GALF is the word!

Photo Credits: SUNDAY. PAGE 1. LEAD - part 1

The Goa connection

GALF has consistently explored the idea of ‘different ways of belonging’, an idea from the renowned Goan poet, Eunice de Souza. This means an emphasis on regions that are often dismissed as the margins, starting with our own Goa: no literary festival in India has a stronger and prouder connection with its home state and culture. Besides more than 50 delegates from Goa at GALF 2015, the festival also features the debut of highly acclaimed Norwegian-Goan biographer and critic Ivo de Figueiredo, and many other prominent writers, historians and academics from the diaspora.

Free flowing verse

As with previous years, GALF poetry lineup is unparalleled: Meena Alexander, Mustansir Dalvi, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Ranjit Hoskote, Desmond Kon, Pooja Nansi, Tania de Rozario, and many others. In other variants of spoken word and performance, the highly acclaimed comedian Radhika Vaz will launch her first book and perform at GALF, and the New York-based “greatest Indian rapper in the world” Himanshu Suri will return for his fourth festival appearance.

History in the making

GALF 2015 will showcase the best history books of our times, with a stunning lineup of historians and authors: Faisal Devji from Oxford, Ines Zupanov from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, Angela Barretto Xavier from University of Lisbon, Anjali Arondekar from University of California, besides Ramachandra Guha, Jonathan Gil Harris, Raghu Karnad, Vedica Kant, Goa’s own Parag Porobo and Rochelle Pinto, and many others.

Launchpad

There are many books slated for launch this season. Bharat Karnad’s ‘Why India is not a Great Power (Yet)’, Harsh Mander’s ‘Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India’, Mahesh Rao’s ‘One Point Two Billion’, Heta Pandit’s ‘There is more to life than a House in Goa’, Saad Z Hossain’s ‘Escape from Baghdad’, Anjum Hasan’s ‘Cosmopolitans’, Zac O’ Yeah’s ‘Hari, Hero for Hire’ and more.

Bharat calls India a “strategically dim-witted lug” in his book and expresses his overall dissatisfaction with the state of affairs here. India is not a superpower yet because it is a reticent state, has consistently underperformed and has continuously declined as an independent player in the international arena. He attributes these factors to its red tapeism, multi party system, its weak defence and a total lack of vision.

Harsh Mander’s book brings us face to face with reality, the ugly truth of slums, the underprivileged sections of our economically viable Indian society. He works with survivors of mass violence and hunger, as well as homeless persons and street children.

Mahesh Rao’s book is an anthology of short fiction about the one point two billion people who inhabit India – a wide spectrum encompassing stories from a diverse plural state. His lens moves from megacities to remote locations, small-time households to elite glittering clubs. An India grappling with the dichotomy of the enmeshing old traditions and the onslaught of modern progressive thought.

Zac O'Yeah, author of crime novels and a detective fiction columnist for Mint Lounge, is launching his book ‘Hari, Hero for Hire’. Married to the Indian author Anjum Hasan, he is well acquainted with the lanes and back alleys of Bangalore where he bases his noir fiction.

----

Over the past few years we have been overwhelmed by the response for GALF in the literary and art community. This is a unique festival on the literary calendar in India, which is volunteer driven. We do not have inappropriate corporate ties but yet we have firmly established ourselves. We have terrific writers from around the world who are finding their own way here, which is humbling for us. There are great book launches, including the exclusive launch of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s ‘The Adivasi Will Not Dance’. Hansda is probably one of the best writers around in the country today.

Vivek Menezes, co-curator, GALF