Naipaul’s last public appearance?

The silence stretches as V. S. Naipaul appears to lose his chain of thought, not for the first time. The session ‘The Writer and The World’ featuring the Nobel laureate and his old intimate, the British playwright Farrukh Dhondy is underway on the Front Lawns of the Diggi Palace.

In the days Popular with the crowd: Bollywood film star Sonam Kapoor (right) launches a book on the industry. At left is Anupama Chopra leading up to the Zee Jaipur Literary Festival, rumour had it that the 82-year-old author, who has Parkinson’s disease, would cancel his appearance. Yet here he is.

The audience is unusually patient and still – over 5,000 people will the author to speak, seemingly aware that they are witnessing what is likely to be his last public appearance. Needing to pause frequently, Naipaul keeps his comments brief, yet reflective.

At one point he speaks of his response to early rejections of his work: “I suppose what I’m trying to say is I had a great faith in myself and my talent and I felt too that if I wasn’t true to my talent and I wasn’t true to myself that would be the end of me as a person. What I did, I kept on writing, in spite of all the drawbacks and the lack of encouragement.”