Jaipur and All That

I’ve been warned that the Jaipur Literature Festival is no longer the cozy and cheerfully eccentric fest of my memories–“darling, it’ll be like Polo Season out there,” a friend said darkly, packing her pearls as she spoke. But I’m still fond of it for two reasons: 1) I don’t have to travel to Edinburgh to listen to the likes of Jamaica Kincaid, Wole Soyinka, Vikram Chandra and Anne Applebaum and 2) the Jaipur Fest has a palace cat and horses. Off whenever the fog clears in the afternoon, or I find my pearls, whichever comes first.

Here’s the list of speakers for 2010; and here’s the rest of the program. I’m doing the Art of Criticism panel with Amit Chaudhuri, Geoff Dyer, Amitava Kumar and Andrew O’ Hagan on the 21st, a session with Claire Tomalin and Andrew Lycett on Austen and Kipling on the 23rd, and a discussion of the short story with Mridula Koshy, Nighat Gandhi and Marc Parent on the 25th. I plan to spend the rest of the fest in a hammock, chaise-lounge, or howdah, according to availability.

Here are some posts from previous years:

1) On the delights of Diggi

2) On the “elbows out” school of poetry reading
3) On Salmagundi

Don’t miss Jai’s set of posts on Jaipur, here.