The Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2015 that kicks off on Wednesday, will be host to a galaxy of big ticket names like VS Naipaul, Paul Theroux, Vijay Seshadri and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. While the sessions by these literature and poetry greats will be the main draw at the festival, if you're the kind with a nose for the offbeat, here's a quick list of sessions with a difference that you could also sample and remember to mark on your festival schedule:
'Wild Magic' by Cat Weatherill
When: 21 January, 11:15 am
Where: Ford Samvad
Fans of the spoken word rather than the written one, should catch Cat Weatherill, one of the Europe’s leading performance storytellers. A theatrical performer, she tells both traditional and true life stories, performing for both children and adults. She is also a best-selling children’s author, with books translated into 13 languages. Beginning her career as an actor, Cat spent several years as a singer, before moving into arts in education. In 1997 she discovered storytelling and soon developed her distinctive performing style: bold, lyrical, physically expressive. She has performed in Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Russia and across Europe.
If you miss her on Day 1, you can also catch her performance of 'Muthoni’s Necklace and Other Tales', at the same venue on 25 January, 12:30 pm.
'The Seven Deadly Sins' series
If the evergreen vices of Sloth, Pride, Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Lust have always piqued your interest, make sure to follow the series of sessions titled ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’, presented by The Indian Quarterly Magazine scattered throughout the five days of Zee JLF. Are the sins attributes of definite nature or do they operate on a spectrum? Panelists including Gilbert King, Kwasi Kwarteng, Hanif Kureishi, Deepti Kapoor, Sarah Waters, Nicholson Baker, Homi Bhabha, Ashok Vajpeyi and Eimear Mcbride will discuss the perceptions of sin, guilt and absolution, and how different societies and religions understand right and wrong.
‘A Sting In the Tale’: Dave Goulson on bumble bees, introduced by Valmik Thapar
When: January 22, 12.30 – 1.30pm
Where: Google Mughal Tent, Diggi Palace
If you’ve ever chased flitting butterflies and bees as a kid, you might be interested to know more about the fascinating, albeit unappreciated roles that insects play in our lives.
A Professor of Biology at Sussex University, UK, Dave Goulson has dedicated his life to the conservation of bees and other insects and has won several awards for his work. He is author of the bestselling A Sting in the Tale and A Buzz in the Meadow. In 2003, he reportedly bought a farm in France to carry out large-scale habitat manipulation experiments.
Goulson will be introduced at the session by Valmik Thapar, a wildlife expert who has worked as a conservationist for over 40 years and authored several books and presented films on the forests and wild tigers in India.
‘Kathputli: Of Puppets and Puppeteers’: Dadi Pudumjee, Puran Bhatt, Rajesh Bhat Nagori in conversation. Introduced by Sanjoy Roy
When: 23 January, 5 pm
Where: Google Mughal Tent
Kathputli is the single string puppet theatre native to Rajasthan. Experts Dadi Pudumjee, Puran Bhatt and Rajesh Bhat Nagori will discuss this integral part of the region's bardic traditions, with a history stretching back to thousands of years.
Dadi Pudumjee is the Managing Trustee and artistic director of The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, as well as the President of UNIMA (the world puppet organisation).
Puran Bhat is an award-winning specialist in modern and traditional puppetry. A talented and prominent puppeteer, Rajesh Bhat Nagori comes from a family where the art of Kathputli puppetry has been passed down through seven generations.
‘Novel Cures’: Ella Berthoud and Indrajit Hazra in conversation with Samit Basu
When: January 24, 12.30 -1.30pm
Where: Google Mughal Tent, Diggi Palace
Ever gifted a ‘perfect’ book to a friend suffering from a severe bout of the blues? Then you might rejoice at the concept of Bibliotherapy!
‘Book Doctor’ Ella Berthoud works at The School of Life in Bloomsbury and has co-authored a book that promises to revive the mind, body and spirit with some literary tonic. Far removed from ‘self-help’ non-fiction, she calls her book a medical handbook with a difference and prescribes books for a vast variety of pains - from a stubbed toe to a broken heart.
Novelist and journalist Indrajit Hazra has contributed to the Indian edition of The Novel Cure: An A-Z of Literary Remedies (2014)
Compiled by Shraddha Panicker and Meryl Sebastian.
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