Jaipur Literature Festival: my poetry readings and panel discussion (videos)

For those who couldn’t be there at Jaipur, and for those who were at Jaipur but couldn’t make it to the Durbar Hall-Mughal Tent, here are the video links:

My poetry reading as part of Chauraha on the 23rd January (with Arundhati Subramaniam, Karthika Nair and Jatin Das). I read for the first quarter.

http://vimeo.com/19403531

For the lazy ones, don’t skip the post 42:00 bit. I perform Jouissance in honour of Ahalya (and Lacan, among others).

And, here is the video to the Hall of Shame on the caste system where I was on a panel with Patrick French, S. Anand and Chandra Bhan Prasad (22nd January, Durbar Hall).

http://vimeo.com/19213155

And the first day of the festival comes last. This was Anthardwani, in honour of silenced voices. I read a poem The Noble Eightfold Path on the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the poem was dedicated to the 60,000 Tamils killed in the last few days of the war. (For those of you in a hurry, I read at around 19:30)

http://vimeo.com/19114183

Jaipur will remain one of the most memorable highlights of my life. I still can’t believe it is over, that I’ve returned back to real life. Those were the most magical days and nights of my life! Not just because there were the nobel laureates Orhan Pamuk and JM Coetzee. But because I got to meet Chimamanda in the flesh and blood. Because I got to rebond with Gcina. Because I could get to hear Jeet Thayil read from his explosive new book Narcopolis. Because over dinner one got to talk to people one had only read, or read about. And also because, over and above all this, my voice was heard. Where else in India would I have got the chance to (and got away with) talking about the Tamil genocide? Where else could we discuss police atrocity on dalits during a lit festival? Where else could you have such heated discussions on Kashmir? It was my first big literary festival within India, and I loved every bit of it.