The inauguration of the 10th edition of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival (ZeeJLF) on Thursday morning had its Meryl Streep moment when Anne Waldman, one of the seniormost American poets invited, along with Gulzar, to give the Keynote Address, began her speech by saying that she was very thankful to be in Jaipur on the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony.
"I want to sit down and shout to my sisters and mothers, the children and the women who will be marching in Washington DC and around the country to let the world know this is not how we want to live," she said. "This is a dystopia. It's so extraordinary to be in this environment with such love and devotion for literature, for humanity, for imagination, for that's what this is about. We're facing a war on imaginations," she added to loud cheering from the Jaipur crowd.
ZeeJLF got off to a colourful start in the Pink City on Thursday morning. Braving the sub-10 degree morning cold, thousands turned up at the Diggi Palace, the ZeeJLF venue, for the inauguration by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia. Shreyasi Goenka, content advisor for DNA, and spiritual guru Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudeva were among the celebrities present on the stage.
In his opening speech, festival producer Sanjoy K Roy said that at the time the festival got off to a start in 2007, with just 60 visitors, among them a large group of Japanese tourists who had wandered into the venue by mistake, "we couldn't have imagined that in 10 years, we'd be here on the Front Lawns welcoming the world".
In her speech, Namita Gokhale, festival director, said that she had been coining a term for the festival every year. "One year, it was Katha Sarit Sagar, another year, it was Bargad ka Ped, and after that, Sahitya ka Maha Kumbh. This year the phrase that came to mind was 'Satyam, Shivam Sundaram'."
Giving a short speech, Shreyasi Goenka described the festival as one that "challenged notions, inspired opinions". Calling the festival "one of the high points" of her year, Raje said that ZeeJLF had raised Jaipur's standing. She said that it was an "honour" for the city to be the one to host the facsimile edition of the Magna Carta, modern democracy's founding document, that has travelled this year to the festival as a special exhibit.
Like always, the opening ceremony was preceded by music, headlined this year by the Shillong Chamber Choir performing a medley of old film songs, a few originals such as a rousing number called 'Train Journey' and even Vande Mataram, in their characteristic choir arrangement. There was also traditional Rajasthani music, in the form of a performance of drums and horns by senior musician Nathoo Lal Solanki.
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