Log in to a new literary life in times of corona

New Delhi:Recently, when his publisher requested Vinod Kumar Shukla, 83, one of the veterans of Hindi literature, whose several novels have been translated into English, to do a Facebook live session, the reclusive writer agreed, though apprehensively. “I like to convey my ideas through my books, not by speaking on social media. In fact, I do not even have a Facebook page,” says the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer.

The Raipur-based writer finally went live with the help of his son on the social media page of his Delhi-based publisher, talking about his journey as a writer, how he spends his time during the lockdown, and ending the live session by reading from one of his poetry books. Shukla now feels that technology can really help writers like him, who find it difficult to travel, have meaningful conversations with their readers. “ I generally do not attend literary events and have not travelled for many years, but it was great to have been able to speak to my readers. I do not mind another live Facebook session.”

Shukla is one of over 60 writers, including Mridula Garg, Mrinal Pande, Javed Akhtar , among others, who, in the past three weeks have attended StayAtHomeWithRajkamal—a series of Facebook live sessions organized by Rajkamal Prakashan , one of the country’s biggest Hindi publishers.

With all modes of public transport suspended and gatherings barred to stave off the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Delhi’s literary life has moved online. These days one can come across literary festivals, book readings, conversations with authors, creative writing workshops and even occasional book launches happening online on Instagram and Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Zoom.

The Jaipur Literary Festival ( JLF) -- one of the most popular and high-profile events in India’s literary calendar -- recently rolled out what it calls ‘Brave New World,’ a series of online conversations, where writers from across the globe speak on their books, globalisation, the pandemics, celebrity, sexism, and power, and a host of other issues.

The authors featuring in the series, which goes live on JLF’s social media platforms on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday-- include top-notch names such as Siddhartha Mukherjee , Tina Brown, Peter Carey, Pico Iyer, Jhumpa Lahiri, among others. These online conversations are garnering thousands of views.

“JLF is a platform for ideas and conversations. During the coronavirus pandemic, when the borders are closed and the idea of de-globalisation is gaining ground, it is important that the ideas and knowledge continue to be shared across borders,” says Sanjoy Roy, MD, Teamwork Arts, which produces Jaipur Literature Festival, and is also organising the series.

How difficult was it to get such a stellar line-up of writers online? “In fact, it is often more difficult to get writers to Jaipur Literary Festival. All of them readily agreed to be part of these live sessions, because it allowed them to engage with their readers from the comfort of their homes in different parts of the world, ” says Roy. “Online literary events can draw much larger audiences than is possible in an off-line event.”

Satyanand Nirupam, editorial director, Rajkamal Prakashan, says their online literary conversations have presented a good opportunity to several writers who do not get invited to conventional literary festivals. “Generally, you get to see almost the same set of writers at all the lit fests getting invited year after year. Online events are changing that; we have already done live sessions with several writers who never before spoke at a literary event,” says Nirupam.

“Not all the writers, especially the older ones we requested to do live session with, are tech savvy and we had to involve their younger relatives. But even those who had never heard of Facebook live are now getting tech-savvy, and it will help them communicate with their readers more often,” adds Nirupam. “People want to hear and see more and more writers during the lockdown. Considering the excitement and the people’s response, we can carry on our live events for a year. But we will surely continue it till the lockdown is over. ”

Many publishers are also running online literary festivals –Penguin , for example, is running

OnceUponABookWithPenguin ; Harper Collins India is organising ‘Reset’, live conversations with authors; and Juggernaut has launched ReadInstead LitFest, an online literary festival featuring conversations, workshops, masterclasses, writers’ bookshelves, among others. The schedule for most of these events is published online a week in advance. Both JLF’s ‘Brave New World’ and ‘ReadInstead’ have also sessions on coronavirus crisis. On Saturday, JLF’s event---“ Corona Chronicles: The past, present and future of pandemics”--- saw Siddhartha Mukherjee and Peter Frankopan in a live conversation.

ReadInstead features a creative writing workshop by Amitabha Bagchi , the winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 for his novel ‘Half the Night is Gone’.

“I was quite surprised to find that a fairly technical workshop about the fine points of literary prose received so many views and got such good feedback,” says Bagchi. “Under the lockdown, the possibilities for digital interaction have been opened up for the literary culture, and these possibilities will remain and hopefully even flourish later. This is extremely important, especially for literary fiction writers such as myself whose audience is dispersed widely.”

Talking of ReadInstead initiative, Chikki Sarkar, publisher, Juggernaut Books, says, “Getting people reading is at the heart of what we do and we also believe there is nothing like reading to focus your mind, and for you to learn and grow from. The idea behind ReadInstead was to remind people and get them excited to read and think about books and writers,” says Sarkar. “For us there has been one major learning. We have underused video as a tool to communicate with our readers. From now, you’ll see a permanent lit fest across juggernaut social.”

In fact, not just lit-fests, a few online book launches were also organised online during the lockdown. For example, Polis Project, a New York-based non-profit, planned an online release of the book ‘His Father’s Disease’, a collection of short stories by Aruni Kashyap, a well-known, award-winning writer from Assam, who writes both in English and Assamese. The event, streamed live on Twitter, saw the writer in conversation with Suchitra Vijayan , founder, the Polis Project.

“This event was originally scheduled in New York City, but because of the current crisis, we decided to have it online. Of course, I would have loved to travel to the city and meet my host personally, but this is the best alternative that we have. This was a new experience for me and I think even when we return to normal times, we should have more such conversations and book-talks online (not book launches, though) to hear from writers who don’t have the privilege to travel,” says Kashyap.

And what does the spurt in online literary activities during the coronavirus lockdown mean for literature? “Not just online, people have returned to the book format. I spent the first few days of lockdown watching movies and television series, but after a while, it got extremely exhausting and boring and I returned to what I love best: reading. This is true even for people who don’t read regularly and I believe the lockdown has made us realise what we value most: books, company, family, friends, loved ones,” says Kashyap. “This is good news for literature. It reminds us that the book will never die. As long as the human curiosity of “what happens next” exists, literature will thrive”.

Bagchi though has a different take. “My heart hopes that the people who have picked up books at this time when the movie theatres and restaurants and nightclubs are shut will stay with books after they reopen. But my mind says that most of them will probably not. Nonetheless, if they carry with them the memory of some books they read in this time, that’s not a bad thing either,” says Bagchi. “Today, even apart from the pandemic, our nation is at a critical juncture and we need people who have had the experience of reading and reflecting. So if this lockdown helps more people learn the pleasures and benefits of reading, it will have served an important, if unintended, purpose.”

Aditya Sharma, a Delhi-based author, feels that the ongoing online events will help make literature more accessible to common people who otherwise do not attend literary events. “ People are searching for their favourite books and authors online like never before. Eventually, the growing online literary activities under the lockdown would help boost books culture in the country.”