Six of the bets

They are not familiar names yet, but they may soon be. J Jagannath and Nilanjana S Roy identify six under-the-radar writers to watch at the Jaipur Literature Festival

Visual writer
Atiq Rahimi fled Afghanistan for France in 1984, where he has become a filmmaker and novelist. Judging by the themes of his three books so far, his heart has remained in Afghanistan. The first two, Earth and Ashes and A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear, were set in the late 1970s while the Soviet cloud was hovering over Kabul. Think of Rahimi as Khaled Hosseini minus the contrived plots. Rahimi’s books never cross the 160-page size mark and his prose is as spare as a bone. He embodies that famous Leonard Cohen line: “shy one at an orgy”. He will be joined by Ahmed Rashid, Jayanta Prasad, Jon Lee Anderson and Rory Stewart to discuss Af-Pak on January 23. (JJ)

The professional
To think of it, history may well remember Washington Post reporter David Finkel as the Julian Assange the world never had. The Collateral Murder video that transported WikiLeaks to the centre of the universe was in Finkel’s possession, too, but he choose not to disclose it, in order to protect his source. This journalistic integrity has held him in good stead, earning him a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2006 for a series of stories about the US’s democracy promotion efforts in Yemen. His book The Good Soldiers is a harrowing fly-on-the-wall account of the time he spent as a reporter “embedded” with the Second Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the US Army in Iraq. So you see, for every Michael Hastings there is a David Finkel. With Jon Lee Anderson and Rory Stewart, Finkel will discuss “Reporting the Occupation” on January 22. (JJ)

Unsilenced
Some day, a folk poet will write the story of Bant Singh into legend. Until then, he’ll sing it himself. In 2000, Bant Singh was a Dalit labourer in Jhabhar, Mansa. After his minor daughter was raped by upper-caste men, he broke convention by taking them to court. Six years later, a respected activist, he was waylaid and savagely attacked. He lost both arms and a leg; and, 18 days after the attack, he was singing again. Singh, a fan of Sant Ram Udasi, is now a fiery protest poet, the resonance and depth in his voice untouched by the violence. The Bant Singh Project is a collaboration between deejays and musicians, his voice laid against urban dub music, spreading now across the world. Listen to him along with other poets and rappers, 7-10 pm, on January 22. (NSR)

The unsettler
Here are a few unofficial boxes that writers and poets need to tick to ensure themselves a hassle-free life in China: no lengthy descriptions of sex, no explicit writings on homosexuality, not even a slight disregard for history and absolutely nothing about what transpired in June 1989, the month of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. The fact that Hong Ying doesn’t keep to any of these rules makes her a Chinese literary rarity. Her prose sparkles. Her most popular novel, K, could be described as China’s answer to D H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Catch her in conversation with Isabel Hilton, a Scottish journalist and TV personality, and Stephen McCarty, a literary editor, in “China Dialogues” on January 25. (JJ)

Sudan’s soul
Sudan is now on the brink of its own partition. Leila Aboulela’s books are an excellent way to begin to understand her country’s war-ravaged past. Their unsettling themes call to mind Virginia Woolf’s dictum: if they can live it, you can write it. Lyrics Alley is about a family during Sudan’s struggle for independence in the 1950s. Minaret is about one woman’s culture shock when she flees to the UK after the 1985 coup. In The Translator, the central character is torn between love and her identity. In Colored Lights, short stories, Aboulela deals with the emotional intricacies of young women wedged between competing worlds. It is as if the author is saying: “If I can write it, you can read it”. Listen to her on “Mapping the Novel in the Arab World” on January 23. (JJ)

The provocateur
Shehan Karunatilaka’s bio says the author “was written in Galle, revised in Colombo and edited in New Zealand”. The final, blue-pencilled proof? Read Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, perhaps the best cricket novel ever, and definitely one of the year’s most intriguing debuts. An alcoholic journalist goes in search of a long-forgotten, vanished cricketer, and the result is a cynical but very compelling snapshot of both the game and Sri Lanka. Catch Karunatilaka and Open magazine editor Manu Joseph in conversation with academic and television commentator Somnath Batabyal at 12 noon on January 25. (NSR)

 

Sonic boom

The Jaipur book festival is rewarding at different levels. From Salman Ahmad’s beautiful, reckless music to Suheir Hammad’s soul-edifying poetry, the Jaipur Literature Festival will take a “James Joyce meets Monsoon Wedding” detour every evening.

Susheela Raman’s soulful timbre, aided by Aref Durvesh, Nathoo Solanki, Kutle Khan, Chugee Khan and Sam Mills, should make a barbecue jam of sorts. If her recent performance at the NH7 Weekender in Pune is any indication then Raman is testing new waters. In Pune she did not sing her most popular song, “Yeh Mera Deewanapan Hai” (from the movie The Namesake) and even dismissed requests. “It’s old,” she said.

This year at Jaipur, unlike last time, there are quite a few international acts lined up. One is an Algerian DJ called Cheb I Sabbah whose clever mixes of earthy Indian music and religious chants will be a big draw.

London-based band Transglobal Underground’s mishmash of Western, Oriental and African music styles is addictive. What’s on their playlist is not yet known, but if they choose to play “Temple Head”, “Tal Zamaan” and “Delta Disco”, your trip to Jaipur will be worth it for the music alone.

Belgian singer Natacha Atlas (she is a former Transglobal Underground member), with her fusion of Arabic and Western hip-hop is sure to drive the crowd mental. Some of her songs, like “Leysh nat’arak”, “Yalla Chant” and “Le Printemps” are mind-melters.

Tunisian singer Ghalia Benali’s fluid voice makes her sound like an Arab reincarnation of Billie Holiday. In her song called “Rome & Juliet”, the juxtaposition of pain and sensuality is pure Holiday.

The meeting of poets Jeet Thayil, Omar Musa and Suheir Hammad ought to be a standout performance. Thayil is one half of the music duo Sridhar/Thayil and has four published collections of poetry to his name. The poetry of Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American, stabs at the sexism of postmodern society. Omar Musa is an Australian poet and rapper who won the Australian Poetry Slam in 2008.

There are brilliant Indian acts, too, like Shyopat Julia, Rajasthani musicians, Gafaruddin Mewati and the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band.

— J Jagannath