JAIPUR: ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, hailed as the “greatest literary show on Earth”, began in the Pink City on Thursday.


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The five-day festival, attended by tens of thousands of visitors, is being held at the historic Diggi Palace.


 



 


Indian writer and festival co-director Namita Gokhale presented the opening speech



"Our world is changing so fast... This year we have sessions on artificial intelligence, genetics and what the future holds for our planet. There is a new term now -- cli-fi. We have a beautiful session on cli-fi (climate fiction) on what would happen if bees disappear.


"I feel at this moment in our country it is very very important to give impetus to empirical thinking," said Gokhale.


Speaking at the inaugurating event, Norwegian author and screenwriter Maja Lunde said as they speak about her novel ‘The History of Bees’, examining what a world without bees would look like, in a future where the relationship between nature and humanity has broken down.



Nobel Laureate Venki Ramakrishnan will speak on the 'Importance of Science', cosmologist Priyamvada Natarajan and professor of AI Toby Walsh will educate the audience on topics like 'Mapping The Heavens' and 'How the Future is Now'. Respectively.


Among the speakers to watch out for this year are two Pulitzer prize-winning authors, Andrew Sean Greer and Colson Whitehead, writer Andre Aciman of "Call Me By Your Name" fame, and feminist icons Mary Beard and Germaine Greer. Ben Okri, writer of Man-Booker-winning "The Famished Road", English historian Bettany Hughes, British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga and bestselling novelist Jeffrey Archer will also be participating in the event.


Speakers from within the country include politician-author Shashi Tharoor, diplomat Navtej Sarna, Kishwar Desai, Ira Mukhoty, Amitabha Bagchi, Amitava Kumar, Anita Nair, Devdutt Pattanaik, Makarand Paranjape, Naina Lal Kidwai and Rana Dasgupta.