Monday, February 4, 2013

Final Day in India

Kash Cooks
Who is that woman in a Sari

The ferry made it

Hot Building Inspectors

 Bombay at Night from Kashmera's Condo Terrace

We are now in Singapore.
We thought today would be an uneventful last day in India, but like all of the trip, it surprised us. We checked out of the hotel about noon and our driver drove us to Kashmera’s Condo in Andheri. That is north Mumbai, near the movie studios. This is an area of the city we are not familiar with. On the way to Kashmera’s our driver drove us through many seaside towns and villages where many of the Bollywood film stars live. He pointed out their mansions (called bungalows in India).

We arrived at Kashmera’s condo located on the 10th floor of very modern highrise complex. The rest of the day we spent with her, her driver and her cook, her two dogs and two cats. We were served a delicious lunch prepared by kashmera’s cook and experienced a real Mumbai at home experience. No silverware, you eat with your fingers, you sit on the floor. It was all very “real” after the unreal opulence at the Taj.

Kash played dress up with Cathy and she looked ever so Indian!

We then drove to a landing to catch the most primitive ferry you can imagine. The ferry took us to Madh Island, one of the seven islands that compose the original Mumbai. The island is separated from the mainland by maybe 500 yards. The ferry ride takes about 5 minutes. The ferry cost 3 rupees (about 6 cents). The old rickety ferry, was jammed to the gills with school kids, workers, people returning to the island, men with their motor bikes and 2 white Americans that everyone stared at. The kids are all adorable in their matching uniforms. We both independently had thoughts of ferry going down with massive loss of life, but the ferry chugged across, and we walked down the 1 foot wide narrow planks to the landing. From there we rented a tuk-tuk and drove into the island proper. It was like going back in time to Mumbai of 60 years ago. It had a total village feeling, dirt road one lane wide, narrow open shops, people walking everywhere. On the island rich Mumbaikers have built mansions and a few massive condo complexes. We were investigating the construction of one where Kashmera and Krushna have bought 2 condos. It was fun walking thru the construction zone and of course all of the workers recognized Kasmera, wanted their picture taken with her and we very nice to us.

On the way back the Kash wanted to change some money, so the tuk-tuk stopped and Kash and the driver got out to go to a small store. Meanwhile a truck backed directly into the side of the tuk-tuk, damaging the tuk tuk, scaring the hell out of everyone. The driver clearly didn’t know how to drive. The truck struck the vehicle directly next to where I was sitting and I was very lucky my arm was not sticking out of the tuk-tuk.

We returned to Kashmera’s and the feast continued, Bombay Duck (really a fish), shrimp, rice, daal, it went on and on. No airplane food for us tonight. We finally said our goodbye (Namaste) and have now checked into our 25 hour flight, Mumbai to Singapore to Tokyo and finally home. No more incidents please.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Kash and Bargaining







Tomorrow night at Midnight we leave Bombay for Singapore and our flight back to the US. It has been an incredible trip more than we could have ever wished for. Today we hung around the Taj pool. We had a great lunch of oysters and caviar and seafood complements of the hotel.

We did go out for one more shopping expedition. Once again we learned that the national sport of India is bargaining not cricket. Cathy saw a bracelet yesterday, that she like but didn’t buy. The price was $ 450. We talked about it, today and decided to go buy it. I told her, I would offer $ 350 and we would bargain and I would get it for $ 400. I walked into the shop and said to the merchant, “I will give you $ 350 for the bracelet”. I was ready to be a keen shopper. He said “ok”. So I got the bracelet for $ 350. Now I will always wonder, what if I said $ 250? I think he got the better of me, but Cathy got a nice bracelet.

Our favorite Bollywood actress, Kashmera Shah, came to the Taj to join us for drinks around the pool and then dinner, once again at Trishna. God we love that place. The food is exceptional. It is fun being with Kash, she is full of life and zest and everywhere we go people recognize her.

Tomorrow we check out at of the Taj at noon, and our driver will take us to Kashmera’s home for lunch. We will play with her in the afternoon and evening and then catch a flight at midnight to Singapore and on to Los Angeles. This will end the blog unless something exciting happens between now and our return to LA.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Memorable Anniversary

Calamari

Pomfret

Didn't Buy Here - but lots of Gold

Crab in Chili Pepper Butter Sauce

Clever Use of Re-Cycled Bottles at Art Show


Yesterday was spent traveling from Devi Gahr to Udaipur so there was really nothing to Blog about. It is a short ride less than an hour. Before we left, we met Ahktar our guide. He gave us some gifts (Shumon will be glad to hear he gave us a turban, you can show us how to wind it). Nancie had asked me to pick up some toe rings, so Ahktar and I hopped on a motorcycle and drove to the silversmith. We drove back thru the village and then sadly Cathy and I left our Palace and adjacent village. I can’t image a more perfect way to really experience India, or at least experience it the way we like to – then to stay in Palace and be able to walk to a real Indian village. It comes with a sense of obligation to assist the people of the village. We made a generous contribution their school, and will continue to help them. They all were wonderful.

