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So a Mumbaikar today looks forward to a Diwali for only the holidays one gets and not so much for the noisy and polluting celebrations or the sweetmeats. Or so it seems. The 2010 Diwali however was rather unusual for us Mumbaikars- we had the high-profile head of the most powerful nation in the world, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle visit us bang in the middle of the celebrations to add to the sparkle of our festivities! So we watched them dance with our schooling kids and talk to our young student in college, while the TV channels featured experts, politicians and editors, who debated ad-nauseum about what the US President would or would not say, should have or should not have said between those delightful glimpses of the charming couple’s graceful appearances beamed live into our living rooms.
All that 'expert talk' turned out to be phuskas (the crackers that fail to explode) compared to the real phatakas (the crackers that explode with a bang) that came from our young college students like Afsheen Irani and the likes who breathed fresh life into the debate by bringing to the table the real questions and even correctly judged the geo-political situation, unlike the misreadings by “experts” all day long! All one can say at the end of the visit was, we can hope for a brighter future with these kind of youngsters amongst us!
Just as Diwali, the Festival of Lights drew to a close, another Festival, the first of its kind in Mumbai was being announced in the Times of India – the Literature Live Festival! Having tasted success in Jaipur, the think tank headed by renowned Anil Dharker, the Festival Director got their plans moving by roping in the much-needed sponsors to initiate what will hopefully be a small beginning of a bigger event in times to come. Our country has seen many new writers in recent times. Indian writing has been making its mark on the globe – with more authors bagging the Booker Prize and such other international forms of recognition besides a global readership. It is about time to cash in on this emerging trend.
Having been able to attend some of these sessions at the NCPA at Mumbai, one found a unique possibility open up, when readers and aspiring writers could interact with Indian authors and some of the new publishers, who are also being drawn to the party of Indian writings like never before! Besides being treated to the thoughts and novel ideas (pun intended) behind the successful authors about their approach to writing, increasing trend of relating to mythological themes, travails and tribulations with publishing houses, one also found that writers still fighting shy to come out and talk openly about compensation issues.
When will writers be able to proudly tell the world that they are just writers, without being asked the inevitable next question, ‘but what do you do for a living’, I asked. A publisher promptly replied that there had been more successful writers amongst us than ever before and we could be getting there sometime soon! Until that happens, writers may have to look for day jobs to fend for themselves and their families, I guess.
The festival is certainly a good beginning! But what seems to be the need of the hour is a great amount of effort on the part of schools, colleges, NGOs, teachers- just about everyone to encourage people to put of their idiot box………
………………………………AND JUST READ A BOOK!
Blogger's Post-script:
1. The icing on the cake for me had been a chance meeting with my favourite humour columnist, the adorable and humble, Bachi Karkaria and have my pic taken with her!
A pic with Bachi Karkaria, the most humorous columnist with the Times of India.
2. Read more reports about the festival here:
