A Tale of Two LitFests

           Chasing that elusive book buyer for my debut novel Anveshana, the Search in a never ending and most frustrating Anveshana, I had the chance to attend two Literature Festivals recently. One the Kochi Literature Festival on 8^th and 9^th December 2016 and the other the Bangalore Literature Festival on 17^th and 18^th December 2016. Thanks to my sister V.R.Devika’s connections, my book had a launch at the Kochi Festival while Atta Galatta had the book on sale at the Bangalore LitFest. It was great to meet Vidushi Shyamala Surendran and see her beautiful home and dance school.

The differences between the two festivals were quite revealing and interesting. One could use that often bandied expression ‘Difference between Bharath and India’. Kochi had that native charm with Malayalam dominating while Bangalore was full of English flaunting culture-vulture glitterati. The large crowds at Bangalore were literally eating out of the hands of celebrity guests, Shashi Tharoor, Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi. It was a joy to see and hear Dr.Satya Vrat Shastri, 95 year old Sanskrit scholar from New Delhi at Kochi so clear in his diction and thinking. Obvious at the Kochi Festival was the erudition and scholarship of well known Kerala writers, C.Radhakrishnan, T.P Sreenivasan, Dr.K.G.Paulose and Natyacharya V.P.Dhananjayan. It was heartening that Dhanajayan who has read and liked my book referred to it in his speech at the inaugural session. Kerala has tremendous numbers of readers though mostly in Malayalam. Well known works in various languages get translated into Malayalam and you will find most readers are well aware of literary trends and are well informed. Quite a bit of space was given at the Kochi Fest for works from other Indian languages. At Bangalore, publishers spoke on What Makes a Best Seller and Ex-pats talked about writing with a foreign setting.

It was very gratifying to listen to my sister Prathibha Nandakumar and Vivek Shanbhag talk about ‘Poetry through the times’ in Kannada & English at the Bangalore Fest.

·        At the Kochi Fest, T.P.Sreenivasan said that Kerala readers are so familiar with Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo and his works that many of them think he is a Malayali!

·        Ran into Gurucharan Das at the Atta Galatta Book shop. He was protesting why his latest book was nor displayed prominently. However well-known you are, you have to keep making efforts to sell your book.

·        When asked at the seminar why he had started writing erotica at his age, Gurucharan Das replied that he was engaged in the practice of erotica when was younger and did not have the time to write!

·        A cup of coffee cost ₹100 at Bangalore while you could get Chaya(tea) for ₹8 at Kochi.

·        Both had enough to satisfy some of the hunger for literary talk and were worth visiting.

Vairagya is Not Escapism

To understand the difference between Vairagya or Detachment and Escapism, one has to understand two important of aspects of Hindu tradition. One is Purushartha and the other the Ashrama system.

Purushartha deals with the aims or goals a person is expected to have in life. They are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma represents both high ethical values and observing specified rituals. Artha represents the means to earn money to fulfill one’s responsibilities in life, Kama represent fulfilling one’s desires and Moksha represents deliverance from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

The Ashrama system deals with four stages in a person’s life, namely, Brahmacharya, Gruhasthashrama, Vanaprasthashrama and Sanyasa. Brhamacharya is the stage before adulthood when a person gets educated. Gruhasthashrama is the life of a householder when a person earns money, marries, has children and takes care of them till they are old enough to be independent. Vanaprasthashrama is the stage when one starts contemplating about the transient and uncertain nature of life on earth and tries to find answers regarding the existence of life as a whole.  Sanyasa is the stage when one decides to renounce the external world and seek self-realization and the nature of the soul distinct from one’s body.

The Ashrama system is a very practical system where a person is expected to shoulder his responsibilities in life. There is no question of Vairagya in either Brahmacharya or Gruhasthashrama.

The realization that a person is put into situations where he is not in command and the very nature of Birth, Growth, Decay and Death leads one who is philosophically minded to seek answers to what is life, what is beyond, what is the purpose of life etc.

It is not given everyone to take the philosopher’s mantle. The majority of people go through life without even faintly thinking of philosophical issues. Most have a deep faith in the Almighty who they expect will come to their rescue when in trouble. Many who follow the Charvaka or Materialistic way of life take life as it comes and are Atheists.

It is only a few who have regard for Dharmic values and a propensity towards philosophical thought who are likely to take to Vairagya and Sanyasa. Such persons cannot be accused of being Escapists.

Anveshana

Anveshana
Hello! This is my first post. I am interested in Reading, Writing, Music, Travel and Heritage. My debut novel Anveshana The Search in English has been published and is available on Amazon. The dissertation for my PhD in Sanskrit from the University of Madras(2012) has been published as a book titled, Vivaha Samskara in the Grihya Sutras of the Four Vedas by DK Printworld, New Delhi in 2014.