The Jaipur Literature Festival at the British Library runs until tomorrow evening (June 15)…
STRIKING a defiant note at the opening of the London edition of the largest literary gathering of its type, was author and co-festival director William Dalrymple – he said the packed hall (the festival is sold out too) last night (June 13) was a sign that literature and serious discussion about it was alive and kicking – despite myriad distractions, shall we say…
There were also opening addresses by novelist Namita Gokhale, the other co-director of the festival and Sanjoy Roy, the head of the Teamwork Arts, which produces the festival in all its different editions around the world.
There was a minute’s silence for the passengers who perished in the #Ahmedabad plane crash on Thursday (12).
The audience also heard from Dame Carol Black, from the British Library who welcomes guests to the festival.
In the opening and only session of the evening, well-known Indian MP and bon vivant Shashi Tharoor discussed English words that had their origins in India, with author Shrabani Basu. They mentioned ‘Shampoo’, ‘Loot’ (which Tharoor joked, was not just a word the British took but became a “habit”). They also discussed words that have remained in India but are no longer in use in the UK, such as stepney (spare tyre).
Bollywood screenwriter lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar in the Q&A section, said he wanted the word ‘prepone’ added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Tharoor told him that it had already been in touch with him about this word which is quite common in India and readily understood – it is the opposite of ‘postpone’ and means to bring forward. Tharoor said the OED had stated that the word had been first used in the Letters section of the New York Times in 1913 – so it wasn’t a word that was created by Indians in India. Akhtar also put forward the word ‘shim’ covering both men and women as opposed to the increasingly popular, non-gender identifying English, ‘they’. It was a lively and interesting session that started on a sombre note with a minute’s silence for the passengers of Flight AI 171.
The festival runs until Sunday (15) evening.
Akhtar is a contributor to this evening’s #BlameItonBollywood session at #JLFLondon.
Caption: Author and festival co-director William Dalrymple and Indian author and MP Shashi Tharoor
