Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah shared his life experiences that have shaped his literary work. In conversation with publisher Alexandra Pringle, Gurnah took the audience through his childhood experiences, where he led a life of naivete and simplicity. In the context of the relationship between memory and writing, Gurnah said, “It is important to me that those events are not forgotten because what often happens, particularly with authoritarian states, is a new narrative is made, forced on you — the people, the citizens — in order to just make everything work the way in which the government or authority wishes. So it is important in my conception of writing not to submit to that, to keep the memory of what happened alive, to try and hang on to the things we know.”

Queen of pop Usha Uthup was in conversation with Srishti Jha and Sathya Saran and talked about music, her journey and more

The festival hosted a fascinating session featuring Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo. While talking about her memoir Manifesto, Evaristo said, “In a way, I wasn’t an overnight success but I was also an overnight success because literally my life was completely transformed from the evening of the Booker to the morning after the Booker because suddenly everything I wanted for my career, happened.” She then added, “But then I thought I’d like to write about my life in relation to my creativity and that felt like the perfect thing to do at that stage. Because people can’t compare a memoir with a novel.

The third day of the festival featured Booker Prize-winning Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with writer Nandini Nair. In the context of his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’s inspiration from demons, bhoot-pretand rebirth, Karunatilaka said, “... and then I thought... what if I write from the ghost’s point of view and it took me to this idea of what if Sri Lanka’s dead could speak....”

On all days, the festival began with Morning Music session by acclaimed musicians who gave the festival a musical start. Aditya Prakash (in picture) added melody to the air on Day 2.

The second day of the festival saw a pioneering physician, oncologist, and author Siddhartha Mukherjee in conversation with historian and festival co-director William Dalrymple. On the sidelines of the launch of his book The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, and while talking about cancer cells, Mukherjee said, “…there is a phenomenon of immune surveillance… so when you, say, weaponise a cell against cancer what you are really trying to do is make cancer visible again to the immune system where it had previously become invisible.”

In the session Translating Tagore, Radha Chakravarty and Rosinka Chaudhuri were in conversation with Malashri Lal. The panel discussed Geetanjali, Tagore’s first book to receive the Nobel Prize for literature, why Tagore’s books get frequently translated and why he is relevant even today. Chaudhari and Chakravarty also talked about the difficulty in translating Tagore’s poetry from Bangla to English without

Author Tripurdaman Singh engaged in a deep discussion with celebrated author and politician Shashi Tharoor and talked about the crisis of democracy. Tharoor, who has penned a biography of BR Ambedkar, said, “The streets are only effective on an issue like that… for demonstrating how vehemently or strongly large sections of society feel… policies still need to be made by people in offices.”

Iconic poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and actor-social activist Shabana Azmi had all the attention of the audience when they set out to discuss the differences and similarities between their respective fathers — poets Jan Nisar Akhtar and Kaifi Azmi. The duo read out lines from the books to the delight of the listeners, spoke about the progressive writers’ movement and its origin from the All India Congress Conference which was presided by Munshi Premchand, and more.

Philanthropist and entrepreneur Surina Narula was in conversation with celebrated actress Deepti Naval. Naval’s memoir, A Country Called Childhood, is based on her childhood in Amritsar and talks about the influences that made her different in the film industry. During the session, Naval shared her personal insights and expressed how the issue of mental health informed her work.

The Music Stage featured a coveted line-up of artistes, including the extraordinary folk music ensemble Rhythms of India featuring BC Manjunath, Darshan Doshi, Nathu Lal Solanki, Pramath Kiran, Praveen D Rao, Ned McGowan and Varijashree Venugopal; the trans-cultural musical factory of ideas Peter Cat Recording Company (PCRC) and Lifafa, to name a few. They delivered a musical conclusion to each day of JLF.

Sanjoy K. Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts, and producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “With our vision for 2023, we examined, interrogated our changing world, and explored different shades of opinion by invoking India’s rich heritage with voices from across the literary landscape of the world. This year’s themes included climate crisis, G20, economics, geopolitics, IndoChina relations, agriculture, health, and energy. The 16th edition of the festival also brought together the world’s leading thinkers, writers, and litterateurs on a platform for a democratic exchange of ideas and thought-provoking conversation. Jaipur Literature Festival remains to be the world’s largest gathering of literary writers and pathbreaking thinkers, in addition to being a trailblazer in the world of literary festivals. While climate change was one of the important themes at the festival, we also wanted to ensure that this was translated into practice. This year, we signed an MoU with Shombi Sharp, the resident coordinator of the United Nations, and Radhika Kaul Batra, chief of staff at United Nations resident coordinator’s office, to ensure that the festival goes green.”

William Dalrymple, writer, historian, and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “Over the years, Jaipur Literature Festival has hosted over 5,000 speakers and welcomed millions of literature lovers from across India and the globe. We try and raise the bar at this Mahakumbh of literature each edition of the festival, but 2023 was undoubtedly our finest festival yet. We drew a massive crowd — over 100,000 people came together to celebrate their shared love for books. We have never had so many major prize winners — Nobel prize winner, International Booker, Booker, Sahitya Akademi, JCB, Women’s Prize, Pulitzer winners and a lot of emerging talent came to the festival. JLF 2023 was a cerebral heaven: an utterly magnificent feast of mindsustaining inspiration.”

The 7th Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award for the year 2023 was presented to Daisy Rockwell for her contribution towards making Hindi and Urdu visible on the global literary landscape. She is known to have translated Geetanjali Shree’s Ret Samadhi into Tomb of Sand, which got them the Booker prize.

Namita Gokhale (Left), writer, publisher, and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “Over the last 16 years, Jaipur Literature Festival has been transformative for many people by affirming joy and creativity through books, ideas, and shared narratives. This year, we had some of the world’s finest award-winning authors, votaries of literature, celebrated personalities, global thought leaders, as well as emerging talent present at the festival, all catalyzing change in the world through their written word. With a programme that forefronts new voices across languages and cultures, we brought multiple perspectives to one platform in Jaipur, and we hope to continue doing so for years to come!”

Philanthropist and writer Sudha Murty (Left) brought warmth to the festival with her unmatched candour and anecdotes from her life that inspired the hundreds who had gathered there. The session started off with Murty’s first publishing experience when she was 29, to the importance of her mother tongue, Kannada, and more. Murty encouraged all to dream big and fight all odds to achieve it.

Best-selling novelist Durjoy Datta spoke about his journey as a writer from being published at 21 to writing his latest novel When I’m with You. In conversation with author Kiran Manral, Datta discussed the depth and background of his characters and how he comes about writing them and the flaws many of his characters have.

Gulzar held the audience as usual while in conversation with awardwinning translator, writer, and literary historian Rakhshanda Jalil. In the session, A Poem a Day, a volume of Indian poetry selected and translated by Gulzar, the prolific writer, said, “You will get the sense that shayari is not something that can be kept in the textbooks. It is as alive as you are, and the way you breathe, the poem breathes… I am giving you 365 days so that I can present to you a new shayarand language every day, and so that you can experience its breath.”