After travelling the world, bringing with it a whiff of the flavour of the Pink City and the buzz of literature, the Jaipur Literature Festival will cross the digital divide. In the age of social distancing, the JLF is coming to your home with its newest edition 'Brave New World.
Lockdown may not encourage reading, especially if you are obsessively checking the phone for COVID-19 updates. But the JLF Brave New World brings you a chance to heal with words. “It will be the perfect option to start an online watch party,” says Sanjoy K. Roy, managing director, Teamworks Art, producer of the JLF.
The series will kick off on Saturday. And you have plenty to look forward to. There is the well known advocate Abhinav Chandrachud who will be talking about the devastating Bombay plague of 1896 and how its repercussions still linger on. There is former politician Bruno Macaes, who will talk about how the impact of coronavirus on world powers.
Writer Bee Rowlatt will be in conversation with Baroness Helena Kennedy to discuss the need to have a private mental space in a world that is overloaded with information in 'Freedom of Thought'. And if those are not reasons to join, there is Shashi Tharoor, without whom no JLF is complete either in the physical form or in its digital avatar. In conversation with Samir Saran, president of the Observer Research Foundation, Tharoor will talk about the new reality that confronts the world and how this will impact the globe in terms of power structures.
Going beyond just tuning in, the JLF also gives you a chance to actually participate. Audience questions will be encouraged. The series will be live streamed through the JLF’s official social media platforms from 7pm on Saturdays and Wednesday. “Going forward, the sessions will be available on our official website where people and register and watch the sessions,’’ says Roy.