I am a Bengali. Born and raised (mostly) in Kolkata. AND I am a bookworm.
Needless to say, I grew up attending Kolkata Book Fair on a yearly basis. In those days, when it used to be hosted at Maidan, Kolkata Book Fair used to be the largest non-trade book fair in the world. Starting on the last Wednesday of January, it would last for a fortnight and every year a new attendance record would be registered. It was an experience that is beyond words and one had to experience it for oneself in order to get the true essence of it. It lost part of its charm, for me, when it was shifted from Maidan to other venues and the last I time I attended KBF was in 2007. Ever since, I have felt like I am missing something even though I have attended multitude of other book fairs and events.
Being at Jaipur Literature Festival this year gave me back a piece of the missing part!
Here’s what you will find out if you ask around or Google JLF
- It is the biggest literary festival in India
- It takes place at Diggi Palace, Jaipur
- Who's who of the literary world attend this event
- It is free to attend (provided you register in advance)
- Live music, art, local cuisine are added attractions
But what Google cannot tell you is the experience that one can have there, especially if you are a bookworm.
The first thing that I really noticed about JLF is the fact that it was beautifully managed. There were five events happening at five different venue/stages within Diggi Palace at any given point of time and yet, each event started exactly on time. If you have attended literary fests in India before, you know that none of the events/panels/talks ever start on time. But at JLF you could practically set your watch by it. I also liked how they had set up separate book signing tents at each venue to be able to make things easy not only on the organizers and authors, but also for the bookworms. I for one, have managed to get an early spot on the queue by queuing up about 15 minutes early and since the tent was just nearby, I could still hear the discussion happening on the stage loud and clear.
(Lord Jeffrey Archer at the Press Conference at JLF 2019)
(Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar at the Press Conference at JLF 2019)
(Manisha Koirala at the Press Conference at JLF 2019)
(A.J.Finn at his event for Woman in the Window at JLF 2019)
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