Dear Readers,
Its barely a week since the great Jaipur lit fest got over and the aura of intellectual fervor can still be felt all around the pink city. I attended the event like always but this year I reveled with the peculiar assurance of being a Jaipur-vasi. Otherwise, on previous occasions, I had to travel from one place to the other on cold, chilly nights in order to hear one of my favorite figures speak.
It was awe-inspiring to attend the opening keynote lecture of Prof. Amartya Sen. His tongue-in-cheek humor was brilliant and his erudition matched with charming simplicity converted me into becoming his most staunch disciples. It was a pleasure to hear Maya Jasonoff from Harvard and a bigger honor to have met her personally. The opportunity of meeting and speaking with other historians of note was made good use of which is the most intoxicating experiences of this gathering.
On my way back home on the second last day of the event, as I strutted down to the parking lot, I overheard a bunch of chauffeurs chit-chatting. I was mesmerised to hear them debate and argue over the issue of the several versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata that have been composed till date. For a while, the tone of the discussion resembled one of those "high-browed" sessions of the fest. I could not help but admire the 'after-effect' of this grand gathering of the literati which brings out the thinker from within every soul that comes here......
