Jaipur Literature Festival!

The Jaipur literature festival, the biggest Asian literature festival is on. People from all over the world are here. Well you ask what JLF is. It is like any other literature festival but has great importance in India and in Jaipur. Trust me, it was like another Mahakumbh happening. I told someone that it was a VVIP event and the passes were not available but when I saw the crowd I knew that it was nothing like that (we had to online register ourselves and the entry was free).

So coming back to the festival, because it was my first experience I found it pretty amazing. The venue was Diggi Palace. And the session that I attended comprised of Shabana Azmi and Prasoon Joshi on the speaker’s list. Well, I am sure Indians are aware about them, but for the others, Shabana Azmi is an Indian theatre personality and Prasoon Joshi is a lyricist. His work includes Tare Zameen Par (amazing movie). They had been talking about issues like girls being harassed in our country. The pivotal role they played in our film industry, society and the women basically. ‘

What I find worth sharing? Well, Prasoon Joshi remarked on the use of Hindi abuses. He said that he had done a research in which he found out that in foreign countries the abuse is directed to the person like f*** you(He actually used the word but the host told him to censor it). In the case of Hindi abuses the abuse is directed to our mother or sister, which is very true.

Shabana Azmi spoke about the lyrics of the songs these days. She said that dancing to item numbers just because they have a nice beat has no meaning. I think that was she meant as she constantly criticised the wordings of the item numbers, another fact which is very true.

 ‘Crime cannot become cool’, said Prasoon Joshi. I think that was very well said because he was referring to movies like Dabangg and Ishaqzaade. Since these pictures glamourize violence, young boys seem to follow it.

There are lots of things to be shared but I will stick to the limit. Basically it was a wonderful experience and I loved it! Had they managed the crowd it would have been more amazing. The JLF goes on till 27^th January and there is online registration @ kyazoonga.com

If you are in Jaipur or happen to be near Jaipur. Go for it!

I wasn't joking about the crowd.

PS.my sister managed to get Shabana Azmi’s autograph. Yeah!