Desert Soul and Write Circle sets the pace
January 8, 2013: I arrived in city yesterday evening from Jaipur. There was another event yesterday evening of the Desert Soul series in which Nand Kishore Acharya was the guest. Acharya ji is a prominent poet, critic, and playwright and Gandhian commentator and is currently a writer-in-residence at the Prakrit Bharati Academy, Jaipur.
Earlier, he was also a writer-in-residence at the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University for five years.
A poet of the fourth Saptak, Acharya ji, has published seven collections of poetry, six books in literary criticism and three collections of plays. His books on Gandhian philosophy include Sabhyata ka Vikalp and Satyagraha ki Sanskriti.
He has translated poets like Joseph Brodsky, Lorca, Vladimir Holan and Riyokan into Hindi, besides translating Arnold Wesker’s play Four Seasons. He has been honoured with many awards including Meera Puraskar, Bihari Puraskar and Bhubaneshwar Purashkar.
He was supposed to attend the event 100th Birth Centenary of Agyeya held in Kolkata in early 2012. But he could make it due to a change in the event date.
Nand Kishore Acharya was in conversation with Nand Bhardwaj who is a board member of Rajasthan Forum. Nand Kishore Acharya held the audience captive by his thought provoking poetry.
He also mentioned to me that he was happy to be in Jaipur on my invitation and that he knew my mother Late Dr Prabha Khaitan very well and had also read her works.
On Saturday, January 5, the second event of the Write Circle series was held at Panghat – a beautiful amphitheatre at Rambagh Palace, Bhawani Singh Road, Jaipur, at half past 3 pm.
Author, Jerry Pinto was the guest.
Pinto (pic) has been a maths tutor, school librarian, journalist and columnist. He is now associated with Mel Jol, an NGO working the area of child rights.
His published works include Surviving Women, Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, which won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema in 2007 and Bombay, Meri Jaan: Writings on Mumbai (co-edited with Naresh Fernandes).
Em and The Big Hoom was his first novel published in 2012. The novel, set in Bombay during the last decades of the 20th Century, is a saga of an extraordinary family, the Mendeses.
The story revolves around two central characters. Em, the suicidal beedi-smoking hyperactive mother, and The Big Hoom, the rock-solid, dependable father, trying to hold things together as best he can.
Filled with endearing and eccentric characters and laced with sparkling dialogues and emotions, it is one of the most powerful novels to be published in India in recent times.
Jerry Pinto spoke very eloquently and had to continue beyond the time limit due to popular demand and requests from the select audience at Panghat. Mita Kapur of Siyahi was in conversation with him.
After the event I had a chat with Satyajeet Krishnan, the General Manager of Rambagh Palace, to jointly work out more events at the Panghat.
Two events, one with a Hindi and an English author, just before the Jaipur Literature Festival 2013, has set the right pace.
During my stay in Jaipur, I also met up with the Governor of Rajasthan, Margaret Alva. It was a courtesy call. I presented her the an art work made of rice by artist Neeru Chabra, President Award winner, who did a great job of creating a Jesus on the Cross using sandalwood and rice grains.
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