January 29, 2016

The Authors Lounge at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2016

 On the fifth and last day of the Jaipur Literature Festival, I stood to the side of a doorway leading into the inner sanctum of the Authors Lounge. From this vantage point, I had observed Margaret Atwood, Stephen Fry, Marlon James, Gulzar, Anil Kumble, Colin Thubron, Colm Tόibίn, Shashi Tharoor, Steve McCurry, Jerry Pinto, Irving Finkel, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, and many other literary, political, intellectual, artist, and pop culture luminaries from India and all over the world. This lounge was the hub of the Festival, now in its ninth year, the largest free literature festival in the world. Over a third of a million festivalgoers had expected, over the course of five days, to be enthralled, inspired, and challenged by the superstars who passed through these two rooms set aside for them for escape, respite, snacks, tea and coffee, and conversation with other superstars. My volunteer assignment for the festival was “author liaison,” and my job, along with my partner, Ayushi, was to escort speakers through the enthusiastic, adoring crowds to the backstage area of the main venue, the Front Lawn tent, at Diggi Palace. It had been an exhilarating, illuminating, and exhausting five days. I glanced over at Ayushi standing opposite me at the other side of the doorway to the Authors Lounge; soon the festival would end, and we would be saying goodbye.

 When I returned to the U.S. from my first trip to India in December, 2014, I immediately began to conduct research about the country and to plan my nearly six-month trip. The Jaipur Literature Festival turned up in my Internet searches, and because I am a writer and literature enthusiast, and because I have volunteered for different worthy causes all my life, and because the idea of attending the world’s largest literature festival (advertising 240,000 visitors) seemed intimidating, I decided to offer to my volunteer services to the Festival. But to be sure they would take me on, I volunteered for the Jaipur Literature Festival’s inaugural U.S. outreach festival in Boulder, CO, in September 2015. The volunteer coordinators agreed to my offer to volunteer in Jaipur, and so, this is how I found myself standing across from Ayushi in the Authors Lounge on the last day of the Festival.

 After five days volunteering in the Authors Lounge, I have a few gossipy stories in my repertoire…the celebrity who had a temper tantrum about the toilet situation; the very experienced speaker who nevertheless seemed quite nervous before his/her talk; the world-renown expert in an ancient, esoteric, nearly forgotten topic who nevertheless was so down-to-earth that we could joke together; another author sneaking to the upper terrace for some “air” in the otherwise non-smoking Diggi Palace, and so on. You might be forgiven for thinking this post would be about those stories, and more. But this blog is not a tabloid newspaper. Authors are human, with human foibles, after all. We don’t need to be reminded of this to make us laugh, or feel better than, or even superior to, celebrities.

 No, this blog is about the unsung heroes of the Festival: The volunteers! Two-hundred-and-fifty young people, culled from a pool that had to be closed when applications numbered seventeen hundred. Unlike American volunteers, who are mostly over the age of 50, the volunteers are mostly college age. Apparently, unlike the U.S., India does not have a volunteer culture, or at least, not in the same way. When we introduced ourselves, the young volunteers did not hesitate to indicate that they applied to volunteer to enhance their C.V., likely because in India, a country of 1.2 billion people, every little edge is actually a very big edge.

 We attended about 15 hours of pre-Festival training with scenario-imagining and teambuilding exercises. Once the Festival opened, every day for five days, many of us worked from 7:30 AM until 7:30 PM, with only a 15-minute daily sit-down break for lunch. We assisted with the Authors Lounge, registration, security, delegate management, information desk, author travel and accommodation, bookstore, book signing, digital media, backstage, sponsor lounges, and more. All day, for five days, we smiled, politely answered questions, dealt with unhappy authors and guests, and generally and without complaint, offered hospitality to every person we encountered.

I’m thinking of the young woman who stood at the front entrance of the Authors Lounge who checked every single badge and politely and firmly turned away scores of people who did not have permission to enter. Someone actually called her a “bulldog.” Maybe, but she was an effective bulldog, with a beautiful smile.

 I’m thinking of the volunteers at the Registration desk who were berated by visitors who had to pay 100 rupees to register onsite because they had not registered online for free.  

 I’m thinking of the volunteers who endured the daily crush of people shopping in the bookstore.

 I’m thinking of the volunteers who, like me, escorted panelists through thousands of festivalgoers to the backstage of a venue, preventing selfie-and-autograph hounds from delaying their timely appearance.

 And likely there are many more unknown and unrecognized acts of hospitality.

 What did the young volunteers receive for their trouble? They receive college credit for volunteering at the Festival and a small stipend, but more than that, they seemed to truly develop into a team and got satisfaction in knowing they contributed to a cultural extravaganza bigger than any one of us could manifest individually.

 For people who volunteer regularly, like me, these benefits may come as no surprise. I was surprised, though, about one unexpected personal benefit. The mostly college-age young people were exceptionally hospitable to me, a very different type of volunteer: Their smiles and hugs and greetings and conversations; their repeated sincere invitations to the off-site evening music portion of the Festival; their inclusion of me in the dance circle at the music venue (and teaching me dance moves!); their care and concern for my health (of course I came down with a bad cold the day before the Festival opening); and their delightful post-Festival invitations to be Facebook friends.

 I may have rubbed elbows with 100 or more celebrity authors in the Authors Lounge at the Jaipur Literature Festival, and that was grand. But I’m taking with me the memory of the young people of India. Like young people everywhere, they are energetic, enthusiastic, funny, and hopeful. But in the midst of the mind-blowing extravaganza of the Jaipur Literature Festival, they took the time to make me feel at home.

 Thank you, Jaipur Literature Festival volunteers! You rock!

The Jaipur Literature Festival 2016 volunteers. Photo credit: Jaipur Literature Festival

Ayushi and I, Front Lawn Author Liaisons