core sector communique

Mountain Echoes 2012

Day 2: Tarayana Center

21^st May, 2012

The second day of Mountain Echoes started with an engaging and frank conversation between HM Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck and Indian ambassador Pavan Varma. They discussed various aspects about the country starting from the rootedness of Bhutanese culture to rural empowerment, women as conduits for social change, the existential dilemmas faced by today’s generation, the relevance of Buddhism in daily life, and the future of the country’s unique concept of Gross National Happiness.

The Queen Mother spoke of all the efforts being made by the Tarayana Foundation towards the welfare of the Bhutanese people and said that as a nation they want the youth to inculcate the spirit of compassion and volunteering. She thanked Pavan Varma for introducing Mountain Echoes to Bhutan because it encouraged the youngsters to read more, appreciate the authors and develop an interest in writing themselves.

This was followed by a session with Kunzang Choden, Swati Chopra on spirituality and writing about spirit. Swati Chopra started with discussing the meaning of the spirit, the complications that come from expressing a quest that is deeply internal and how she envisions her books to become spiritual companions of her readers.

Kunzang Choden followed up on the subject of the youth and the Bhutanese spirit. The younger generation according to her is walking the razor’s edge and it is important for the elders to help them find the true Bhutanese spirit. She talked of how in her book, the woman protagonist tried to find herself and her spirit in the changes that are happening around her. They spoke of the need to question traditions and their relevance in present times, particularly with reference to the position of women in spirituality. They discussed the questioning of patriarchal norms for seekers of enlightenment and the traditional prayer for a woman to ask to be reborn as a man in order to attain nirvana.

The third session of the day was an extremely interesting conversation about Vikram Seth’s latest novel, Rivered Earth, introduced by Ali Sethi. Vikram Seth talked about how the book came into being over a course of time bringing together different traditions from the poetry of an Anglican priest, to the Braj Bhasha of Surdas and 8^th Century Chinese poetry within one book. He spoke of how he found inspiration in one of his favorite poet, George Herbet’s house in a village outside London and showed calligraphy representing the essence of the book, which is the elements of nature and rounded up the session with a dramatic reading of his poem on fire.

Then came the first Bhutanese session of the day with Kuenga Tenzin and Karma Singye Dorji, who is the writer of the book ‘Dreaming of Prayer Flags’. He spoke of how the book has stories that were told by his grandparents and while it falls under the category of nonfiction in Bhutan you don’t know where fact ends and fiction begins. But most Bhutanese people comfortably inhabit this ambiguous space between the real and the imagined. He also spoke of the perspective that one gains after moving out of one’s own country and how he realized how precious his culture was after he left it.

After lunch, directors Namita Gokhale and Pramod KG launched Mishi Saran’s book, ‘The Other Side of Light’.

This was followed by readings from authors from four different nations. Noa Jones read a piece about a near death experience in a Bhutanese bus from ‘We are all going’, Mishi Saran read from her new book, Ashok Ferrey read a true and moving short story about the Tsunami in Shri Lanka, ‘Last Man Standing’ and Kuenga Tenzin read from his second novel, about a Bhutanese super hero ‘Kuenden the Valiant Son’.

This gave way to another Bhutanese session where Kishwar Desai introduced authors Tshering Cigay Dorji, an engineer turned writer and Karma Tenzin ‘Yongba’ who was heading the Bhutanese Crime Branch. Both of them talked of where they found inspiration for writing their stories. Karma Tenzin ‘Yongba’ said that as a crime officer he got the opportunity to interact with a diverse set of people and found stories from real life situations and characters. Tshering Cigay Dorji spoke of how stories formed an important part of his childhood as he was growing up in a remote village. He spoke of the importance of folk tales that get transferred from generation to generation and how even after studying electrical engineering he was always interested in stories around him.

After this, Bollywood personalities filled the stage as Tisca Chopra moderated a session with Vishal Bhardwaj, Arshad Warsi, Shakun Batra and Mushtaq Shiekh. They discussed where they find their stories, how they look for ideas, the life of a script, the creative processes and the economic interests that drive a film’s journey. A debate that guided the session was the objective of a film as Arshad Warsi said that the basic idea of cinema should be inclusive entertainment no matter what genre you take up and Vishal Bhardwaj argued that the director should stick to his creative vision. The members of the audience also picked up this subject as Sharmila Tagore questioned the value of privileging commerce over art and Pavan Varma spoke of the middle path where the filmmaker must keep the interest of the audience in mind while not compromising his or her own aesthetics and ethics.

The last session of the day was a fascinating presentation by William Dalrymple about his latest book, ‘Return of a King’, which chronicles the First Anglo-Afghan War that was fought between 1839 and 1842. He pointed out the uncanny parallels between this catastrophe that was a great defeat for the British and the present situation in Afghanistan. The British Empire, which was at its peak lost an entire army as only one soldier returned from the war to give the news. He said how the same kind of a battle is being played out in the same place, with the same kind of overconfidence and is bound to see a similar result.

He spoke of his experience of writing and researching the book over four years, traveling to Afghanistan to see the places where the war took place, talking to the descendants of the warriors that he is writing about, the feeling of watching history repeat itself and few lessons being learnt from the past.

As these sessions were on at Tarayana, another set of fascinating sessions were unfolding at Taj Tashi. The day there began with a session titled, ‘Thimpu Dialogues’ with Ashok Ferrey, Kuenga Tenzin and Kelly Dorji in discussion and was followed by a session on the genre of photo fiction conducted by Dayanita Singh and Aveek Sen. They spoke of how a photographer tells a story through his or her pictures. The next session was a delightful hour about travel poetry by Gulzar who spoke of the metaphor of the journey in his work. The last session for the venue was a delicious rendering of hill recipes by Sarla Razdan and Kunzang Choden, introduced by Mita Kapur.

The Nehru Wangchuck Center in the meanwhile, screened two fascinating films on music followed by a discussion between Navdeep Suri and Neela Venkataraman about the representation of India in the world through its music.

The evening then moved to the Clock Tower as the Delhi band Eka performed for an enthusiastic Bhutanese crowd cheering them song after song. They made the audience tap to their tunes with songs from popular Bollywood films and western albums.

The day concluded at Taj Tashi with His Majesty launching Pramod KG’s book, ‘Posing for Posterity: Royal Indian Portraits’. The launch was done by Her Majesty Ashi Sangay Choden Wanghcuck.