Day Two @ Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest
~ Unveiling the cover of Rani Dharker’s book Once Upon a time…there was Baroda, book launch of David Godwin’s
Breaking 80 and launch of Akash Kapur’s India Becoming ~
~Exciting performances of 14th Tale by Inua Ellams & Hip-hop Shakespeare by Akala ~
Having enjoyed an eventful first-day at Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest, the second day saw an eager gathering of literature enthusiasts participating at the festival.
The beginning was a poetic note with a reading from Gieve Patel, Anand Thakore and Trevor Carolan; as also a journey into the vintage town of Vadodara thanks to Rani Dharker unveiling the cover of Once Upon a Time… there was Baroda. She was joined later by Karan Grover for a multimedia presentation on architectural stories.
British Psycho-analyst Juliet Mitchell then took the Little Theatre for an engaging ride as she discussed ‘Siblings and War’ with her Indian counterpart Sudhir Kakar. Poetry, however seemed to be the tone of the day as Lahore-born celebrated anthologist Arvind Krishna Mehrotra made a classic presentation on Indian poetry of the last 2000 years and Gerson D’Cunha did the reading. Later in the evening, the vibe at the same venue was further sepia-toned with another reading from British playwright Glyn Maxwell on Poems of Lost Time.
Arguably the most exciting event of the day was when Mumbai men and ‘Twitterati’ Sachin Kalbag, Vir Sanghvi, Pritish Nandy and Peter Griffin got into a lively, insightful panel discussion about writing in the age of Twitter. There were more panel discussions in store though, and the attendees did not mind it a bit: Two more gentlemen from maximum city Jerry Pinto and Arun Shourie joined Sudhir Kakar and author Vrinda Nabar had an intimate tête-à-tête about writing on one’s own family.
The LitFest’s striking feature of getting together eclectic personalities on stage was on show once more, as actor Rahul Bose, writer Chandrahas Chaudhary, musician Jeet Thayil and novelist Michelle de Kretser discussed ‘10 ways a novel can change your life’ and added several more counts to that!
Day 2 of the Tata Literature Live! was busy in terms of book launches and workshops too, with journalist Dilip D’Souza kicking off the day with an eager bunch of listeners, talking about the crafts of travel writing. Writer of three books of poems Arundhati Subramaniam on the other hand elucidated on the nuances of language in poetry. Akash Kapur’s book launch India Becoming and David Godwin’s launch of his hugely enjoyable memoir Breaking 80 too was a highlight. He joined publisher Gautam Padmanabhan and writer David Davidar later in an open Q-n-A session too.
No day at the Mumbai LitFest 2012 winds up without performances, and Thursday’s shows were an ode to innovation and humour. While award-winning poet Inua Ellams ensured his self-portraits of growing up in Nigeria, Dublin and London engrossed all, the show-stealer was rapper Akala, whose ‘hip-hop’ styled Shakespeare sonnets had everyone’s eyebrows raised.
Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2012 can safely be called a potpourri of a multitude of literary genres, but there’s more to come. Tomorrow sees the launch of the Harper Collins Book of English Poetry by Indians by Sudeep Sen as well as panel discussions featuring Ayaz Memon, Boria Majumdar and Tenzin Tsundue. Author Shobhaa De also launches her book Sethji and is slated for a conversation with LitLive director Anil Dharker.
For those who haven’t made it yet, entry to the festival is free and on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Tata Group is the title sponsor for the festival, supported by Landmark, Tata Steel and Land Rover. Details of this festival and program schedule are available on www.litlive.com
You can also follow Tata Literature Live on Facebook: www.facebook.com/
