The “greatest literary show on Earth” and every bibliophile’s favourite, Jaipur Literature Festival, is back with its 13th edition. The dates have been announced and the organisers have also released the list of speakers for the 2019 chapter.
A brainchild of writers William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale, the festival has seen literary giants like Orhan Pamuk, Margret Atwood, Woke Soyinka, J.M. Coetzee, Gulzar, Vikas Swarup, Salman Rushdie, and Jhumpa Lahiri over the past decade. Eminent personalities from the Indian film industry Imtiaz Ali, Javed Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra, and Swanand Kirkire have also marked their presence here.
Dalrymple, in an interview to a national daily, said that JLF this year will be fielding the “strongest lineup ever”. And we are not disappointed. 2019 will feature some very powerful women whose personal journeys have inspired many. Here is a list of some of these awe-inspiring speakers.
Mithali Raj
Mithali Raj created history when she became the highest Indian run-scorer in the T20 format, surpassing the past record holders Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. She is also the first Indian female cricketer to reach 2000 T20 international runs. Raj will be talking about her journey and the challenges she faced as a woman cricketer. She will also be talking about her soon-to-be-released autobiography, where she dwells on gender stereotypes and skewed opportunities for female players.
Usha Uthup
Next in the line is the jolly and charming Usha Uthup. The singer has been enthralling audiences since the 1970s with her powerful and distinct voice. Uthup will be in conversation with Sanjoy K. Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Arts, in a session named after her very own song “I Believe in Music”.
Sohaila Abdulali
2018 has been an important year for our country in terms of women finally coming out int he open and naming and shaming sexual abusers and rapists. And organisers at JLF believe it is high time that we talk more openly about such issues. Author-journalist Sohaila Abdulali will be discussing her latest book What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape. She will be sharing her heart-rending story of being gang-raped as a teenager and will talk about the silences that revolve around rape.
Priyamvada Natarajan
The acclaimed author of Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos will take the audience on a cosmological journey. She will talk about the greatest discoveries in cosmology in the past century. What makes Natarajan special is her way of making science accessible to the masses. She has been involved in enhancing scientific literacy. The Yale professor also takes an interest in black hole physics. It is sure to be an amazing session.
Manisha Koirala
The Dil Se actress has talked much about her battle with cancer. And she has recounted her trials and tribulations in her forthcoming memoir Healed: How Cancer Gave Me New Life. The session with the same name will have Koirala sharing the highs and lows of her life and relationships, her dauntless journey and hard-won survival.
Donna Zuckerberg
The well-known author of Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age will be in conversation with biographer–historian–academic Patrick French and writer-editor Sharmila Sen. Zuckerberg has, in many interviews, said that social media has elevated misogyny to new levels of violence. She will be talking about her book which is a grim account of misogyny, toxic white supremacy and some very flawed history proliferated online. She will also discuss the myopic and sexist vision which colours the study of the classics.
Malashri Lala and Namita Gokhale
For Malashri Lala and Namita Gokhale, Radha is an enigmatic character. She is someone who is revered as a goddess over Krishna’s legally-wedded but ignored wife Rukmini. A session dedicated to ‘ finding’ Radha will delve into deeper social questions of cultural context and the play of perceptions. Lal and Gokhale have co-edited the anthology Finding Radha: The Quest for Love. Pavan K. Varma, Yudit Greenberg, and Devdutt Pattanaik have all contributed significantly to the collection of essays on Radha and will share their insights and perspectives with Lal.
JLF 2019 begins on 24th January and ends on 28th January.