We drove to Udaipur, we were too early to catch our plane, so we did some shopping. Finally we arrived at the airport, cleared security and waited for our flight. And then we waited for our flight some more. And then we continued to wait, as the flight kept getting delayed, due to fog in Delhi.

Eventually we arrived at Mumbai Airport and the chaos ensued. It was a sea of humanity. There are lots of young men, pushing and shoving trying to get you a taxi or load your luggage, even when we don’t want them to. Our driver stopped, and one of the guys started loading someone else’s luggage in to the trunk of our car. We finally exited the airport and headed for the Taj Palace. This is the height of wedding season in India, and everywhere there are huge wedding celebrations. To avoid the congestion on Marine Drive, our driver drove thru the back streets of Bombay. It is amazing. After 11pm, no one obeys red lights, and everyone just drives madly everywhere, horns blazing.

We finally arrived at the Taj 5 hours late, at midnight. We were supposed to have the same fabulous suite that we had last year when we stayed at the Taj. When they showed us the suite, we were to stay in, it was then 1pm. It wasn’t the same suite and although it was very nice indeed, it wasn’t the same. I stated to the receptionist that we were supposed to have the other room, but to no avail. We were hot, sticky, hungry, tired, exhausted and not up for a fight, so we accepted the suite, ordered some Thai food and wine and finally went to sleep.

When I awoke in the morning, the more I thought about it, the more upset I got. I guess the lessons of the previous week with the Dali Lama, hadn’t quite set in. But he did say you should try to work things out before accepting them. So in the morning, I went down and talked to the people at registration. The apologized and said I was correct, we shouldn’t have been given the room we were in. They would move our bags to a better room at noon. I felt vindicated, soon to feel, elated. When we retuned to the hotel after, some shopping and a great lunch at Indigo (the food was as good as Lucque), they said our room was ready.

The butler took us to our suite. They put us in the Bell Tower Suite (which is also used for heads of state)!  They knew it was our anniversary and decorated it with hearts. This is a huge suite, the dining room  and living room are bigger then ours at home. It covers two floors, rather like a house. It is the only suite in the hotel that has been restored to exactly the way it was before the terrorists took over and the subsequent fire. Take a look at the two videos below.

1st Floor

2cd Floor



We are completely blown away. It is so expansive and over the top (for example it has 7 phones in it), that we were literally giggling.

Some more shopping in the afternoon, followed by a drink poolside. We then read, and finally went out for a late dinner at Trishna, our favorite restaurant in Mumbai. The seafood there is fantastic, Crab, Calamari, Pomfret all delicious. We walked thru an art fair, then returned to the Taj, for a nightcap, then headed up to bed. It was a memorable anniversary.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Higher Than a Kite!

The Kite Aloft

Cliff Playing Out the String

Jain Students

Gypsy Children Happy as can be!

Village Main Street

Grocery Store

This was our last full day at Devi Gahr. It has been a wonderful experience. After breakfast we took a tour of the Palace. It has been restored from a wreck of a place. When you look at the photos taken before the restoration, you can’t believe that anyone had the foresight and guts to start this task.

More than any other property we have stayed at in India, this is a combination of modern stylish renovation without in the least destroying the feeling of it being in a building that is hundreds of years old. It is fabulous place to stay. There is a no gift shop, the village isn’t the slightest bit commercial, there are no crafts or tee shirts being hawked. This is just the amazing juxtaposition of a high-end, isolated palace in the desert, situated next to a dirt poor wonderful village. There is no Disneyland feeling, these people are simply living their lives. Their ancestors were born and died here, their children will also. It is untouched by time.

After the tour of our palace, we read by the pool, had a bowl of soup for lunch and then of course, went for a massage.

