Fair ground for activism
KOLKATA: The cancellation of Taslima Nasrin’s book release programme created an uproar in the literary circle across the country. The repercussion was felt throughout Friday at the Kolkata Book Fair, with the crowd waiting with bated breath for two warring groups to lock horns over the issue. However, none of the groups finally turned up by the end of the day.
In the mean time, Nasrin’s seventh volume of the autobiography – Nirbashan – sold like hot cakes under police surveillance and the publishers ran out of stock by evening.
The procession by human rights activists belonging to the APDR will take place at 3pm on Saturday, according to an SMS the rights body has been circulating since Friday evening. Several renowned people from the world of literature and culture are expected to join the procession.
On Wednesday, representatives of the All India Minority Forum decried the release of the book by the publisher at their own stall. They demanded that the latest release be withdrawn forthwith from the fair.
“We were under the impression that the book was not being sold after our protest. The reality being quite different, we will have to discuss with the Imam of Tipu Sultan mosque about our next plan of action,” said Forum president Idris Ali.
“We will go ahead with our procession to slam the decision of the Guild to not allow the release. How long should we give in to threats of fundamentalists?” APDR spokesperson Debaprosad Roy Chowdhury questioned.
Police has been permanently posted outside the People’s Book Society stall to avoid any untoward incident. A big poster of Nirbashan was pasted outside the stall to publicise the book. Small posters of the six other volumes of the autobiography also adorned the stall. “We are happy that the insult meted out to Taslima by the Guild by not allowing the release of the book has actually led to a bumper sale,” said Shibani Mukherjee, publisher of People’s Book Society.
In the meantime, the APDR and the Bandi Mukti Committee took out a procession decrying the death of Maoist leader Kishenji and demanded the release of political prisoners.
At a book release programme later in the evening, writer and human rights activist Mahasweta Devi lauded the efforts of Anna Hazare to make the Lokpal Bill a reality through the non violent Gandhian path of fasting. “I belong to the Gandhian times and we actually saw how Gandhiji fasted for the cause of freedom. Such non violent methods can move mountains. I am also moved by the fast of Manipuri rights activist Iron Sharmila,” she said.
‘Are Kolkatans becoming cowards?’
KOLKATA: Surprised that the latest bid to throttle free speech had failed to provoke a city never shy of a protest, an angry Taslima Nasrin asked on Wednesday, “Kolkatar lokera ki kapurush hoye jachchhe? (Are Kolkatans becoming cowards?) “
“It’s a shame for Bengal,” the author told TOI hours after Kolkata Book Fair cancelled the release of the seventh part of her autobiography, ‘Nirbasan’ . Nasrin said it had brought back the painful memories of 2007 when she was forced to leave Kolkata, a city she refers to as home. “I never thought this could happen at the book fair. But then, what was unthinkable in Kolkata has already happened once. I was thrown out of the city as some fundamentalists triggered riots on November 22, 2007,” she said.
Nasrin still believes the city will welcome her back. “I am optimistic I shall be allowed to go to Kolkata and stay there as I do not have any other place to stay. India is my only place. I still feel Kolkata is my home and I shall be allowed to live in peace there.”
She lashed out at radicals for creating an environment of fear. “I fear the fundamentalists can create a ruckus at the stall of my publisher and can vandalize it. ‘Nirbasan’ is based on the incidents that forced me to leave Kolkata and how I was taken to Jaipur and then to Delhi under house arrest,” she said.
Power cut stumps Imran mid-sentence at book fair
KOLKATA: Suave and articulate , Imran Khan is never at a loss for words. He never has been, even as captain of the Pakistani team after losing a crucial match.
On Monday, though, the Oxford-educated Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician was stumped mid-sentence . “Fundamentalists in every country should be treated intellectually . Never fight with guns. Terror… ” the sentence never got completed. For, the auditorium had plunged into darkness.
For 60 tense seconds, the huge auditorium at Kolkata Book Fair remained in pitch darkness, giving security staff goose pimples as the frontrunner in the next general elections in Pakistan stood helplessly on the dais, vulnerable and exposed to attack from an unruly crowd.
