BENGALURU: I’m unable to write, and don’t see the point [in doing so].” This was author Jeet Thayil speaking at a live programme, Brave New World, put together by the Jaipur Literature Festival directors, William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale. While he has recently completed writing his book, Names of the Women-- a retelling of the New Testament from the points of view of the women whose roles have been suppressed, reduced or erased from the gospels -- which is likely to see an Easter 2021 release, Thayil is astonished by those who are able to bring out works in this time of crisis.
“My instinct is to do nothing, but read and listen to music. If there comes a time when writing is valuable, I will go back to it. Language is a virus but who cares, everything at this point seems irrelevant,” said Thayil, who was in conversation with poet-novelist Sampurna Chattarji. Incidentally, his book, Low, which was released in February and touches upon the theme of death and grief, had Chattarji wondering about the alertness of writers towards these omens, and why many writers have been drawn to it. “How can you create work in 2020 without there being a sense of hopelessness? It has to be in there somewhere,” remarked Thayil.
Corona chronicles
While Diggi Palace has seen some of the best known names from the literary world discussing books and beyond, the online sessions have brought together many of those who have not been able to make their physical appearance to the literature festival. “This lockdown has been able to bring all those we have longed to be at JLF. And through it, we have been able to discuss the current health,” Dalrymple said ahead of the discussion -- Corona Chronicles: The Past, Present and Future of Pandemics -- between Pulitzer winner Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee and British historian-writer Peter Frankopan.
From the midst of the epicentre in New York City, Mukherjee pointed out that much time was spent on bioterrorism rather than biology, which has now resulted in putting ourselves up for worry. Currently collaborating with Bengaluru-based Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on an antibody-based therapy, Mukherjee said, “One of the reasons why one could get critically ill from this virus is because there’s a spray of blood clots in the lungs of affected patients. That’s not the case with other viruses. While the first phase is isolation and quarantine, the second phase is re-purposing drugs that are safe for humans. Vaccines are the answer to this disease,” he told Frankopan.