None Like Lahore
Lahore takes its litfest seriously, sending out the message that nuanced debates are possible even amidst tense politics. Big names from India were the rage at the LLF—sessions of Vikram Seth and Mira Nair were packed. But as the Jaipur Litfest has spawned numerous others, so is the case in Pakistan. The Karachi litfest just got over and the Islamabad one is to follow soon. So, the heated debate on LLF's lawns was, as it often is in Jaipur, about which was the best. Of course, many felt Lahore has always been the seat of culture and the arts, and that no city can beat it.
On A Paper Cycle
The new cussword in literary circles is ‘pulped’. But what happens when a book is pulped? Well, just that. It’s not only with banned books—those that remain unsold in bookshops or those lying unclaimed in warehouses are pulped routinely. For instance, from Delhi a big paper scrap dealer picks up about 40 to 50 tonnes of lovingly written books every month and sends them to paper factories in Punjab and UP, where they are put in gigantic tanks, treated with chemicals, made into ‘pulp’ and then processed into paper again, on which newer books are printed—the tree of life.
Looking In
Suddenly, foreign correspondents in India have turned authors. Three have dispatched their take on the country in as many weeks: BBC's Sam Miller (A Strange Kind of Paradise), Washington Post’s Simon Denyer (Rogue Elephant: Harnessing the Power of India’s Unruly Democracy) and ex-Financial Times journo John Elliott’s Implosion: India’s Tryst With Reality.
