http://www.openthemagazine.com 81over Maya Jasanoff ’s brain. another says best moment was dur-
ing the Tom stoppard talk (which he said rambled on a bit), but
when stoppard was asked why he wrote about Tsarist Russia,
he said, “Because i have empathy for superfluous men.” (Note
to self: empathy for superfluous men could be the great festival
takeaway). aanchal Malhotra cannot say enough good things
about salil Tripathi’s moderation of the Rohingyas panel.
anuja Chauhan’s vote goes to P sainath.
side sainath story (a stolen one). sainath is standing in
the queue for the loo at the author’s lounge. a lot of chitchat
happens in loo queues at Jaipur. staring at bathroom door is
a bit like staring at kettle waiting for it to boil. staring makes
nothing happen. Person inside finally pushes open the
double doors with flourish. Person inside is amitava kumar,
who takes one look at sainath and proclaims: “everybody
loves a good bathroom.”
Other venues for fragmented chitchat
are the shuttle buses that take authors
from hotels to the festival. inevitable
questions of what you have written and
what you are speaking about get asked
with dwindling levels of enthusiasm over
the five days. Day one: man says he has
taken shakespeare all over the world (later
find out he’s Dominic Dromgoole, former
director of the Globe theatre). another
says he’s going to talk about how italian
journalism encourages beauty over truth
(later realise he’s married to me). i prattle
on about how girls are coming out of the
woods. Guy in the backseat, who looks
like a rock star, says, “i’m going to talk
about Nazis and drugs.” shuttle compan-
ions unanimously agree: rock star wins.“You are
inherently a
freedom-loving
and tolerant
country. a
melting pot of
culture and
civilisation.
cherish that
and keep sharing
it with the rest
of the world”
HAmid KArzAi