A literary melting pot in India’s ‘pink city’ focus 01/27/2011

A literary melting pot in India’s ‘pink city’

focus

01/27/2011
JAIPUR — Royalty rubbed shoulders with the rump of India’s caste system at the Jaipur Literary Festival this year as crowds flocked to India’s “pink city” for an annual dose of celebrity and culture.

Bright sunshine and a roster of 220 authors and performers, including a clutch of Nobel, Booker and Pulitzer prize winners, lured tens of thousands of book lovers to the grounds of the Diggi Palace — a converted 19th century mansion where the event has been held since 2006.

Billed as the world’s largest “free” literary festival, the Jaipur event prides itself on its open door policy, eclectic mix of speakers and informal atmosphere which spurns VIP enclosures.

Thus the former Maharaja of Kashmir, Karan Singh, who helped open the 2011 festival, could later be seen sitting among the crowd, taking in a poetry recital and signing autographs..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110127com7.html