Festival diary - Day 3

The final day of The Hindu Lit for Life had discussions on writing biographies, the continuing importance of playwrights, why writers choose one form of literature over another and the art of being fit for life. Lakshmi Krupa reports

January 15, 2014 06:53 pm | Updated May 13, 2016 09:50 am IST - chennai:

A.R. Venkatachalapathy at his session. Photo: R. Ragu

A.R. Venkatachalapathy at his session. Photo: R. Ragu

Telling lives

In a basement near the Mutha VenkataSubba Rao Concert Hall, A.R. Venkatachalapathy spoke at a workshop on the art of writing biographies to an interesting as well as interested audience. “Biography is a literary genre,” he said. “I don’t know how but The Hindu seems to have brought together some of the best audience at this event for this session. All of the audience’s questions are excellent!” Venkatachalapathy said when an audience member asked him about Amitav Ghosh’s An Antique Land . “This is a very fascinating book because the odd chapters in the book are the author’s field work in Egypt while the even chapters are the story of a native who’s a slave of a West Asian merchant!”

The audience and Venkatachalapathy discussed where such a book would be placed — as fiction or non-fiction? Also in the audience were Carnatic musicians T.M. Krishna and Sangeeta Sivakumar, historian and writer V. Sriram and Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Is the playwright dead?

On the final day of The Hindu ’s Lit for Life the conversation on writing for various media took an interesting turn with a session on the importance of playwrights and their continued relevance. Moderated by Sadanand Menon, Anuradha Kapur, Neelam Mansingh and Satish Alekar spoke at the Courtyard. Alekar spoke in detail about the Marathi theatre scenario — both commercial as well as avant garde. “The Marathi people take pride in theatre. So even today, tickets for a play in Maharashatra sell for as much as tickets in multiplexes do,” he said. The event offered the audience an interesting insight at the continued relevance of playwrights in today’s multi-media world. “Most importantly, in Marathi theatre there is no Brahminical hierarchy,” Satish insisted. “There are many non-Brahmins at the helm of the Marathi theatre community today. What theatre in Maharashtra needs however is a good visual sense!” he concluded.

The many forms of literature

This interesting session featuring Shovon Chowdhury, Mamang Dai, Stephen Alter and Ranvir Shah sought to understand why an author chooses one form of literature over another. Mamang, who also writes poetry explained what part of her work ends up as poetry and what as fiction and also the nether space where the two meet.

The 45- minute session, saw the authors tackle issues such as the use of the Internet or computers and how effective they are. “I use the Internet to send in my final draft but that’s about it! I am not at all tech savvy,” Mamang said and Stephen added, “I write on the computer and I think this technology has helped save a lot of travel time.” Shovon presented an interesting alternate view. “Writers like Teju Cole for instance, have shown that the Internet can be used to create literature of a new kind. He used to write really short stories on Twitter earlier!” he said. Of course with such democratisation, comes a dip in quality. And the authors discussed this issue as well in detail. With humour, wit and introspection, the three writers in conversation with Ranvir spoke about their creative process too. “I am a bit superstitious. So whenever someone asks me what I am working on I just lie,” said Stephen as the audience laughed. Ranvir added, “You do have to be careful that someone else doesn’t just take your idea and execute it!” Shovon said, “It happens in books too? I only thought it happened in the advertising world!”

The three also spoke about how writing is a deeply personal affair. While collaborating with an editor is a different thing altogether, all three agreed that creating fiction or other forms of writing cannot be a collective affair. “While writing screenplays of course, I do think it is possible to collaborate and in that case you do have to work together,” Stephen said.

Fit for life

One of the liveliest sessions of the final day saw Rujuta Diwekar talk to the Chennai audience about what to eat and what not to. With Pongal as the backdrop, she explained to the audience that eating fresh local food is the key to fitness. “The more money we get, the less we move! We have people to open even car doors for us!” Rujuta lamented and added, “People were not meant to just sit in one place for hours together. So if you want to be fit, start moving!”

“What does Pongal tell us? We let milk boil over. It means, don’t buy packaged milk. Buy fresh milk, boil it and drink it. From rice to everything else we consume, we are safe if we buy right. There are people who will tell you to eat more fibre! But too much fibre in your body means you can’t absorb the right kind of nutrients you need!” she said. “It’s the same with these so-called health biscuits. If you want a biscuit just go ahead and eat one that’s filled with cream.”

It’s okay to eat sugar, ghee, coconut, provided one does so in the right quantities. “Let’s not wait for the West to validate our traditional practices. Our own foods are rich and full of nutrients,” Rujuta advised.

As the floor was opened to questions from the audience, several members asked her for advice on popular health myths. “Where can I get fresh cow’s milk? I don’t know how to,” one audience member asked. “You can’t Google these things. Outside any city there will be a farmer or a man/woman who will be happy to sell you fresh cow’s milk. Just go out and talk to people!” she said. She also tackled questions about micro-bacterial foods. “Curd, idli, dosa… have good microbacteria for our system!” she said. Rujuta also explained that it is better to eat smaller meals than three big ones.

“Is your tongue an indicator of what you should eat?” one audience member asked. “Yes!” she said. “Picture this. You have a perfect cup of filter coffee. It tastes great. And so you think you can have another one. But it never tastes the same even though it was made the exact same way! This is your tongue asking you to stop,”

Before winding up, Rujuta also spoke about the harmful effects of reheating old food in the microwave and why it’s okay for diabetics to eat rice which is not too polished.

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