Struggle For Identity
The Festival started at 9:00 a la Bali; live gamelan music and one dance before the official opening. It’s nice to see ‘formal’ speakers desk with Ubud view and gamelan orchestra nearby. Very Bali.
This year’s theme is desa (place) kala (time) patra (identity). PW, Balinese poet, opened the Festival with elaboration of the theme. It’s about ‘surrendering life for desa kala patra’ or share with others, not just think about self. It’s Balinese concept about sharing life with community.
The first session discussed a book about British in India around the 17th century. The author is British who lived in India to do history research for the background story. He shared the outline of the book. He was good in telling story, we felt like watching movie with the help of a few slides. He kept the climax tho. He suggested us to buy the book. So funny. Of course.
The next session discussed three works by Indian-woman authors. The main topic was about identity as Indian living ‘outside’ India. The youngest one is Fijian (Indian in Fiji) who lives in Australia, one is brought up in India but living in the US, and mixed Indian – Swiss living in many countries. They showed the ‘struggle’ of expressing their identity to the world. Interesting.
I sat with two Australian new girlfriends all morning. I grabbed lunch with MN, wife of a well-know artist, who I know long time. I sat on a table with two teachers from the US, an US lives in KL, and an US lives in Ubud. What a small world!
I missed half session about poetry which was discussed by Indonesian, Singaporean, and Austrian poets. I only listened to each of them reading their works. Nice.
The next session was about Asian influences global culture. Again, it was discussed by ‘global citizen’ writers; an Indian lives in HK, an Indian lives in NY, and an Australian in Thailand. It’s an interesting discussion about English as medium. They struggle to get their ‘own’ English, not ‘standard’ English, for expressing. They agreed to use whatever style of English because that’s how people acquired their variety. Hm.
The last session was about life-changing journeys around the world and how travel has marked what they write. Again, it was a discussion about cross-cultural life. Day was ended around 17:30. It was followed by a book launch in downtown Ubud. I skipped. I was too tired thinking of transportation. It’s already a long day. I needed time for self. I bought four books by the two Indian-woman authors and the Singaporean poet. I managed to get one book signed by the Fijian-Indian girl as shown in photo. Brilliant girl.
By the way, I made note in my black-page art-journal. I sketched some speakers too. I wish I could take my colored pencil to the venue without looking odd. I only took the automatic-pencil which I had to change the lead to get different color. I look at it now. I like my work. 