We then went for an hour and half walk around through the village. Akhtar knows everyone. Actually everyone in the village knows everyone. We went to the gypsy area of the village, and went up on to the flat roof top of a house (actually it is probably only 2 or 3 rooms). On the roof, Akhtar had arranged for me to fly a kite. I have seen literally dozens of Bollywood movies with kids flying kites off of the flat roofs of their tiny houses. We have seen with our own eyes, kites flying in many Indian towns. As a boy I think I might have had a kite, but I am sure I never got it to fly. I have vague memories of running through a field trying to get the damn thing to fly, but I doubt if it ever did. I couldn’t comprehend how they could loft a kite from a roof top.

They easily did, and started to let the string play out. Actually it wasn’t string, this is such a poor village, they use thread to tether their kites. Soon the kite was aloft, and they handed the string to me. I learned how to play the string as the kite flew to an amazing height. We went thru two bobbins of thread, a kilometer each the kite was almost a mile away from us.

We were surrounded by maybe 30 very young gypsy children. They all were smiling and laughing and pointing at the kite. Akhtar, went and bought some bags of candy, which he gave to us to give one to each child. We were soon surrounded by children with outstretched hands looking for candy. We tried to give only one candy per child. Simultaneously, I was thinking of gypsies and diversions, and checking on my wallet. But all was well, this was just a happy bunch of kids. Before we left the roof top, Akhtar told me to release the kite string and let it fly away, to bring us all peace and happiness. I released the string, the gypsy children all clapped and cheered and the kite flew away from the village across the Rajasthan mountains and deserts.
Even Cathy took her turn flying our kite.



We left the rooftop and continued through the village. Akhtar pointed out where the untouchables live, and how he as a youngster didn’t talk to them. He then explained how he decided when he was older that he would ignore the caste system and talk to them. We saw the Jain students studying with masks covering their mouth, so that wouldn’t inadvertently breath in a kill a living insect.

We had a long discussion of how best to help the village. With all of the advantages that Cathy and I have, it is amazing to be able to step out of our palace and literally 50 yards away step back in time 100 years.

I can’t begin to imagine what the villagers feel or think when they see us.

Tomorrow we leave our Palace to fly to Mumbai. We are leaving a village that never awoke to the 20th century, and heading for a city that never sleeps.


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

High in a Village

Women Washing Clothes in front of their houses

Women Carrying Bricks on their head all day long

Ancient Step Pool, still used

Silver Smith weighing out purchase to figure cost

Maharaja and Maharina

Our Guide, Ahktar

On a ride, Devi Ghar in Background

Returning to Devi Ghar

Cathy in Private Dining Room

Entrance to room with butterfly made of flowers


We thought we would spend our day in quite luxury in this incredible palace. Instead it turned out to be a wonderfully busy day as we experienced village life in India. We have always read about the villages and how people return to them from the city, because of family and deep sense of community; but today we really experienced it.

The day started with a breakfast, where I had poha (shaved rice with spices and herbs). I love it. We then met our guide to the village: Akhtar. He is a Muslim, who was born in the village. The village is outside of the palace walls. The population is small, and has lived here for generations. The contrast between the palace and the village is immense. The palace has wifi everywhere, there is no internet at all in the village. They have recently received running water, now they don't have to go to the well. The people live in what we would assume to be poverty, and yet are very happy.

There are about 2000 people who live in the village. 40% are Jain (an Indian religion, that is virtually unknown in the US), 30% are Hindu and 20% are Muslim. They all get along together. In fact at one intersection of paths there is a Jain Temple, a Hindu Mosque and a Hindu Temple all facing each other. The caste system is alive and well in the village. For example, this is wedding season. Tonight there are 4 weddings happening simultaneously. All 2000 villagers will be invited to all of the weddings. A low caste person would go to any of the weddings, but a high caste person would not attend a lower caste wedding. It is all very rigid.

Our guide, Akhtar, is a wonderful guide. He knows everyone in the village. Yet he is a victim of the society. He comes from a large Muslim family, and he had to stop his education to get work. This is very common with large families. Luckily he has lots of drive and personality, and the guests at the Palace have assisted him, recommending the Palace to hire him as a guide. Yet his chances of achieving more than his parents will be difficult. He married young, has a child and lives in a joint family. He is very strict in making sure his wife attends to his aged parents, and he will expect his children to look after him. It is difficult to fathom how a guide from a village can relate with a tourist who has every advantage. Akhtar for example has no email address, because there is no internet. It is hard in the west to comprehend the isolation these people live in.

The local diversion in the village is smoking marijuana. Lots of the men smoke it all the time. Village life isn’t all bad! This is wedding season in India, and there are several weddings going on each day. Marching Bands, parading women and men dancing down the street, bride and groom on horseback, loud music and fireworks at night, all add to the sense of festivities and vibrancy of the village.

