The Fiction of truth, the truth of fiction

I eat god, I drink god, I sleep on god... I eat god, I drink god, I sleep on god… It is the first day of the Jaipur Literature Festival and Girish Karnad, who is supposed to give the keynote lecture, along with heavyweights like Wole Soyinka and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., are missing in action. They are possibly lost in the Delhi fog, or the traffic, or maybe they didn’t even depart their home cities and countries in the first place. The roads, you know, says one of the organizers. Apparently this is a good enough explanation and the crowd asks no questions and asks for no explanations—we start off the day with a remarkably serene and unhurried shift to readings of Kabir instead. The day is beautiful, the sky is blue, there are long runners in pink, yellow and orange fabrics above our head and two dhol-players are causing a tremendous ruckus and making us all feel invigorated. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is on stage and goes from Kabir to Arun Kolatkar with effortless ease. And...

In each issue, First Words will introduce a writer new to our pages. Read the beginning of a previously unpublished story by the writer in our print edition, then read the whole piece here on our website. This issue, read Sushma Joshi’s (Nepal) gripping story “The Little Girl Who Died.” Joshi is a writer and filmmaker whose stories have appeared in many publications worldwide. Her “End of the World” was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Joshi has a bachelor’s in international relations from Brown University and a master’s in English literature from Middlebury College.

One writer amongst..."23 woman achievers who have made a mark in their field and have the talent and determination to do so much more." Read about us in VOW's annual list of Women To Watch 2010!

I was at the Jaipur Literature festival in January 2010, blogging for Himal Magazine. See the blog posts "Freedom for Sale", "Twenty-first century identities" and "I eat god, I drink god, I sleep on god..." here .