--------------------------------------------------------------------------- **** Annual Goanetters Meet **** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual Goanetters Meet - January 3, 2012 - 12:30 - 2pm Tourist Hostel, near the Old Secretariat, Panaji (Panjim) Planning to attend? Send an email to eve...@goanet.org with contact details --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sir, I write to protest the tone and content of certain remarks about the Goa Arts and Literary Festival. I must say that as a participant in the festival, I was not disappointed at all. I am not among the people who counts heads and is only satisfied when he sees hundreds or thousands. I was perfectly happy with the number of people who turned up, simply because they numbered among some of the most intelligent people I know. The audience was responsive and engaged; you have only to look at the heat generated by the discussion on paid news. Or listen to the elegantly balanced and sincerely delivered speech that Amitav Ghosh gave at the opening to know that a literary festival cannot be judged on numbers. Instead, I would propose that one looks at the thought content that is generated. Where else could one hear Ranjit Hoskote talking to a Nigerian-born America-based novelist and an Indian rapper? He said, and I quote here, about writing, that "we can only bear witness to our own bewilderments". Then there was the moment at which Kiran Nagarkar said, "It does not matter if it happens in your backyard or in Iraq or anywhere else in the world. You are responsible." I particularly enjoyed my informal interactions with young Goans. I met a bright young lawyer who told me that all Goa's politicians' children were studying law. "In order to think of new ways in which to break those laws and get away with it," he said, but his own idealism was fresh. I talked to some teachers about the use of libraries. Harsh Mander and Shahidul Amin brought me to tears. I walked with poets and editors and sages and scholars. They were there for everyone. You could just walk up to someone like Deborah Baker of Pablo Bartholomew and start a conversation. I listened to North-eastern poets and Urdu poets. If the people who wrote in and complained about the festival did not do this, they must ask themselves why they did not. Finally, I must point out that a paper of your reputation should not allow such personal and vituperative attacks on selected persons without giving these persons the right to reply. Jerry Pinto --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------