Here comes the Bride!






We visited a school full of cute young children who greeted us in English, a kitchen where they were preparing a wedding feast for 2000 (we sampled the bread and it was delicious), and a goldsmith who made a ring for Cathy out of copper wiring, and then sold us a wonderful ankle bracelet. They invited us into their house for Tea, and delighted in dressing us up like a Maharani and Maharaja. The entire village is a joy. I can’t begin to image what they think as they encounter what to them must be incredibly rich and lucky tourists, while they live in deprivation next to a luxury palace. I can only tell you they all were wonderful. They loved getting their picture taken, smiled and were fun to be with. This wasn’t a Disney movie, this was the real Indian Village.

We took a horse ride into the countryside, seeing all kinds of wildlife, and asking many question to our guide about village life. After another massage followed by bottle of wine, watching the sunset, we had a most spectacular dinner.

We arranged a private dinner for just the two of us, in a small-mirrored complex high up in the palace overlooking the village. We talked to the chef ahead of time and we composed a fantastic dinner. Appetizers of Chicken and Vegetable patties, Lentil-Coconut soup, Butter Chicken, Gobi Masala, etc. It was fantastic The rooms of our private dining area were decorated with rose petals and lit by candle light. We had our own butler / waiter, and musician who played for us. Down below the weddings were in full swing with fireworks and music. It was like a dream in this magical setting. It was a very memorable night.

We worried we wouldn’t have enough to do in this remote palace, but it has been non-stop. Devi Ghar is definitely a destination you should put on your itinerary!


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Living like a Maharaja

Marble or Cow, take your pick


Devi Ghar


Pool at Devi Ghar

Notice the Rose Petals, on the table, nice touch!

Gobi and Biryani


We left our Havali in Jaipur and began the 6 ½ hour ride thru the Rajasthan desert. No matter how you cut it, it is a long ride! It gave us a chance to practice our Hindi, as we read signs and tried to figure out their meaning. Half way thru the trip we stopped and had a small lunch of Vegetable Biryani, and Naan. We drove on past mile and mile of marble quarries and sales yard. We finally approached our destination: Ghar Devi.

We arrived around 4pm. As we walked up the stairs to the palace we were showered with Rose Petals from above. We were then shown to our room. This 200 plus year old fortress and palace apparently was a run down wreck. Now it is the most highly designed place we have ever stayed at. It is completely renovated without destroying its entegrity. The rooms are all marble, wifi everywhere, high-tech, and extremely stylish. We are just off-season, and there are only 10 people staying in this palace. There must be 5 employees at least to every guest.



We had a drink at the bar looking at the sunset, then went for a massage (naturally). After the massage we made it up to the restaurant for a delicious dinner.

The stars are amazing. We are in the middle of the desert and there is very little ambient light. The sky just twinkles. There is absolutely NOTHING to do here. So after our hectic time at the Literary Festival, this should be great downtime. They will give us a tour of the palace tomorrow, camel ride through the neighboring tiny village and some kite flying, that is it. More massages, a swim in their heated pool and reading some of the books we bought at the festival. It is going to be a slow relaxation for us. We look forward to it.


Monday, January 28, 2013

Final Day at the Literary Festival

Panel on Muslim Violence 


Howard Jacobson
Vegetable Curry
Simon Singh at the The Big Bang
Tandoori Lamb

Today was the last of the five days of the Jaipur Literary Festival. We are exhausted but happy. It was incredibly stimulating. We have met authors and readers from all over the world. We have been exposed to views that in America you would never hear.

The day started with Simon Singh, who has written many scientific books. He is amazingly articulate. This session was on his book: The Big Bang, where he attempts to explain the big bang theory of the cosmos. He actually made it sound interesting as he followed the original idea and its subsequent adoption. His explanation of the Scientific Method was especially interesting to me. Basically w a  strong theory is defined by its ability to predict. In the case of the Big Bang Theory it predicted microwaves would be everywhere in space. Years later, microwaves were discovered in space. This lends credence to the theory, which is now generally accepted. His session was wonderful.

The Finkler Question featuring Howard Jacobson was next. I have read this very Jewish Book, and really liked it. Unlike a previous panel that he was on, Jacobson was less jokey (although very funny) and more serious. It is difficult to tell where his act ends and the real Jacobson starts, but I suspect it is a continuum.  He states he loves being like an old time prophet, proclaiming doom is near. He feels that a book should speak for itself, and the author should not be seen, yet he likes doing these events. We all live in dichotomies I suppose. To him the story is subordinate to the sound and development of the sentence and the language.

