Sri Lanka: the 2008 Galle literary festival
Vikram Seth and Gore Vidal at the festival
To many, Sri Lanka seems not to be part of South Asia. Apart from the 22-year-old war that's scarred the country, and cricket, one hardly reads about the lives in the teardrop-shaped Indian Ocean island. When I visited Lanka this spring, the hotel that I checked into was GFH, short for Galle Face Hotel. The name 'Galle Face' was chosen by the English colonialists and attributed to the gate of the Portuguese colonialists' Santa Cruz fortress in Colombo. The hotel faced the commercially important port of Galle on the south of Old Ceylon. A bust of Arthur C Clarke, the legendary, best-selling author of science fiction, adorned the hotel entrance. Clarke, who died recently, had finished quite a few of his books in the Chairman's Suite, one of the largest in the hotel. He had also worked there on his latest novel 3001: The Final Odyssey. Films like 'Fountains of Paradise' based on his book have been also shot in GFH. In a glass case in the hotel's tea room I saw Clarke's tribute to Cyril Gardiner, chairman of the GFH, for the generous use of the suite. Arthur C Clarke, it was evident, was the eminence grise of the hotel's literary connections. I think I know why Clarke liked the hotel. My room was furnished with genuine highly polished antiques and overlooked the ocean. As the sun sank, I admired it from the ocean front terrace. Stone plaques around me read: "GFH admires your decision not to smoke." A notice offered $10.00 per night if one refrained from smoking. "Please do not smoke in bed because the ashes we find might be yours," said another tongue-in-cheek one. Later, I met the young executives of the MTV Channel of Sri Lanka who handed a few DVDs to me. The first one, tantalizingly, was of the 2008 Galle Literary Festival, the second and third interviews with writers Carl Muller and Arthur C Clarke. A literary festival here in Sri Lanka? I decided it was imperative that I check them out. Back in my room, within this monsoon-splashed palace, I took in a festival that had taken place on 6th January of this year. Kumari Balasuriya, Galle's governor, had lit the inaugural lamp along with Gore Vidal, who had traveled here for the fest. Then was glimpsed Lanka's iconic writer Martin Wickramasinghe, reading from a short story called Lasanda. Geoffrey Dobbs, founder of the festival, emphasized its aim of "highlighting the great depth and diversity of English writing in Sri Lanka." Amongst others, there were Vikram Seth, Alexander McCall Smith, travel writers Tim Severin, William Dalrymple, Brian Keenan, Chris Stewart, Sandra Hoffman, Kamila Shamsie from Pakistan, Tishani Doshi from India, Sri Lanka's well-known Yasmine Goonaratne, Carl Muller, Elmo Jayawardene, Jean Arsanayagam, along with its diaspora writers Shyam Selvudarai famous for Funny Boy, Nury Vittachi, Julian West, poets Indran Amirthanayagam, Karen Roberts, and Channa Wickeramasekera. The two main venues, Hall de Galle and Maritime Museum, had run two parallel sessions simultaneously. Courses ranged from creative writing to even the world of children's program, spanning from art, chess, and poetry to drama. There were book launches of Elmo Jayawardena's Rainbows in Braille, Jean Arasanayagam's latest novel Dragons in the Wilderness. The next day kicked off with William Dalrymple's readings from his book The Last Mughal followed by Michael Meyer and Richard Boyle discussing English in Sri Lanka. Then at the Aditya, a famous literary three-course lunch was organized featuring Vikram Seth and Gore Vidal. This was followed by Tim Severin discussing Sinbad's Voyages with Richard Boyle. In one of the more diverse sessions, the role of the publisher was discussed by Sam Perera of Perera Hussain Books, Chiki Sarka of India's Random House, and Alexandra Pringle of Bloomsbury, UK. Apart from this, there was Yasmine Goonaratne's terrific readings from her book Pleasures of Conquest, which seemed to stun the audience. Back at the Fort, the sessions continued with Kamila Shamsie and Tishani Doshi on Cricket Mania. The grand finale belonged to Gore Vidal at the Eddystone Hall at the Lighthouse Hotel. Simon Manchester moderated the session, titled 'The Nature of the American Empire.' Vidal, with all his eight decades of critiques against the American imperium, stole the show by dubbing President Bush as President Dum Dum. With this, the video ended. Since the separate Carl Muller and Clarke interviews ran to two hours, I scoped out a wedding ceremony taking place at the GFH, which seems to be a favourite place for these events. Despite the dozen men grouped together downing a bottle of Johnnie Walker the patio was relatively free. Suddenly I spotted a gunboat on the quiet waves of the ocean, unperturbed by the cameras. I took a photograph but was quickly warned not to by the hotel attendants. However, it was already in the Sony's memory card -- titled 'Beauty and the Battle.' A piece of Sri Lankan reality! The Lion Flag was flying in front of the portico, symbolizing unity through its color and imagery among all the peoples of the island: Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim. Soon it was time to watch the 10 o' clock news on News First Online channel with its motto: We report, you decide. Well, I decided then and there to report for the Literary Galle Festival 2009! Rubana is currently doing a Phd at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
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