Brimming with literary energy

As promised, I am back with pictures and impressions of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters also known as MBIFL. For those who are not in the know, this year the capital city hosted the third edition of the festival. Kanakakkunnu Palace veritably turned into a palace of letters...

This time I was determined to visit the festival at least three out of four days, so I booked a "Delegate" pass online. I was so happy that I did because I was greeted with a pretty tote bag upcycled from an old bedsheet...

It reminded me of my own efforts way back in 2014. I was very glad to learn of the green protocol that was strictly enforced at the venue, which meant that even plastic water bottles were confiscated at the entrance. I was glad that I had carried my steel water bottle. The venue had plenty of kiosks where water, cooled sambhaaram and naruneendi juice were available. 

Unlike my random forays to the festival avenue in the past two years, I was determined to get information on all things festival this time around, so I followed MBIFL on Instagram. Five days before the festival started, I got an update saying that Mathrubhumi was conducting a workshop in English writing called "The Sentence". That is how I came to attend the workshop as I mentioned in my last post.

The workshop was led by Dr. Manu Remakanth who heads the Department of English at SN College, Chempazhanthy. He lent us two 'brushes' to help us with descriptive writing. Between his fascinating class and the group exercises, I didn't even notice the passage of time.

So here is my tribe with our 'chief' in the paper the next day...

This time around, I carried a notebook and a camera as well as a printed schedule of the program of the day for the festival. Organizing is everything! Simultaneous discussions/conversations/solos were conducted at hourly intervals at seven different stages spread throughout the venue. The last couple of years, I just dipped in at various stages trying to take in as much as I could. But this time I sat through whole sessions whenever possible, took copious notes and photographs so that I would not forget all those wonderful nuggets of information, names of fascinating books mentioned in passing or any other tidbit that a budding writer could use. 

The highlight of the festival for me was seeing Alexander McCall Smith and listening to him read an excerpt from one of his books. If you've been a reader of my blog from the beginning, you know that I'm a huge fan, especially of the Precious Ramotswe series. So entranced was I just being able to see and listen to him that I quite forgot my celebrity phobia and actually got up to ask him a question about my favorite series! I also told him that he and James Herriot are the authors I turn to when my mind's chatter becomes too much and I cannot concentrate on anything. And if that were not enough, I waited till he was off the dais and offered the great writer a handshake and thanked him for writing books! Major fan-girl moment!!!

It was all the more astonishing because just 45 minutes before this had happened, I had been to the book signing event of Dr. Shashi Tharoor and hadn't opened my mouth to say anything except "Good Morning" and "Thank you" and had spent the silent eternity it took for him to sign my book mentally kicking myself for being tongue-tied.

But meeting Mr. Smith took the bridle off my tongue. Later during the festival I was able to ask Anita Nair about the conception of Idris and questioned Devdutt Pattanaik about whether the Adhyatma Ramayana didn't read like a huge conspiracy for genocide.  I also quizzed a few other writers about whether they avoided potboilers in their reading while choosing only literary fiction and asked them to share their own favorite books on the craft of writing. 

All in all, it was a soul-enriching, uplifting and absolutely scrumptious three days for me. I gave the festival a miss on my birthday because there were several things on the home front to be done that day and I had to stay at home. Besides, I probably would have undergone spontaneous combustion from all that inspiration in unmitigated doses!!! Here are a few more pictures of MBIFL from my camera.

 

This is one time I wish I had at least five clones to take part in all the fascinating programs held at the various stages scattered around the venue. There are photos and videos galore on MBIFL's Facebook page and Instagram page (link given previously) if you want to checkout this boon to the book lovers of the city. Hope you will join me for the next edition!!!