Jaipur Literature Festival, the premier literary festivity
held in the city of Jaipur annually, is set to return in 2021 as well, as it starts on Thursday. The only
exception demarcating it – much like every other public event – from other
years, is its newer virtual persona.

Each year, the festival hosts speakers from quite
literally a plethora of backgrounds such as literature, activism, filmmaking, theorising,
music, and many more. The event will be virtual this year, taking place between
February 19 and February 28.

As per various reports, the program will be set this year to
represent themes such as ‘Technology and AI’, ‘Politics and History’, ‘Environment
and climate change’, ‘Poetry and music’, and several others.

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The highlight, however, is likely to be a special, and no
doubt relevant session on COVID-19 led by eminent public health personalities like Dr Randeep Guleria, Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, and Dr Gagandeep Kang. The experts
will be in conversation with journalist Maya Mirchandani.

The session is slated to be about India’s fight against coronavirus
and whether the nation is succeeding in its venture to stall the marauding
attack of the disease that swept the world in the last 11 or so months.

Also Read | Jaipur Literature Festival: Key speakers, sessions that you can’t miss

Apart from this, the festival would go on with its free
flow, though it remains to be seen how much of the physical vibrance is able to
be reflected through screens.

Speakers in JLF 2021 include, among others, philosopher and linguist Noam
Chomsky, Glasgow-born Booker Prize winning writer Douglas Stuart, Irish
novelist Colm Tóibín, Marina Wheeler, who’s a Queens Counsel in England, as
well as T.M Krishna who will proceed to take the audience through Emperor
Ashoka’s edicts using music.

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The festival is also scheduled to feature an exclusive
conversation between actor Priyanka Chopra and writer-columnist Shobhaa De,
with the two discussing the former’s autobiography ‘Unfinished’.

In all likelihood, Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 might
turn out to be something on par with previous renditions of the festival, despite
the legible difference in physicality of the entire process.