Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], February 1 (ANI): Philip Green, Australian High Commissioner to India on Friday while attending the Jaipur Literature Festival said that the festival was a ‘must visit’ for him.
Talking to ANI, he said that this was a medium where he could bring Australian writers and gets an opportunity to talk on panels.
“Well, for me, the Jaipur literature Festival is a must visit. This is the main literature festival for Australians. It’s the one where we bring a large number of Australian writers to come. It’s one where I get an opportunity to talk on panels, so for me this is a vital part of my year to be here in Jaipur and engaging in the festival,” he said.
Green said that he will attend the next Literature Festival as well.
“This is my 3rd or 4th visit tour and I was at the festival last year and I’ll be here next year as well. I look forward enormously to this extraordinary cultural and literary exchange,” he said.
Talking to ANI on India-Australia relations, he said that the countries enjoy a common language and he is excited for Songlines exhibition in Australia.
“We have a language that we share, and there’s a strong engagement between Australia and India in literature, but what I’m here to do today is to unveil the Songlines exhibition in Australia. Now this is a multimedia, highly immersive opportunity for people from Jaipur to see about our indigenous culture, the Aborigines, and how they live. It tells the story of the seven Sisters, a story from the Western desert in Australia. We’ve had this in a number of centres in India and everywhere it’s had the highest possible footfall, especially young people are enjoying this. It’s very Instagram ready, so I do hope that many young people and older people in Jaipur come and see the Songlines exhibition,” he said.
Green talked about his favourite authors Ramachandra Guha and also read Abraham Verghese’s works.
“Well, I wouldn’t name the best author in India, but I would, let me say that I’ve been reading quite a lot of Indian nonfiction recently and enjoying very much the works of Ramachandra Guha. He’s very thoughtful on the environment. He’s very thoughtful on the Indian governance, and he’s also very thoughtful on cricket, and I thoroughly enjoy that. And in terms of fiction. I’ve just finished reading Abraham Verghese’s ‘The Covenant of Water’, a wonderful multi-generational story about Indians living in a rural setting. Both of those authors I love very much,” he said.
Green said that India and Australia share close bilateral ties and that it is important to enrich cultural understanding.
“We are building a very close bilateral relationship. And it’s important that we enrich our cultural understanding in the same way. Of course Australians and Indians know one another. We speak English together, we understand cricket together, but we don’t fully understand the depth of our society and the contemporary strains on both sides. So I’m keen on two things. I’m keen in particular on bringing Australia’s indigenous culture here to India, and I’m keen on their engagement with India’s tribal people,” he said.
Green also said that he wanted to bring to India the works of a million strong Indian diaspora.
“We now have a million people of Indian origin who make Australia their home. Many of them are working in the cultural and artistic field, and I want to bring some of their capability back to a vitally important grouping for us,” he said.
Talking about Quad, he said that Australia was keen to see India organise the Quad summit this year.
“Quad is a vital grouping for us. We live in a region, the Indo-Pacific, which has huge prosperity and opportunity. But at the same time there are threats to that prosperity and threats to our security. For us, the Quad is the central mechanism to make sure that we have a prosperous and peaceful future. We look forward enormously to Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosting the Quad summit this year, and the Australian Prime Minister will be very keen to come,” he said.
Green said that both the countries can improve trade and investment links and people-to-people ties.
“Frankly, I’ve been sent here by my Prime Minister to move this relationship ahead as far and as fast as I possibly can. So yes, of course there are ways we can improve. We can always improve our trade and investment links. We can always improve our people-to-people links. We can always improve our security and defence links, but in all of those fields we are going ahead fast and for me, frankly, the difficult bit is to capture all of the possible opportunities,” he said.
Talking about his favourite Indian cricketer, Green joked and said that he is an ‘old’ man, and a fan of Sunil Gavaskar.
I’m an older man, Gavaskar is my hero, and I’ve had the huge good fortune to meet him since I’ve been here. What a character he is, somebody who speaks plain truths about cricket, and I very much like that. (ANI)
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed of ANI; only the image & headline may have been reworked by News Services Division of World News Network Inc Ltd and Palghar News and Pune News and World News
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