He said he didn’t feel at home in the world, and felt shame and humiliation. When he did, he wrote about it and he felt it gave him mastery over the event. He talked about Jewishness, Israel and the Holocaust. He especially feels that in the case of Israel some people think that the Holocaust should make the Jews especially aware of how they treat the Palestinians. He rejects this, by saying the Holocaust was NOT an education course that makes you a good person. In the same vein, he bridles at the use of the term of Fascists or Nazi in regard to Israel; he feels those terms are only used to hurt. It was excellent session, with thought provoking ideas.

The next session was titled: Taming the Gods, Religion and Politics. With a mixture of Muslims and non-Muslims it quickly became a discussion (not resolved) of the question of Muslim Violence. This was a major theme during the entire Festival. The theory that predominated in the session was that one should respect the believer but not necessarily the belief. In practice of course this is difficult because the question is who defines respect, the speaker or the listener. This is not an academic exercise. One of the speakers on a previous panel we attended had to leave the conference and India because there is an arrest warrant for him based upon what he said at the conference. India does not have complete freedom of expression like the United States. Because there are major issues of religion and caste differences, the constitution prohibits speech that is offensive to someone. So there is a huge amount of censorship problem. People easily get offended and the government intervenes to stop the speech (like movies or books) before they even are published, to avoid problems.

The liberal western panelists felt the key issue should be that violence should be stopped by the government, not the speech that precedes or incites it. This morphed into a discussion of the question of is there such a thing as a moderate Muslim, or are there degrees of Muslims from liberal to very conservative, and then a separate category of violent people. Clearly in the 20th century the vast majority of violence has been perpetrated by China and Russia and Nazi Germany all who were non-Muslim and basically atheistic.

The session then talked about religious nationalism and felt there were only two choices: 1) Suppress it (and it will probably become violent) or 2) Fight out in the political arena.

What needs to be separated is religious authority and political authority. The worse violator of that would be Iran, but Israel was also mentioned.
The panel was very well balanced and informed.

The next panel was on the acclaimed book, Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikotter. This was an amazing discussion. Frank basically went into China to the archives in various provinces and found the documentation of the Great Leap Forward and the collectivization of the peasants. The data was meticulously recorded but never reported. He spoke passionately about what he found. He determined that approximately 45 million people died. This is equivalent to ALL who died in World War II.

These deaths weren’t a result of a misguided attempt to modernize the country. What he found was that these deaths were the deliberate. He expected to find famine he found violence. Violence to eliminate the old, the feeble, the weak, the elderly. Food was used as weapon, people didn’t starve to death, they were deliberately starved to death. What happened was 20 times worse that what happened in Cambodia under Pol Pot.

It ended when Mao decided to end it, and he blamed it all on his underlings. He took no responsibility. This was not a misguided policy of Mao, but the policy. China is different today, but there is no recognition, no museum of this horror. It is simply forgotten and not talked about.

No matter how many peasants have been lifted out of poverty, Mao must be remembered as a mass murderer on the scale of Hitler or Stalin (or even greater). This was a very powerful seminar, and I ordered his book, I really want to read it.

The final session for us was a reading and discussion of the book: “The File”. This is another book I will read. Timothy Garten Ash is a professor and correspondent. For 10 years his research was in East Germany. After the wall fell, he went back to Germany and found the secret East German file that was assembled on him. He related how he then decided to research his file and contacted his friends who secretly informed on him to secret police and the secret police who recruited the informants. For the most part, there wasn’t anger but rather a cathartic experience as he better understood the subtle ways that  even good people can become corrupted by an evil government. The book is rather like the movie: The Lives of Others.

His conclusion was in a totalitarian state that then becomes liberated, the best course of action is to open the files so all can read them, recognize that those that perpetrated evil will probably not be punished for they will have fled with their ill gotten gains. The model is the Truth and Recognition panels in South Africa and the way East Germany files were opened. This is not an academic question he is currently advising the Burmese Government on how they should open their files.

He spoke a lot about the data gathering. He used a term I have never heard: Private Superpowers, to refer to Google and Facebook and how much data they know about you. They know far more than any government. Right now they only used it for targeted advertisement but if combined with government authority it would be far more detailed then anything any government has ever known about its people. In addition, not only do they know everything about you, but there is such an abundance of information and sophisticated analysis available that that can predict what you will do. That is the truly scary part.