Though book fair organizers later claimed they had switched off the lights to enable Imran to make a safe exit, security officers brushed it off with contempt, saying it was a major security breach at the high-profile event.
“What if someone was intent on mischief and had evil designs? It was the perfect opportunity to target Imran who is tipped to be Pakistan’s next prime minister. Even otherwise , with fans and media persons eager to get close to him, he could have been injured,” a security officer said.
Unfazed by the incident, Publishers & Booksellers Guild (PBG) general secretary Tridib Chatterjee said he had ordered the power to the main auditorium to be switched off at 5.58pm so that Imran could be escorted out under the cover of darkness.
That, though, didn’t happen . Imran stood frozen on the stage, confronted by an advancing crowd of fans. Even emergency lights weren’t there. It was only when videographers switched on their camera lights that securitymen jumped to Imran’s side. He was escorted out once the lights returned after a minute.
I’m not scared of controversies: Bhagat
KOLKATA: Doing the plain speak has got him into trouble all the time, confessed bestselling author Chetan Bhagat on Sunday afternoon over a relaxed and chilled out interview. He was obviously referring to the volley of words that he and writer Salman Rushdie have been sharing, since the Jaipur Literary Festival controversy surrounding Rushdie. The virtual war is being fought on Twitter.
Bhagat was here on Sunday for a discussion on being a bestselling author, as part of the Kolkata Literary Meet, which is a part of this year’s Kolkata Book Fair.
The latest discus that has come from Rushdie is, “Chetan : People like me are liberal extremists, as bad as the fundos. I am being ‘Bhaggered’; it’s like being molested by Dan Brown!” To this Bhagat has tweeted back saying that Rishdie was probably feeling “neglected”, now that the controversy is dying down!
“I was just outspoken about the fact that no one has the right to hurt sentiments and sensibilities of the people of any country. Rushdie is a great writer, much greater than I will ever be, but does that give him the right to hurt religious sentiments? Someone’s prophet is sacrosanct. As a writer, each one of us should respect that,” Bhagat said.
Bhagat had started off the fight at the Jaipur Literary Meet by saying, “don’t make heroes out of banned authors.” But is he running into controversies all the time? In the past he had ruffled feathers with his comments on the makers of the film, Three Idiots based on his Book, Five Point Someone and by commenting on Infosys chief Narayan Murthy.
“I’m not scared of controversies. Happily, they have not hurt my image. I openly air my views instead of sitting on the fence, and that is where I perhaps differ from others who prefer to keep quiet. If I were writing something derogatory and in the process I was hurting sentiments, I would have been similarly criticised!” he was emphatic. “Every country has a different set of values. Can my ultra liberal extremist friends tell me why pornography is not allowed in the country and why the censor board still has to pass every film?”
He however insisted that this polarisation of the country into pro and anti Salman Rushdie camps is unfair. “We need to take a middle path by starting a dialogue. I also condemn the act by certain intellectuals who in their urge to show solidarity with Rushdie, actually started reading from Satanic Verses! Do they realise that they were playing with fire? Do they realise that this could have led to violence?” he asked.
Choosing not to mince words, Bhagat was also satirical about Anna Hazare’s method of drawing attention. “I don’t agree that starving yourself is the only option available. Why should you fast? Are you a Bollywood actress, who don’t eat anyway. So why don’t you get one of them to promote or market your cause? I believe that will have a greater impact.”
On the issue of writing one bestseller after another and almost creating a reading revolution by getting even non-readers to read his books, Bhagat said, “that is probably because I write in accessible language. My readers are those who know English but who are perhaps not elite enough to appreciate high literary language. Also, I write about contemporary issues of our country, life and societies with which it is perhaps easy to identify,” he said.
