A Good Day Spoiled!

We will miss you!

We had a great day at the Jaipur Literary Festival Day 2. It was overshadowed unfortunately by the realization that it was the last day of Obama’s Presidency. We dread the thought of what is going to happen. Here in India, most speakers, somehow made reference to the historic nature of the day. No one discussed it in positive terms.

We attended a wide variety of lectures and seminars. It is amazing to me the various scholars and writers that come here. Each hour or so there are 5 different sessions. We read the synopsis of the sessions and try to pick the ones we feel will be most interesting. Today we picked well.

The first session I attended was on Coffee Houses in Istanbul in the 1600’s. This sounded like a strange subject, but I thought it might have potential. The Harvard Turkish born professor was quite humorous as he presented his slides and lectures. Prior to the advent of coffee houses people basically worked during the day and were home at night. People of different religions and stratus did not socialize. The advent of the Coffee House changed all that. People came to drink coffee, talk, watch entertainment and also enjoy the views of Istanbul from the large open windows of the Coffee Houses. Coffee allowed people to stay up late. It had a profound effect on the way people viewed the day and the night. They had both a place to go and a drink that would keep them awake. Life became more night centered. Coffee drinking originated in Yemen and was spread by Kabalistic Palestinian Jews who wanted to stay awake to study. He had many examples as he weaved his story. For those of you that don’t like coffee, Tea and Chocolate make an appearance in his story. It was a fun lecture about a subject I had never really thought about.

Cemel Kafadar: A History of Coffee Houses in Istanbul.

The next lecture was about Archeology and specifically the horizontal bands of climate and geography running east to west across all of Eurasia. The effects of climate change to most of the world is very gradual, however for those areas with extreme climate, like dessert or the steppes of Eurasia a small change in climate can have significant effects. There are two bands of geography running all the way from China to Europe. One is the steppes, the other is the dessert. The steppes were basically grassland with wild herds of horses. It was here that man domesticated horses and for the first time was able to easily travel vast distances. Humans are distinguished from other animals in that we are acquisitive. We accumulate things and knowledge - which leads to power. Across the steppes, warriors riding on horseback, created the largest empire of all time led by Gengis Khan. Across the desserts vast trading routes were created, the famous Silk Road. The lecture was fascinating. Gengis Khan is definitely being revised by historians. He was much more than just a blood thirsty villain.

Barry Cunliffe: By Steppe, Desert and Ocean

Probably the most famous diamond in the world is the Kohinoor diamond. The story of this diamond, is a tragic story. In his new book William Dalrymple tells the story of this diamond as it moves from India to Afghanistan to Iran to India and finally is simply given to Queen Victoria. It is then cut in half and becomes part of the Royal Jewels which you can see at the Tower of London. There is a tale of blood and gore as people lust after the diamond. It is quite a story and William knows how to tell it.

William Dalrymple: Kohinoor

The next lecture I attended was on Queen Victoria, Queen of England and Empress of India. She is usually portrayed as this frumpy, fat widow, dressed in black, dour and unfriendly. She was anything but that. She was very political and intelligent. I always wondered why the Empress of India never visited India in her 75 plus years’ reign. According to the authors, the politicians of parliament were afraid she would speak her mind in support of the now powerless Maharajas. She learned to read and speak Urdu. She had a very close relationship with her Indian Secretary.

Victoria: A life A.N. Wilson

The final two lectures were more contemporary and relevant especially realizing the significance of Trump’s inauguration today. The first was on Iraq. The panel was excellent. There was general agreement that the Iraq invasion has led to the mess that is happening in the middle east now. America was frightened of another 9/11 attack and Bush was convinced by his security team that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Further, they believed that it would be able to install a democratic government in Iraq that would inspire other nations in the area to then become democratic and finally be able to solve the Israel-Palestinian problem. They were wrong, of course, on all accounts. This directly lead to ISIS and the intractable mess we are in. Further it leads directly to Donald Trump. It all stems from the Iraq invasion. Much was discussed about interventions by the west and what a fool’s errand they are. We especially liked Ema Sky, I highly recommend either reading her book or searching for some of her lectures on YouTube. She was there and is a great and gifted speaker.

Emma Sky: The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq

The final session was entitled “A World of Disruption”. Take your pick: climate change, robots replacing workers, globalization, Islamic Fundamentalism, the rise of nativist populist political parties, fake news. The non-governance by Trump. The future looks bleak.

I couldn’t wait to get back to our hotel and have a drink.