Jaipur Literature Festival—A Really Big Show

Today is the third day of the Jaipur Literature Festival at Diggi Palace. It's packed with literature lovers from around the world, writers, authors, Pulitzer Prize winners and students whom I've seen screeching at the name of Junot Diaz like he's a teenage idol.

Martin Amis, Junot Diaz, Jay McInerney and Richard Ford.

I'm managing a team of writers covering each of the 200 plus author sessions for press releases sent around the world. So far I've covered sessions as diverse as "A Hijra's Life" about A. Revathi, a transgender woman,  who wrote her autobiography, "The Truth About Me," to "The Crisis of the American Novel" with panelists Richard Ford, Junot Diaz, and Jay MacInerney with Martin Amis moderating. Newsflash: There is no crisis as all of us as readers know.

Topics are obviously wide ranging and include history, politics, art, music, travel, writing seminars, and fiction galore. This year (my first) one of the overriding themes is preservation and care of Indian literature in its original languages (over 120 of them) and translation to English so the legacy does not disappear.

The amazing things about the festival are its accessibility to authors and artists and exchange of ideas. This FREE festival is jammed. I can't imagine how many people are here but last year there were 30,000. For authors, crew, and delegates (who actually pay a relatively nominal price of $300 for five days) the food and drink including beer and wine is plentiful and free flowing. The sponsors, of whom there are many, must have poured millions into it. The directors, William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale are tireless, as  are all of the people working it.

Aside from the literary part of the festival, it's fantastic people watching and the outdoor setting is beautiful—I can hear parakeets squawk and cows moo at some of the sessions.  There are two days left of the festival. If you're in Jaipur, come!