Jaipur under grip of Coetzee fever

It's not everyday that the ever-reclusive JM Coetzee, a much-acclaimed Nobel Laureate author, turns up to read one of his short stories in front of a sea of people.

But the author, who did not even turn up to receive the two Booker prizes awarded to him, kept his date with Jaipur as he appeared before a more than packed audience here today.

Coetzee's session was to start at 2.30pm but so anxious was the crowd not to miss out on him that the lawns where he was scheduled to speak was spilling over with people an hour in advance.

People were everywhere, they sat on chairs, on the ground, on the stairs, around the stage and many more kept standing stoically. Those who could not get a seat included Jaipur Literature Festival's co-director William Dalrymple who was spotted squatting on the ground right in front of the dais.

However, the author of 'Disgrace' stuck to his reputation of being a man of few words and instead of participating in a panel discussion, which is the norm for sessions at the festival, he just read out his story 'The Old Woman and the Cats'.

The announcer had informed the crowd in advance that the publicity-shy author would not be taking any questions --neither from the moderator nor from the audience.

British writer Patrick French, who introduced Coetzee to the audience, too seemed overwhelmed by the turnout.

"This is the most substantial crowd to assemble for a non-Hindi session at the festival," he said.

Coetzee merely smiled and took to the dais to render a 45-minute reading from his work.

He said while picking up the story he would read out here, he thought whether his story that also deals about the question of contraception being against the will of God in the tenets of Roman Catholicism, will connect to the audience in India.

"But then I thought to myself that Hinduism too cares for the question of from where the soul comes and where it goes," he said before beginning his story.

Coetzee, who is also a vocal opponent of cruelty against animals, read out his story of an old woman and her affection for her cats, a feeling which puzzles her son.

Following the reading session, the author then proceeded for book signing only to be followed by a serpentine queue of his admirers.

Many of his books, including his famous novel 'Disgrace', went out of stock from the bookshelves at the venue.