and smart methodologies
to handle trolls on twitter and facebook. Manu Joseph recounted his interview
with the Hindu ideologue Parveen Togadia and extreme positions taken by
politicians in our so-called secular country.
Goan writers were represented by Savia Viegas and Frederick Noronha, who moderated panel
discussion on writings in Konkani, Portuguese, Marathi, and English in Goa, and
the prevailing connection between Portugal and Goa. Resourceful as ever Divya
Kapur served an unending delicious soufflé of books over the counter, of every
author in the fest. Kudos!
Anil
Alaham Kumar, CP Surendran and Sheweta Bajaj, the main organizers and anchors
of the mega event have added an interesting event to the calendar of events in Goa,
for which the book reading public of Goa is greatly indebted. The Readers
Writers Festival 2014 first belonged to the readers and then to the writers. To
many a successful recurrence through the years to come!
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