Compassion was the word of the day as Her Majesty The Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck kicked off the fifth edition of USHA presents Mountain Echoes.
Her Majesty, who is the royal patron of the festival, was in conversation with Ira Pande in a session titled Invoking Tara. She stressed the need to make compassion a practice in everyday life. While customs and traditions and environments and people change, Her Majesty believes that compassion is a value that transcends time.
The day started with festival director Namita Gokhale welcoming the packed hall at Tarayana Foundation. Lhamo Dukpa blessed the festival with her beautiful voice as she and her troupe performed a traditional Bhutanese hymn.
After the Queen Mother’s inspiring session, Anuja Chauhan and Dolma C Roder took the stage to discuss Anuja’s spunky, entertaining and intelligent novels in the session, The Anuja Factor. Anuja claimed to be a lazy writer with a magpie mentality, and confessed that some of her most outrageous characters are drawn from real life.
The author, who is often categorised under chick-lit, spoke about how she hated the little boxes publishing houses want to put writers into. Though her books deal with difficult and taboo topics, she believes she flies under the radar because the hardliners believe her books are ‘just’ romances.
The next session paid homage to Pema Lingpa, one of Bhutan’s foremost religious and literary figures. Ani Kinley, Dorji Gyeltshen and Dr Karma Phuntsho were the panel for the session, titled Pema Lingpa Tradition. Rows of students listened intently as the panellists explained how Pema Lingpa’s teachings and writings have shaped Bhutan.
The next session, Somnath Batabyal warned us, would contain nothing nice. Only the dark, murky underbelly of crime and more importantly, crime writing, was to be discussed. It was made even more interesting by the fact that of the three authors of the session Dark Night of Crime – Kjell Ola Dahl, Somnath Batabyal and Christopher C Doyle – two of them did not consider themselves crime writers. Kjell was proud to be part of the Scandinavian tradition of crime writing, while Somnath and Christopher debated whether a crime in a novel made it a crime novel.
The afternoon session at Taj Tashi, Traveller’s Eye, was a special one, with the book Travelling In, Travelling Out being unveiled by Her Majesty The Royal Queen Mother. Her Majesty is also a contributor to the anthology, which has been edited by Namita Gokhale. Joining the two women was designer Wendell Rodricks, who has also written an essay for the book.
As they exchanged travel stories and discussed what travel meant to them, Wendell summed it up perfectly by saying: “The more you travel, the more you realise that all people are one.”
Divine Thunderbolt: Crazy Wisdom had Sonam Jatso, Dasho Kinley Dorji and Karma Choden discussing the teachings of Drukpa Kunley and the phallus cult in Bhutan. Drukpa Kunley, often called the Madcap Lama, taught complex philosophies of life through his lusty, humorous and bawdy stories. In Drukpa Kunley’s own words: “The best Chang wine lies at the bottom of the pail; And happiness lies below the navel.”
From ancient wisdom, the talk turned to modern problems of democracy. Bhutan’s landmark elections last year and India’s historic polls this year provided much fodder for Lily Wangchuk, Pavan K Varma, Dago Tshering and Mihir Sharma as they compared the democratic situation of the two countries in the session Democracy: The Will of the People.
Transpersonal psychologist Rashna Imhasly Gandhy’s latest book, The Emerging Feminine – Discovering The Heroine Within was launched at the festival. Rashna shared the stage with Neeta Gupta of Yatra Books and Namita Gokhale as she talked about the nurturing courage of women.
Earlier in the day, Rashna had also held a workshop on dream interpretation. She explained the symbolism and significance of dreams to a captive audience of 20 guests and 40 students from Kelki High School.
Singaporean author Robert Yeo discussed his long career with Siok Sian Dorji in the session Poems, Plays and Libretti. Robert, who is known for his political writings, said, “I cannot talk about identity without talking about intimate personal issues. Only then can I move on to larger political issues.”
The Attachment was the next session, with French writer Florence Noiville in conversation with Judith Oriol. Florence discussed her book The Attachment, which she termed her attempt to rewrite Lolita from the girl’s point of view. Her fascination for science tempered with her love for literature has created her unique writing voice.
The day ended with a spirited discussion on Human-Wildlife Conflict, with Lily Wangchuk, Lyonpo Paljor Dorji and Sonam Wangchuk debating how to strike the balance between human needs and conservation. While Lily highlighted the plight of the farmers, who spend eights months of the year protecting their fields from wild animals, Sonam added that there was no easy solution for this conundrum.
Chairman of the Board, USHA, Siddharth Shriram said, “Beginning with traditional Bhutanese invocation for a successful venture, the Queen Mother led the festival with a colourful exposition of life while growing up in a less developed Bhutan. Anuja Chauhan entertained the audience with a typically colourful amusing and frank introduction to her books and the process of writing. The theory behind crime, detective and thriller writing was reasonably explored by Batabyal, Doyle and KO Dahl, before a session on Democracy: The Will of the People demonstrated enormous possibilities for further development. All in all, a rich fare was dished up on the first day of the festival.”
The Nehru Wangchuck Cultural Centre screened several movies – Village on Treasure Hill, Heart in the Mandala, No Problem! Six months with the Barefoot Grandmamas. Artist Sonia Khurana’s Flower Carrier III was also aired, as was Kesang Chuki Dorjee’s Bhutan Women Forward.
Alka Pande’s art workshop, ABC of Art: Appreciation, Buying, Collecting, had the audience engaging in a lively discussion with the curator. From ancient pre-modern art to contemporary art, Alka enlightened the audience about the changes the art world has seen.
Day One had a rocking end with Langa singers from Rajasthan playing alongside Bhutanese bands like The Baby Boomers, Zhaw and the Ngorigaps, Poisoned Apple, Daydream Farmers at Clock Tower.
The three-day Mountain Echoes Literary Festival features a line-up of Bhutanese, Indian and international writers, musicians, film-makers and artists.