FLASHBACK. 2006. Five years ago, a damp and gloomy January in Jaipur. Some 17 writers congregate in the Pink City for a literature festival hosted by Virasat. The idea came from Faith Singh and William Dalrymple. Pramod KG, then Director of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation, and Mita Kapur, had put together a delightful programme that included some extraordinary dance and music, including a memorable performance by Malavika Sarrukai in the courtyard of the Ramchandraji Temple.
Shobhaa De was one of the stars of that first festival. Mega-mystique firmly in place, she had the Jaipur audience charmed. Tarun Tejpal was there too, and has been ever since, an ever-generous friend of the lit fest. William Dalrymple was bundled against the biting cold in an elegant but large quilted coat. Alka Saraogi couldn?t come, at the very last minute and neither could Ira Pande. Hari Kunzru was a great hit, and so was Mahmood Farooqi with his eloquent rendering of the Dastaan Goi, delivered in flawless Urdu, which everybody seemed somehow to understand. And, yes, there were pigeons flying in and out of the Darbar Hall, and a parrot too. Later, we sat on the lawns and talked about the festival and how we hoped it would be a little larger next year.
2007: Salman Rushdie stole the show that year. And we had Kiran Desai with the Booker laurels still green in her hair. William Dalrymple read from The Last Mughal, in a picturesque evening slot, silhouetted against the dark turrets of Amer Fort. Salman Rushdie didn?t have security, was rude to one journalist, charming to several others and gave a brilliant interview to Barkha Dutt. Anupam Mishra read from his bestselling Hindi book Rajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein (Radiant Raindrops of Rajasthan), which has sold over a million copies, more even than Salman Rushdie. And Ira Pande and me in a comic/serious cousins act, talking about I have forgotten what.
2008: Time moves quickly and it?s Jaipur in January again. Sanjoy Roy and Teamworks are producing the festival now and they bring a new professionalism and elan to the show. The big names are all there, and the soon to be big new voices, undiscovered voices and new undiscovered voices as well. Salma, a Muslim-Tamil writer with startling talent, steals the show and the attention of the media. And the stars? Dev Anand was there, dapper and debonair as ever, signing copies of his just released autobiography. Dev Sahib actually remembered the last time he had met me?in 1979! Who else was there? Ian McEwan, Christopher Hampton, Donna Tartt, Nayantara Sahgal, Aparna Sen, Kunal Basu , Manil Suri, Indira Sinha, Uday Prakash, Namita Devidyal, Jeet Thayal, Tishani Doshi, Sampurna Chatterjee, Sarnath Bannerjee, Ambrish Satwik, Sonia Faleiro. Pakistani writers Moni Mohsin, Kamila Shamsie, ShahBano Bilgrami…. the list goes on.
2009: The year of Amitabh Bachchan. His book Bacchanalia has just been released. Vikram Seth in the front lawns in conversation with Sonia Falerio. Then there is Patrick French and Nandan Nilekani. There is Gulzar, whose Oscar is announced even as he is sitting on the lawns, listening to the music. Sunil Gangopadhyay and UR Ananthamurthy. And Chetan Bhagat causing a stampede among the teenyboppers. Tina Brown came too and described it as the ?the greatest literary show on earth?. Brilliant readings and conversations from Simon Schama, Wendy Doniger, Pico Iyer, Shashi Tharoor, Ashish Nandy, Tarun Tejpal, Hari Kunzru (again),Alice Albinia, Ashok Vajpeyi and brother Udayan Vajpeyi, Nadeem Aslam, Mohammed Hanif, Daniyal Mueenuddin and many more.
2010: All of us?me, William Dalrymple, Sanjoy Roy, Sheuli Sethi?nagging and fretting and pushing things along. Fingers crossed.