Mumbai LitFest: Inside the making of the city’s oldest literary festival

The rain has delayed things slightly and one of our guests is late But that is to be expected in the week preceding the cityrsquos premiere literature festivals when we meet two giants who have been steering Mumbairsquos literary arts scene with this annual spectacle now in its 16th yearldquoThings are always in motionrdquo admits festival codirector Amy Fernandes as she plays the genial host As Quasar Thakore Padamsee walks in there is some worry ldquoI hope the rain slows down We were not expecting wet weather in Novemberrdquo the playwright admits later The duo has been part of Mumbairsquos first and oldest literary festival Literature Live The Mumbai LitFest since it was founded by Anil Dharker and Shashi BaligaExcerpts from the conversationQuasar Thakore Padamsee and Amy FernandesTake us back to the beginning in 2010 What was the first conversation with Anil Dharker about the festivalAmy Fernandes Anil Dharker was at a dinner at a friendrsquos house I remember Gerson Da Cunha and Quasar were among the guests present during the conversationQuasar Thakore Padamsee At some point the conversation veered to why Mumbai does not have a literary festival despite being such a literary cityAF It was then that some of the guests like Gerson suggested we should take it on After that I remember Anil taking on the cause to make it happenQTP The first festival was in 2010 but the idea began in 2008 Honestly the odd conversation would happen and then it would die down But behind the scenes Anil was knocking on doors talking to people tying things down with the tenacity that only he hadAF He was a man who loved his books as you can see He respected the written word and felt that Mumbai deserved a literary festivalThis despite us boasting of Nissim Ezekiel Arun Kolatkar Eunice De Souza and Dom Moraes Plus a vibrant ecosystem for the artsQTP There were multiple activities in silos In a weird way it took someone outside those silos and with a journalistic mindset to see the world as it is to spot a patternFrom Anil Dharker Amy Jerry Pinto even Gerson Da Cunha there is a newspaper connection as well Was it like being back in the newsroomAF Not quite We argue very civilly here she laughs We argue bicker and discussQTP Anil Amy Antoine Lewis Jerry and Shashi Baliga were journalists I think that is where the rigour comes from In some ways it was like a newsroom It was something Anil made happen He would allow you to convince him over two or three meetings He would keep asking you to refine the argument I think that has remainedAF That is why it takes from December to November There is such a long gestation period between the ideasWhat are your pet peeves that you bicker aboutQTP Amy always brings wafers to every meeting and I cannot stop at just oneAF Thatrsquos okay We love peeves and turn it into something good No festival is an easy run and it gets tougher every year There is something that will throw us back and bring us backQTP We forget that aside from the writing community an audience there is a supporting community We have been fortunate in that regard mdash from the Tatas and the NCPA and now Godrej Industries Group is our presenting partner It is reaffirming when someone else buys into the ideaWhat were the early challenges thenAF After the first year Anil struck out on his own The Tatas came along and were with us for 13 years They allowed us to grow And we grew sometimes incrementally and sometimes exponentially Anil had this habit of suddenly springing an idea onto us and then we would figure out a way about how it would happen I think in the second year we started the awards with the late Mahasweta Devi being the first recipient Today we have a huge smorgasbord of awardsQTP The awards are now a festival within a festival But for him it was one more thing to addAF Every time he would pitch an idea I would watch everyone wonder how we were going to do this But it a small team is a gift We closely understand what the festival is aboutQuasar Thakore Padamsee and Amy Fernandes right at the latterrsquos Worli residenceHow then was the curation process arrived onAF We should have had Antoine Lewis here for that He is a deep thinker and he would come up with a unique session idea Then everyone populates it with their inputs Shireen Mistry is our eagle eye Reena Agrawal looks after the Little FestivalQTP Shashi Baliga then executive director actually called Antoine to occasionally help when we began Suddenly he found himself at the table solving author problemsWhen it comes to curation the thing to remember is that all our activities are connected to the written word It is also our responsibility to tell the audience that these are things people are writing aboutAF Even the debates largely emanate from the books or an idea that is shaping the narrative Right now it is about all the literature coming out of ChinaHow and when do you strike the balance and know what the city reader wantsAF We do not know that laughsQTP At no point are we saying that this is what the city needs We simply are talking about what people are writing and talking about For instance this year there is a wonderful collection of stories The Only City by Mumbaibased authors that uses the city as an inspiration It fits completely with what we are about But that will only happen this year That allows us to guide our programmingAF However that does not become our theme There will be an occasional shift in the narrative and we have to recognise thatWere there elements that you let go over the years in this processQTP It is not as though we let go of things we just evolve and adapt Like the Quiz or the Book in Focus sessions we invent new formatsas wellAF We also have become more inclusive A few years ago we brought in Marathi and Gujarati as languages in focus When we feel a need where audiences and writers demand it we are open to itQTP For instance take the conversation with Godrej DEI for the Pomegranate Workshop of firsttime queer poets coming together We are expanding this year with A Wish Upon The Sky featuring 12 first time poets from marginalised communities and across gendersHas this changing horizon of rising literature festivals reading communities and open mics influenced the curationAF It has not influenced the curation as such But poetry music prose everything blends together at some point during the ideating process We are not closing our doors to anythingQTP Talking about the old Poetry Circle poetry was then a nascent art form Today everyone has a platform and has open mics We have to acknowledge that and give it space At the same time we are part of a larger movement of people discovering and wanting to readThis year we have groups of 11 to 18yearolds walking around the fest attending workshops and writing reports This is our way of acknowledging that there are younger readers out thereAF The new generation consumes literature differently or digitallyHow do you view itAF Definitely better Publishers are coming out with a tsunami of books every year Selfpublishing is hugeQTP Every year they say that the ereader will be the death of books Today every little cafeacute in the city is adding a bookshelfReading has gone from a solitary to a communal experienceQTP Yes thatrsquos why we have the Mumbai Bookies coming up with a reading session at the festivalAF I still think reading will remain a solitary pursuit Watching someone read might cause a domino effect and push you to read I am happy with that But in the end reading for me is personal and solitaryChildrenrsquos literature has also acquired importance today How important was it to bring that voice to the foreAF We had started the Little Festival some years ago but stopped it during COVID19 We resumed again because a lot of younger children are invested This year we have a 12yearold opening her bookQTP Environment has become a big subject Kids today are engaged with the world and having a real conversation We also forget what it means to a child To actually witness them running around and asking for author signatures is quite a sightAF Also the young poets and writers it is so great that they have a platform Their poems have such depth We also have a workshop for librarians to figure out new ideas to get children to come into librariesThen is there a session you loved putting together this yearAF We cannot choose between our children All of them and the Little FestivalQTP Our opening session is quite unique We have a Booker Prizewinner Shehan Karunatilaka a Nobel Prizewinner Venki Ramakrishnan and a digital journalist Christian Stoumlcker coming together to answer the question What is Truth That is a fascinating oneWhat is the next step and is there a shift in the horizonAF We donrsquot know We have to wait for AI to tell us how things will change I think we are going to be far more attentive to what it does and an author does nowQTP It is a part of the conversation We are a festival of ideas as well These things become a lot more interesting as they are talked aboutFrom November 7 to 9At NCPA Nariman PointLog on to litlivein