Shatrughan Sinha's wife catching him cheat wins, not intolerance debate

For long-time regulars of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Monday, which also happens to be the fest's last day, seems reminiscent of how it used to be. The crowd has visibly thinned. For the first time in days I have seen the grass on the Front Lawns. It is easy to sit back on a chair and listen.

Every morning as I walk into the Diggi Palace I see a group of policemen either sitting on the sidewalk soaking in the sun, or standing under the shade, reading newspapers. It somehow captures what Atwood said at the start of the fest, of how we are all "narrative creatures". We need stories to live, breathe and dream.

(Even if they are news stories.)

- Literary critic and writer Nilanjana S Roy is reading from her upcoming book The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading, which I'm quite looking forward to. The book sounds as wonderful and curious as its title. The other panellist is author of last year's The Cosmopolitans, Anjum Hasan, who is making a case for why literature deserves a headline beyond the controversy.

- Festival co-founder Namita Gokhale was overheard telling William Dalrymple that "I have bone to pick with you, William." "What did I do, aunty?" "You keep telling people on Facebook who have not been invited to the festival that 'I'll remind Namita again'. As if it is my decision."

- During a press conference, asked whether his Padma Bhushan award was a token of political appreciation, actor and now anti-award wapsi activist Anupam Kher said: "Main aaj soch ke nikla hun ki aaj koi mera mood nahi kharab karega".

- Senior journalist Shoma Chaudhury closed the session on Trial by Media by saying that she believes in the "votary of slowness of news". Media has a penchant to run a race of putting out a story first without establishing any facts or evidence.

- The most stirring session of the day is undoubtedly Literary Friction: Sahitya aur Sangharsh, which saw Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi in conversation with writer Uday Prakash, Rajasthani poet CP Deval and Nilanjana Roy. "Today the state wants to shape and influence what we eat, what we study and what we do," Vajpeyi said. "Why can't we [writers] shape and influence the state."

Writers, he said, are not only dreamers who speak the truth, but who also want to see the truth. Deval shed light on his contemporaries returning their awards, and why we must pay attention to them. "Writers are like birds in trees who flutter in the sky, warning everyone, when a calamity occurs." "Or like ants," Uday Prakash said, with a smile.

- In a talk on the British Empire, a member from the audience stands up and asks Shashi Tharoor: "How does your personal moral compass allow you to be a member of the Congress party, which has been the most corrupt party in the history of the country?" [Cue applause.]

Tharoor humorously responds: "A tough political audience, huh?" He explains: "I do not accept that any one political party has a monopoly on virtue or sin". He has to fight for time to complete his defence on supporting the ideals of the party, ending with "the alternatives seem to me quite appalling".

- All illusions that Monday was going to be a light day as far as the crowd is concerned were fast dispelled as news spread that Shatrughan Sinha will be attending. The crowd swelled again. Here to launch his biography, Khaamosh... Shotgun Sinha Speaks, which is written by Bharathi S Pradhan, Suhel Seth cut the chase and asked both Tharoor and Sinha, if they have ever cheated on their wives.

While Tharoor wriggled out of the question, Sinha replied: "There was a time I was caught red handed by my wife. She asked me to be a good husband and never repeat this again. Ek woh din hai aur woh aaj yeh din. I have never let her catch me again." (I couldn't help noticing Tharoor looked quite impressed at Sinha's disclosure.) When asked if there is still casting couch in Bollywood, he said, "Mujhse kissi ne cheddh chadh nahi kari". Sinha left the stage with many fans in the crowd stretching their hands just to reach his.

- "Laxmi has always been celebration and I celebrated my life." A fiercely passionate Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, transgender rights activist, saluted the misunderstood transgender identity. She asserts, "I have the same flesh and skin and red blood that you have. Even I have beautiful eyes, of course my eyes are sexier than many women's!" Subhuman, sex toy or Shikhandi? Narayan declared: "I am neither a woman nor a man. I am a hijra." Laxmi won the crowd with her fiery candour. Many young people flocked to her to click their selfie.

- The last event of the Jaipur Literature Festival - the debate on "Is Freedom of Speech Absolute and Unconditional" - was, for many, the low point of an otherwise spectacular five-day festival celebrating literature. Mind you, I'm not saying it wasn't entertaining, Anupam Kher went on stage and said, "Aap ghar mein bhenc**d bol sakte ho?" He was trying to emphasise that you must follow at home, what you follow in the country."

Writer and journalist Salil Tripathi said: "Freedom of speech is a right not a privilege." Pavan K Varma: "Democracy will collapse if expression is not restrained." AAP partywala Kapil Mishra took the debate to another level: "Kya iss desh mein ek hi banda hai jo apni baat kar sakta." One thing was clear as the literature festival wound up: the intolerance debate is dead, don't raise it.