Literature in High Places

The list of Asian literature festivals is ever-expanding

Bhutan, as you probably know, is the only country in the world to measure the Gross National Happiness of its citizens. For its book lovers, there’s going to be a spike in the graph, come May, when its capital, Thimphu, plays host to the India-Bhutan Foundation’s Mountain Echoes, the country’s first literary festival.
It joins the ever-expanding list of Asian literature festivals — there were jamborees in Hong Kong, Dubai and Karachi in the past month alone — and features some of the usual suspects: Namita Gokhale is programme consultant, Mita Kapur’s Siyahi is an associate, and Pavan Varma, the writer-diplomat who is currently India’s ambassador to Bhutan, is one of the lead movers behind it.

The procession on stage will be led by the Queen Mother, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck and the PM, Lyonpo Jigmi Yoser Thinley. Other names on the roster include Urvashi Butalia, Omair Ahmad, Mitali Saran, Bulbul Sharma, Rajkumar Hirani (mandatory Bollywood presence), Chetan Bhagat (alas, not in the same event as Hirani), Gulzar, Sampurna Chattarji, Mamang Dai, Temsula Ao, Patrick French, Sadanand Dhume, Penguin India’s Ravi Singh, Leila Seth and Sarnath Bannerjee.

Full report here Moneycontrol.com

Speaking new truths

Sadanand Dhume's book, My Friend, the Fanatic, traces the gradual shift towards Islam in Indonesia...
 

In Early 2002, Sadanand Dhume, a journalist based in Washington decided to write a book travelling across the Indonesian Archipelago in an attempt to understand the growing power of the Islamist fringe.The book, titled My Friend, the Fanatic talks about the prospects of one of the largest and only Islamic democratic country being overrun by a radical Islamist organisations. 

“In this book, I have made an effort to understand the reasons for the radical fringe in Indonesia becoming more powerful, even though they continue to be a small number. The future of Indonesia is very important, for the Muslim world and the rest of the planet.”

Dhume contends: “Till a couple of decades ago, most Indonesians were secular. However, slowly there was an Islamisation of society. One of the prime examples being the fact that Arab names have begun to outnumber Sanskrit names in primary schools. An old culture comprising elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam is being replaced slowly.”

Full report here The Hindu