Why did I seek out a literature festival for a vacation and a getaway? That too a lesser known one? Firstly because I love delicious minds, and secondly I do love Dehradun. I love the fact, that this festival doesn't tom-tom itself, it doesn't have a line-up of the who's-who of grand egos. It is a smallish festival attended mainly by the students themselves of Doon School. (Doon School is where the festival is held) I love the energy and the vibe of the students, they are the ones showing you around, manning registration counters and also just in general having fun themselves.
God, I do hope it stays small and intimate and the best minds do keep coming there (and now I feel it is time to participate in a festival than merely attend it, so let's see how that goes)
Just putting down a few sessions that were a standout for me, and this is a to be continued feature :)
First session:
The first session I attended I was halfway in, I managed to catch only last ten minutes of the session.
I remember the session being about 'Success in a career' and it was led by an entrepreneur who had a rags to riches success story, someone who is a coach to organisations and a moderator. I was tempted to ask, and I did: 'I asked them their definition of success' and boy did I love the answers.
I remember the session being about 'Success in a career' and it was led by an entrepreneur who had a rags to riches success story, someone who is a coach to organisations and a moderator. I was tempted to ask, and I did: 'I asked them their definition of success' and boy did I love the answers.
First off was the coach, who said, that success is very personal and not a universal definition. For someone success simply is waking up early and packing their child's tiffin or for someone success is looking after their ailing parents. (did I mention I loved the answer)
Next, came in the answer from the entrepreneur, who mentioned an incident: His wife was in the hospital and battling cancer, she was also struck with paralysis and could only move her two thumbs. She was admittedly very frustrated and mad about the state she was in. He was at that time working from the hospital and reminded her to focus on what she did have: the resources to be admitted in the best hospital in the city, her family and friends by her side and most of all, the fact that she could still use her two thumbs. His wife then used her two thumbs and penned down short love stories upon observations in the hospital. All on her mobile phone, and they are now shortly getting published. This to him was success is what he said. And all I really could do was nod, because I had tears streaming down my eyes.
Second session:
The second session I attended was very intriguingly called 'Masala Shakespeare' and was led by the author and professor, Jonathan Gil Harris. Jonathan is a New Zealander, who is now based in India and he wore the most impeccable kurta-pyjama I have seen. The 'Gil' in his name is adopted to accommodate his love for India.
He spoke of fascinating things. The ones I loved were:
His observation that what's common between Shakespeare and Bollywood is that: they both want to talk to the largest denominator and want to include everyone. He compared Shakespeare's work to that of Manmohan Desai (Amar, Akbar, Anthony), that speaks to everyone in the masses. Nobody is excluded.
He also mentioned that he loved, 'Bombay' versus 'Mumbai' because Bombay was more tolerant, every single one of us could sit next to each other in a theatre and watch a film. In a theatre we were equal.
He also mentioned that if you listen closely the iambic pentameter (the style in which Shakespeare wrote most of his poetry) it sounds a little like a heartbeat
Here I didn't ask a question, just told Mr Harris that I think his students are very very lucky.
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