The Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) in Doha will feature “engaging sessions and stimulating discourse” from a series of talks and lectures by prominent speakers from Qatar and around the world, organisers have said.
“The Qatar National Library (QNL) is proud to be working with international partners such as TeamWork Arts, producer of the annual JLF, to bring together different cultures, languages and artistic voices to be part of Qatar’s vibrant literary community,” QNL executive director Dr Sohair Wastawy said in a recently-held press conference in Doha.
JLF Doha, hosted by QNL in partnership with TeamWork Arts, and sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ooredoo Qatar, is scheduled to take place on December 12-14 at QNL.
Among the topics that will be discussed at the three-day festival include 'Of Thrones and Sultans: Tales from Indian History' with Manu S Pillai and William Dalrymple, two chroniclers of the story of south Asia who will examine the colourful tapestry of Indian history at the session.
Dalrymple is a bestselling author, historian and co-director of JLF while Pillai is author of the critically-acclaimed The Ivory Throne, Rebel Sultans and The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin.
A separate session will see Dalrymple telling the story of the East India Company and discussing The Anarchy – the author’s most ambitious and riveting book to date.
Meanwhile, Buket Uzuner, one of the '75 Most Influential Women’ of Turkey, will explore the changing face of the city she calls home, Istanbul, with reference to her book I Am Istanbul in conversation with academics Firat Oruc.
In another event, Dalrymple and Dr James Onley (director of Historical Research and Partnerships at QNL and author of The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj) will also engage in a talk on empire, its origins and its lasting impact.
Musharraf Ali Farooqui, the maestro of the mysterious and the unexpected, will take the audience through his latest novel, The Merman and the Book of Power, a heady mix of the past and present, history and mythology, told in the classical qissa style of storytelling fables common to the oral and written literature in Urdu, Persian and Arabic.
In his bestselling and award-winning book, Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From, organisers said Tony Joseph will take the audience on an intriguing foray into our common past with a look at the life-changing journeys our ancestors took and our attempts to trace their patterns of migration, the spread of Homo sapiens and the genetic evidence found in the course of the human journey.
In Asma’s Indian Kitchen, celebrity chef Asma Khan (first British chef to have featured in Netflix’s Chef’s Table) will reveal secrets of her success, telling her immigrant's story and how food brought her home.
The festival will also see legendary Indian film actress Sharmila Tagore speak about cinema, literature and a lifetime of achievement, in conversation with Sanjoy K Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts.