He summed it up by saying conversely, if you lived your life as though you were always being watched, you might in-fact live a very good life.

We returned to the hotel, exhausted, and had a lot of wine, as we relaxed talking with the authors that are staying here at the Haveli. Tomorrow morning we leave the hotel and drive 6 ½ hours into the Rajasthan Desert to the Magical Fortress of Devi Ghar.



Sunday, January 27, 2013

Must a Writer be an Actor?

Who Knew?

Chicken Tandoori


Foreign Correspondent Panel

William Dalrymple


Every day we are awakened by the “Call to Prayer”. We actually like it. The Haveli is located in a Muslim quarter of Old Jaipur, and there are many, many mosques. Each mosque has loud speakers on top of its minarets, and the Call is blasted. No two mosques start at exactly the same time, so for about a 5 minute period you hear the Call, coming from all directions, none in sync with another. You also hear the call at night, while we are drinking wine. We always pause our talking and listen, enjoying this most exotic experience..

We started off the day with a reading by William Dalrymple from his just released book “The Return of the King”. This one hour  with William Dalrymple was enough to justify this entire trip to India. We have read many of his books including what to us is his masterpiece: The Last Mughal. He spent the hour speaking and reading from his new book, “The Return of the King”. NOTHING I could write could equal the experience of hearing him. Not only is he a fearless scholar who travels to remote and dangerous areas, but he is also an incredibly gifted storyteller as he writes his amazing stories. Further, when he lectures he is like an actor, holding the audience in the palm of his hand as he relates his stories.

His story is amazing. In 1842, 18,000 British solders marched into Afghanistan. They easily captured the capital Kabul, and established a military base at Kandahar. Do these names Kabul and Kandahar resonate with you? The war was ginned up by the Neo-cons of the day, using flimsily evidence. Beginning to sound familiar? They installed a puppet government from the very same tribe that gave us Hamid Karzai. The British and their Indian Sepoys were opposed by the same groups that today are the Taliban. England at the time was at it very zenith, the strongest country the world had ever seen. Two years later, 1 British solder out of the original 18,000 survived and limped back to Jalalabad. All the rest of the army was destroyed. This was the biggest single disaster in the entire history of the British Empire. It was to be repeated, almost exactly by the Americans after 9/11. Dalrymple told this story, in the most vivid, exciting way. All of these sessions at the Jaipur Literary Festival are taped and will be available on the Internet. I strongly suggest you spend an hour and watch this. Most sessions end with Q & A, but this was so powerful a session, no questions were necessary. It took our breath away. One thing that surprised me was that I had always assumed that Afghanistan war was the right US War; the Iraq war was the wrong one, and we took our eyes off the ball when we switched from Afghanistan to Iraq. These writers believe that Afghanistan itself was a mistake from the beginning, urged on by NeoCons who had no idea of the history and peoples of Afghanistan.

The next session was about reporting from war zones. The writers who participated on this session, report for the major newspapers from the most dangerous areas: Pakistan, Congo, Afghanistan, etc. It is harrowing work. I can’t conceive of the difficult conditions they endure to write their stories, and ultimately the books. The main discussion was about reportage, where the writer tries to give the facts, and is subject to an editor and the ultimate writing of longer pieces and books, where only they decide what will be in print. These journalists and authors are fearless, I can’t even begin to comprehend their courage.

Next was a session on gay writing. India is a very traditional society and it was interesting hearing writers and readers discussing the difficulty of being gay in India, and how rapidly the norms are changing. Literature is the expression of freedom. Literature is often about sadness and difficulties, otherwise the book would be three words long: “Everyone was Happy”. In trying to explain, sexual and gender differences one Hindu scholar had a very Indian approach and said “What doesn’t make sense to man, makes sense to God”. I liked that idea, in spite of the reference to God.

The final session of the day was about a very interesting (I think) man who was a diamond merchant, magician, and other things in India. The presenter, who talked about his book, and read from his book, was absolutely awful. We walked out. It is interesting in an environment like this you have to be an actor in addition to a writer, able to entertain the crowd, to generate sales of your book. William Dalrymple is the best. He is a showman for his book. The author of the diamond merchant book was just not a public speaker. It is amazing, how this lessens the impact of what he is trying to say. It is unfair, a writer should be judged on his writing, but the commercialism requires him to be an actor, in support of his book. This author failed, and yet it is possible his book is wonderful. Life isn’t fair.