A literary interlude in Bali
T.S. TIRUMURTI
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It was one long feast of literature at the Third International Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
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CENTRE OF ATTENTION: Anita Desai at a book-signing
INDIANS visiting Bali for the first time should be forgiven for their over enthusiasm when they compare Bali with India. And Tamils even more so.
As one arrives in Denpasar, the capital of Bali and hires a pre-paid taxi, the chance of the taxi driver being called Krishna or Rama is high instantly an instant unexpected bond between the driver and its Indian occupants.
It's an hour's drive from the airport to Ubud — the cultural capital of Bali. Driving in the lush green surroundings, we could smell the fragrance of the yellow-tinged white frangipanis, the coconut trees and, of course, the water logged rice fields. "Reminds me of Kerala," my friend remarked.
The inaugural
We had arrived on September 29, just in time to attend the inaugural of the Third International Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. The inaugural was held in the courtyard of the Ubud Palace — the home of the Prince of Ubud. And a whole galaxy of Australian, British, Canadian, Indonesian, Southeast Asian, Austrian, Turkish, Swiss, Sri Lankan and, of course, Indian authors congregated soaking in the attention being showered on them.
Three-time Booker nominee Anita Desai was the cynosure of all eyes. She greeted admirers with quiet modesty. "I am curious to see if this festival has an Asian character," she said. She needn't have worried. Suketu Mehta, Tarun Tejpal, Kunal Basu, Madhur Jaffrey and the well-known Tamil author "Ambai" C.S. Lakshmi were the other luminaries. And with the Scottish-born William Dalrymple, Canadian author Shauna Singh Baldwin originally from Punjab, Australian Christopher Kremmer with his latest book Inhaling the Mahatma, Fijian-Australian of Indian origin Shalini Akhil who debuted with The Bollywood Beauty, Swiss Indian author Meira Chand and the Balinese Ida Ayu Oka Suwati Sideman discussing her Mahabharata-inspired poetry, it looked more like an Indian writers' festival. The presence of other Australians and Indonesians stopped it from becoming one.
The inaugural was a dazzling one with expressive and sensuous Balinese dancers from the Ubud Royal Palace accompanied by the ubiquitous gamelan instruments and musicians. The Borong dance — resembling the Chinese lion dance — was an instant hit.
The opening night was devoted to a tribute to the Indonesian Magsaysay award-winning author and Nobel Prize nominee Pramoedya Ananta Toer who died earlier this year. Held in Puri Saraswati, the open stage right in the middle of a large pond filled with lotus flowers and fronds was overflowing with people gathered to witness a moving homage paid by those who knew Pram well, including the Indonesian writer and journalist Goenawan Mohamad.
September 30 was the Balinese Tumpek Landep, a day devoted to Pasupati — the guardian of all metal objects. "Their version of Aayuda Puja," my friend added. Instruments, vehicles, tools and implements were worshipped.
All about books
Indonesian writer, Lakshmi Pamuntjak.
The next three days were one long literary feast. Desa-Kala-Patra (Place-Time-Identity), a Balinese Hindu life principle, was the theme. Panels, literary lunches, workshops, book launches, children's events and frivolous debates kept the participants busy. The sessions were intimate and smaller rooms helped establish better rapport with the writers. William Dalrymple set the ball rolling with a slide presentation of his book White Mughals. Ambai anchored the discussion on the "Body Language" observing "birth, death and love get written on the body as do violence, violation and power". Her lucid presentation and clarity of answers had Tarun Tejpal, who shared the same panel, nodding his head in agreement. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations sponsored Ambai and Anita Desai's participation.
Poetry got its place under the sun too. The Jakarta based Indian banker Amol Titus read out excerpts from his poignant poem "Darkness at Bamiyan". The doyen of Indonesian poets Sapardi Djoko Damono wrote in `Sita's Spell': ... the pyre/Rama has set aflame/... `Jump, Sita,' I hear You bark,/`so that the air, water, the fire and land/can be pure once more.'/But I also want to be free /From Rama's spell.
Understanding Islam in a modern world was an inevitable and fashionable topic. But the choice of topic had a special resonance to Bali. Last year, the second year of the Ubud Literary Festival, was traumatic for the Balinese when bomb blasts — echoing similar blasts in 2002 — ripped through the island mere days before the festival. Many writers dropped out. It was Janet de Neefe's courageous decision to go ahead with the festival that saved it from meeting an untimely death. For my panel on the "importance of place in writing", Suketu Mehta of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found fame was a natural choice. In the following Q&A, Ziauddin Sardar and Christopher Kremmer exchanged verbal volleys on the "white man's quest" for spiritual salvation in Varanasi, but with my "The Idea of India" intervention and Suketu's "The Argumentative Indian" argument, peace was restored.
Indonesian writers
The Indonesians were also out in numbers. Lakshmi Pamuntjak, a young literary star, worked the audience during the wine tasting session with Madhur Jaffrey. Lakshmi's versatility and range in writing comes as a breath of fresh air in a country, which has long been dominated by the staid Javanese and themes of the older generation. While Lakshmi writes in English, Linda Christanty writes entirely in Bahasa Indonesia, but is no less expressive. In fact, with the emergence of a host of young attractive women writers in Indonesia — like Ayu Utami, Dewi `Dee' Lestari and Djenar Ayu — the themes have become more urban and brought into the open issues like female sexuality, sinful thoughts, forbidden relationships and political repression.
But then, such literary upstarts have challenges to overcome not the least of which is an attempt to relegate their works as somehow less than literary and merely sensational. One such label is "Sastra Wangi" or `fragrant literature' implying that sex and the author's good looks sell. Shrugging such labels off has not been easy, though it has helped sales! Ayu Utami observes "Probably Sastra Wangi is a social symptom rather than literary criticism".
But one can say for sure that the passing away of Pramoedya not only marked the passing away of that generation of Indonesian writers, but also marked the coming of age of another era.
The writer is an author and a diplomat.
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