Why should you attend a literature festival?
The first thing that strikes you when you
enter a literature festival arena is a difference at large. You will find women who wear saree around their necks, men who wear a shirt cut from a saree,men and women wearing dark glasses, some wearing large glasses without power, people holding large expensive bags, sustainability conscious people carrying plastic water bottles, people wearing hats, people who talk with a thick British English accent and who laugh at the appropriate places and share meaningful glances. Then there are the more common ones - who take pictures with the hashtag installation and put them up on Facebook and Instagram so that so that their friends can perceive them to be cool and evolved or if I may use the most abused word of the season , "woke".
It is heartening to see elderly couple who enjoy the discussions and make notes so that they can discuss them later. In sharp contrast, will be the group of youngsters who talk loudly with no intention of listening or letting others listen and thus invite wrath filled stares. How can I forget the LARGE bindis and beards! Add to this, some new authors who are so incoherent in their thoughts and the way they speak that makes one feel bad for the interviewer who has to sit through the suffering of an interview with them. A special mention for supposedly creative venue names , many a time which doesn't make any sense at all :).
It also helps the lesser mortals like us, the ones who need to work for a living to get a glimpse in to the lives of the upper echelons of the society. You will see how they can afford to move around ever so elegantly on the lawns of five star properties so deeply moved by the disturbing thoughts of where our society and world at large is headed. You will also hear oft repeated phrases and words - narrative, landscape, individualism, liberal, right wing, toxic masculinity, feminism, urban, millennials etc. You will also see people asking such daft questions which are miles away from what the panel was trying to discuss. Their only intention is to show off what they think in long winding sentences. Many a time, there are no questions at all-they are just uninformed comments.
Now that we have covered the facetious side, literature festivals really help us to get exposed to multitudes of perspectives. You get to hear people from the left, right and centre. If the festival is curated with heart in its right place, you will get to understand what people from different walks of life think of issues that we all deal with.
A lit fest gives you a broader understanding of multiple fields like art, movies, literature, politics and rest in a limited period of time. This happens by virtue of listening to many interviews and panel discussions on the above mentioned topics. Some of the discussions are really interesting, informing and intellectual. Some are well, plain boring.
The beauty of a litfest is the luxury of indulging ones own mind with a plethora of perspectives. All one needs to do is walk in, sit down and LISTEN. Thanks to the technological distractions around us, this is an ideal place where one can hone one's listening skills which really is the need of the hour for many of us, if not all. In some moments of brilliance, one feels so conflicted when one hears some perspectives and arguments that are so different from what one believes in, yet have merit to them. So go to a litfest and allow yourself to evolve from left to right, right to left or however you would prefer .
It is heartening to see elderly couple who enjoy the discussions and make notes so that they can discuss them later. In sharp contrast, will be the group of youngsters who talk loudly with no intention of listening or letting others listen and thus invite wrath filled stares. How can I forget the LARGE bindis and beards! Add to this, some new authors who are so incoherent in their thoughts and the way they speak that makes one feel bad for the interviewer who has to sit through the suffering of an interview with them. A special mention for supposedly creative venue names , many a time which doesn't make any sense at all :).
It also helps the lesser mortals like us, the ones who need to work for a living to get a glimpse in to the lives of the upper echelons of the society. You will see how they can afford to move around ever so elegantly on the lawns of five star properties so deeply moved by the disturbing thoughts of where our society and world at large is headed. You will also hear oft repeated phrases and words - narrative, landscape, individualism, liberal, right wing, toxic masculinity, feminism, urban, millennials etc. You will also see people asking such daft questions which are miles away from what the panel was trying to discuss. Their only intention is to show off what they think in long winding sentences. Many a time, there are no questions at all-they are just uninformed comments.
Now that we have covered the facetious side, literature festivals really help us to get exposed to multitudes of perspectives. You get to hear people from the left, right and centre. If the festival is curated with heart in its right place, you will get to understand what people from different walks of life think of issues that we all deal with.
A lit fest gives you a broader understanding of multiple fields like art, movies, literature, politics and rest in a limited period of time. This happens by virtue of listening to many interviews and panel discussions on the above mentioned topics. Some of the discussions are really interesting, informing and intellectual. Some are well, plain boring.
The beauty of a litfest is the luxury of indulging ones own mind with a plethora of perspectives. All one needs to do is walk in, sit down and LISTEN. Thanks to the technological distractions around us, this is an ideal place where one can hone one's listening skills which really is the need of the hour for many of us, if not all. In some moments of brilliance, one feels so conflicted when one hears some perspectives and arguments that are so different from what one believes in, yet have merit to them. So go to a litfest and allow yourself to evolve from left to right, right to left or however you would prefer .
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