He thinks he is different from the elite Indo Anglican genre of writers becauuse he does not need the Western stamp of approval, which the others of that genre do. “Yes, when they win a Booker or a Pulitzer, they create waves around the world. Otherwise they are authors who are read by the Indophiles or the non resident Indian diaspora. The western world has its own authors with whom it identifies. Fortunately, I am writing for my own people,” he signa off.
Book on Kishanji’s last interview
KOLKATA: The last interview of Maoist leader Kishenji has been published as part of an explosive book on Jangalmahal that was released at the Kolkata Book Fair on Sunday. The book, Breaking News : Jangalmahal, is a compilation of articles by 21 journalists of both print and audio visual media, by Deep Prakashani. The book was released by human rights activist, Sujato Bhadra.
The last interview of Kishenji, which has been jointly contributed by three reporters, talks about how Kishenji had finally lost faith in the peace talks and started raising questions about the way in which the mediators for peace talks were being changed and often intimidated by the state sponsored forces.
In the course of the conversation, Kishenji denies allegations that he had left Jangalmahal. Asked if he would lay down arms if the government agrees to peace talks, he said that there would be a cease fire but it was impossible for a Maoist to surrender arms when he had pledged to empower the helpless with arms and when armed struggle was his mantra.
The book is divided into different chapters about the experiences of reporters while working in Jangalmahal. While some have written about tribal life as they saw it, others have written about a society divided. Yet others have written about the prevailing socio-economic condition in Jangalmahal.
Literary fest ends, leaving readers asking for more
KOLKATA: Male writers are often accused of not understanding the female psyche. But reading Bi Feiyu is bound to change that. An English translation of his ‘Three Sisters’ was launched as part of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival on Sunday. It is a story of three sisters in Mainland China, struggling to survive in the aftermath of China’s Cultural Revolution. Readers will be amazed by the sensitivity and maturity with which young Feiyu has handled the three conflicting yet close female characters, moving towards an inevitable end. It is by showcasing leading Chinese author Feiyu that the festival came to a close.
Feiyu, one of China’s best known novelists today, won the Man Asian Literary Prize, 2010, and is hence someone whose presence generated a lot of interest among book lovers. He interacted with historian Sugato Bose at the event and spoke about how the different stages of turbulent Chinese history influenced the literature of the country since the last century. Thus, the post-World War II phase saw the rise of the Communists which caused a severe tumult in the traditional social skin of the country. Again, the Japanese invasion of China after 1937, the civil war of 1945-49, the famine of 1959-61, the Cultural Revolution of 1966-70 had their influences on Chinese literature, the author explained.
“We also had a phase when literature needed the sanction of Mao Tse Dong. However, Chinese modern literature flourished after the Cultural Revolution and a decade thereafter it came of age,” Feiyu said. He added that writers, just like historians, have the responsibility of showcasing every social change. He also stressed that after the mid ’70s, Chinese authors stopped imitating the Western literary world and it was evident in their creations.
Feiyu has been greatly influenced by Tagore, he said, so much so that “my wife will be extremely pleased to know that I got the chance to visit Jorasanko, Tagore’s ancestral home”, he said. He equalled this visit with his visit to Taj Mahal a couple of days back, on his way here.
Sunday morning saw Tishani Doshi, an upcoming name in the field of Indian writing in English, reading out poems from her latest book ‘Everything Begins Elsewhere’, where she talks about acceptance of loss in life. Doshi lives in the US but she has her roots in Gujarat and hence her programme was titled ‘Kavi Katha via Gujarat’. However, the star attraction of the programme, danseuse and activist Mallika Sarabhai, could not finally make it, leaving the audience disappointed. She was supposed to talk about the post-Godhra riot-ravaged Gujarat and her activism for the cause of the victims.
As the curtains came down on the five-day festival, the first of its kind that the city has experienced, people came asking for more. Interestingly, close on the heels of this festival, the city will witness the Kolkata Literary Meet, that will be organised from the end of January to the beginning of February as part of the Kolkata Book Fair. This meet will see authors Vikram Seth, Chetan Bhagat, Amish Tripathi, Kunal Basu and many others flocking here to chat about contemporary writing.
