Literature and Literary Tamashas

Isn’t it only by engaging with the world’s noise that we form the selves that read and write?

01 March 2012
It is nothing to be ashamed of to feel a curiosity about the lives and habits of the writers one admires.
MANISH SWARUP / AP PHOTO
It is nothing to be ashamed of to feel a curiosity about the lives and habits of the writers one admires.
MANISH SWARUP / AP PHOTO

Tamasha. ‘Etymology < Arabic, Persian, Urdu. ... 1. An entertainment, show, display, public function. ... 2. transf. A fuss, a commotion.’ (Oxford English Dictionary)

THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN AS MANY as 100,000 people at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year, of whom a goodly number seem thoroughly cynical about the whole affair.

“Journalist?” says a small bewhiskered gent at the sight of my press pass, extricating himself from the veritable stampede for the tea stall. “Here, take my two paise. I’ve been at the last five, but I’m not coming next year. I can remember when this was about books. Now it’s become a total tamasha. Have you written all that down? Yeah? Good. There’s more where that came from.”

Nakul Krishna is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

Keywords: Jaipur Literature Festival books reading culture writers Diggi Palace solitude publishing celebration
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