Web of words

Mona

Literature has a new address, it’s called live! Corona quarantine has turned life upside down; humans are caged while animals are reclaiming spaces well within the cities. French philosopher René Descartes wrote, “The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” Courtesy social media, the finewriter of the current times are coming live to hold discussions, read from their books and recite poetry.

As popular Jaipur Literary Festival rolled out digital literary series Brave New World; RajkamalPrakashan Samuh’s live poetry sessions to hashtags ‘#OnceUponABookWithPenguin’ and ‘#ThodaReadingCorona’ are trending and winning literature lovers on to their side. The beauty is that there is something for everyone from diverse genres!

Face to face

JLF’s virtual stage is set to ‘harness’ your love for literature. Started on April 4, their two sessions were Those Days These Days with Abhinav Chandrachud andEnd of History with Bruno Maçäes, addressing questions that plague us today. Streaming on social media handles, this new initiative aims to ‘interrogate, understand, to find comfort and vision and to explore’ the brave new world that we are currently in.

A similar step is taken by Rajkamal Prakashan Samuh on their Facebook page. Live sessions by poets and authors with #StayAtHomeWithRajkamal is winning viewers on its side too. Not much into social media, author Nand Bhardwaj enjoyed the live session by Vinod Kumar Shukal though. “I am busy reading and writing. Lately lots of writers are coming with Facebook lives, I loved Vinod Kumar Shukal, I find him sahaj and significant.”

New beginning

Author Durgaprasad Agrawal finds it a fresh new beginning for literature lovers. “Literature is ‘essential’ in its own right and courtesy the web, it has adapted to the new medium in the times of lockdown.”

Here’s a platform

Destruction invariably leads to creation. It is in this time, even as the world shuts down on itself and de-globalisation becomes the new buzz word, we have a responsibility to reach out and ensure that knowledge continues to be shared across borders. JLF continues to be a platform for ideas, introspection and innovation by sharing each other’s stories. JLF’s Brave New World is an initiative to look ahead and envision a better future for mankind!

Sanjoy Roy, MD, Teamwork Arts Pvt. Ltd.

Technology to the rescue

JLF’s Brave New World is an amazing initiative that brings about world class curated sessions to discuss questions that we are looking answers for. When we are cocooned in our rooms, it is so important to transcend boundaries using technology. I thoroughly enjoyed this platform.

Sujeev Shakya, author