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oi-Oneindia Staff
The curtains for the 15th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival dropped on Monday. This year, the event hosted around 600 speakers, artists and performers from all across the Indian subcontinent and the world.
From debates ranging from language, war, politics, environment to climate change, gender issues, business, science and technology, history, cinema, art and travel, the Festival featured conversations on wide-variety of topics. Also, it had numerous events namely A Majestic Heritage Evening at Amer Fort and The Jaipur Music Stage among others in the Pink City.
The preceding day of the celebration saw an inspiring session with speakers CEO at Tribe Amrapali, Akanksha Arora; designer Anavila Misra, politician Smriti Zubin Irani and entrepreneur Himanshu Wardhan in conversation with columnist and author Seema Goswami.
In the beginning of the session, Irani talked about how in the early 2000s, it was considered down-market to adorn a saree and call yourself a young professional.
While talking about innovations, technology and sustainability Irani said, “I also feel that there is a buzzword of sustainability and sustainable consumption across the world. And it is fascinating how the world is now waking up to the fact that India from a perspective of craft and textile was always predominantly sustainable.”
Following the momentum of the fourth day’s immaculate sessions, the last and final day of the celebration featured a session named Sounds of Silence, a powerful journey of Nada Yoga performed by Jenil Dholakia. During the session, Dholakia used her internal voice through mantra chanting and the healing vibrations of Tibetan singing bowls which incorporated certain energy points in the body. The audience explored the power, frequency and impacts of sound on mind, body and soul.
Day 10 Round Up
At a session called A Thousand Miles: To Hell and Back, Award-winning filmmaker Vinod Kapri; Award-winning TV journalist, anchor and columnist Barkha Dutt was in conversation with Author Chinmay Tumbe where they discussed India’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak followed by a total shutdown which left millions of migrant workers stranded, starving and unemployed.
Kapri’s 1232 Kms documents the journey of seven migrant workers to their village, a crisis faced by millions who were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres home, through deadly conditions, abandoned by an administration with only a shrug to offer for their hardship. During the conversation, Kapri said, “…state denial mode mein hai ki there is some crisis and media bhi denial mode mein hai.. toh uske baad ye jo laakho mazdoor sadko par the unki kahani aisi hi hogi jo hum logo ne dekhi.”. However, Dutt covered the migrant exodus relentlessly and for months on the road; her new book To Hell and Back: Humans of Covid tells the gripping, human stories of India’s pandemic and the sordid roots of a nation plagued by inequalities across class, caste and gender.