Franks and beans

Post-Frankfurt, post-mortem:

Mukund Padmanabhan in The Hindu:

The choice of India as the Guest of Honour (for an unprecedented second time, the first in 1986) is invariably explained in economic terms — as a country “on the rise”, as a potentially huge market. Regrettably, literary prowess is mentioned almost as an aside…..
With 70 invited writers, a cultural show and a Dilli Haat crafts bazaar, India makes its presence adequately felt. But one wished that the country’s exhibitors had put in a little more thought and effort into doing up their stands. A few posters are pretty much all that is there by way of decoration. In contrast, Hall 8 — where the U.S. and the English publishers are on display — is a pleasure to walk through. The care that has gone into the designing of almost every stand invites you to stop… and look.

In the Indian Express, TLM’s editor, Antara Dev Sen, asks, “Have we progressed since 1986?”
We lost a great opportunity at Frankfurt. We have scores of excellent writers trapped in their own regional languages. With proper translations, we could have brought them onto the world stage and flaunted our multi-lingual, multi-cultural literaryscape. In the long run, it would have worked better than parading cookery books, or throwing Karan Johar to the mob among cut-outs of Shahrukh Khan.