The second and final day of Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) 2024 was on Sunday (December 15). After a fortnight of rains courtesy Cyclone Fengal, Bangalore’s famously unpredictable weather held steady and sunny. Proceedings featured literary stars like William Dalrymple; insights from major publishers and literary agents including Deepthi Talwar (of Penguin Random House India) and Preeti Gill (independent editor and literary agent); and a continuing focus on regional literature, featuring writers such as Abdul Rasheed, Haridas Bhat, and B. Jeyamohan.
Day 2 also featured LitMart and ScreenLit, forums for emerging writers and screenwriters to pitch their ideas before a panel of industry experts. LitMart, which began in 2014, has resulted in five published books, with another four or five deals underway, according to festival team member Srikrishna Ramamoorthy. The Children’s Literature Festival, along with the open-air bookstores for children and the bookstore for adult fiction, continued thriving operations day-long.
Open air bookstore at the festival.
Retellings of the epics and fresh approaches to history have been a major feature of Indian literature in recent years. Writers such as Anuja Chandramouli, Charu Nivedita, and Ami Ganatra discussed contemporary reinterpretations of our past, both real and imagined. Ami Ganatra discussed the lives of mythical queens and the customs, often regionally varying, governing the marriage and remarriage of elite women. Chandramouli defended her pursuit of the reinvention of myth: old stories, she asserted, continue to shape how we define womanhood. Retelling these stories, therefore, is vital to our ongoing questioning of pedestals – “on which women are placed only so that they can be torn down” – and of, for instance, the Madonna-vs.-whore dichotomy that still filters down to us from the epics.
Continuing this discussion of women’s issues, Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari, winner of this year’s Atta Galatta Best prize for fiction (awarded on Day 1 of BLF), discussed “the burden of motherhood.” So sanctified has motherhood been in India, she said, that “a mother is not allowed to be anything else.” This idealised, stifling model of motherhood has clear implications for the wellbeing of both mothers and their children.
T.V. Paul, in conversation with Liz Matthew, reminded us of an unpalatable fact: a handful of constituencies determine the fate of all of India. The Canadian political scientist discoursed on the possible future of India-Canada relations, and the expected effect of Trump’s second presidency on the US’s northern neighbour, which hosts a growing population of Indian expatriates. In India’s quest to achieve major power status, Paul predicted that navigating our relationships with immediate neighbours, especially China, will be key.
Also read: Crime, Culture and Politics Dominate Bangalore Literature Festival Day 1
Kiran Keswani, architect and writer, discussed the design and greening of the IIM-Bangalore campus. Her new book, initially intended for current and former students and staff for the institute’s golden jubilee, expanded its horizons to wrestle with questions around the lived experiences and liveability of public spaces in India. Keswani’s organisation, Everyday City Lab, aims to make informed and inclusive urban planning integral to India’s often haphazard approach to its cities.
Prayaag Akbar, Radhika Oberoi, Radhika Swarup and Kannanari discussed their novels grappling with challenges facing contemporary Indian youth. Oberoi’s novel was inspired by sloganeering during the anti-CAA protests. Swaroop’s novel traces human suffering and adaptation during the pandemic; efforts by her characters to cope and create community include forming a book club in Delhi. Akbar’s novel features a college student who, during the pandemic, becomes increasingly frustrated with the political situation. Akbar had noticed among his own college students an increasing lack of awareness of mainstream news, and a corresponding predilection towards YouTube commentators. Originally, his protagonist was going to be a caricature, a not-too-bright young man brainwashed by right-wing propaganda. But, as Akbar explored the world of YouTube news, he was struck by the cogent arguments and considerable charisma often marshalled in favour of indefensible stances. He realised that his radicalised character had to honour the nuances of experience and the unexpected intelligence among young people who go astray.
A session at the Bangalore Literature Festival 2024. Photo: Amita Basu
A.J. Thomas, Arunava Sinha, Chandan Pandey, Manu Dash and Preeti Gill discussed their perspectives – as writers, scholars, agents and editors – on what makes a story great. Thomas, long associated with Sahitya Akademi’s journal, discussed his own focus on the short story as editor and educator. As models, he cited M. T. Vasudevan Nair’s Vision, where a blind elderly woman shows immense spiritual vision in being the only one to support her granddaughter through a difficult marriage; and M. Mukundan’s Photo, which traces two children’s starry-eyed attempts to get professionally photographed in crime-ridden New Delhi. Manu Dash similarly emphasised the role of the short story in Oriya literature. He cited Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Rebati (1898), which follows the efforts of a father to educate his young daughter; opposition from the girl’s grandmother, and then the cholera epidemic, alter the course of events.
Sandhya Mary and Sheela Tomy discussed the importance of stories told from an outsider’s perspective and the pervasive, invisible influence of the patriarchy of all stories told by women, whether overtly feminist or not. The audience included many young readers who had discovered Malayali writers in translation. By popular appeal, Mary’s translator, Jayashree Kalathil, was requested to sign copies of these authors’ books, and was invited onstage. “One of the pleasures of knowing two languages,” said Kalathil, “is that you can bring great books to new readers.”
Tanuja Chaturvedi discussed her biography of the long and productive relationship between Dev Anand and Vijay Anand. Session host Shantanu Ray Chaudhari asked why this actor-director relationship is not as well-known as for instance, those between Satyajit Ray and Soumita Chatterjee, and Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Chaturvedi acknowledged that this is partly because, sadly, the chasm between popular and critically acclaimed cinema continues. The relationship between the two brothers, while naturally not always conflict-free, involved creative inputs on both sides, as well as some awkwardness, for instance when Vijay “Goldie” Anand had to direct his brother “in a love scene with the sprightly Mumtaz.” Chaturvedi cautions, however, that her biography is not a gossip column, originating rather from her scholarly interests as a film historian.
Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, discussed lessons from his storied journey as a startup entrepreneur. Both too much capital and too little, he said – sometimes, paradoxically, at the same time – can plague startups. But a shortage of money, while often the proximal cause for startup failure, should not be taken as the ultimate cause. Bansal affirmed the importance of the right idea at the right time, but also acknowledged the role of luck, referring to very talented and industrious friends whose ventures had failed for unforeseeable reasons. But failure, Bansal cautioned the pressing crowd of young Bangaloreans, is not a word that should exist in an entrepreneur’s vocabulary – there are always lessons to take away, even if one chooses to return to a corporate career. “An entrepreneur is one for whom every problem is his/her problem,” said Bansal, in an ode to the motto of taking full accountability.
Upamanyu Chatterjee discussed the continuing foreignness of the English language, and the role of humour in good writing. In his new novel, the protagonist, in his quest for meaning, resorts to religion, but ultimately finds in that path an inadequate answer.
The 13th edition of Bangalore Literature Festival celebrated genres from biography to historical fiction and nonfiction; from queer writing to writing in regional languages; from sports and culinary writing to writing about ecological issues. In every generation, pessimists wring their hands over the death of reading and publishing. BLF, as a community-funded, well-attended, and diverse celebration of the literary arts, continues to contradict the naysayers of our times.
Amita Basu is a Pushcart-nominated writer whose fiction appears in over 75 venues including The Penn Review, Bamboo Ridge, Jelly Bucket, Phoebe, and The Bombay Literary Magazine.