Literary feast at Pink City

It might only be in its fifth year, but the Jaipur Literature Festival seems to have captured global imagination. This is quite apparent from the galaxy of writers who will descend on Jaipur from January 21-25 . Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka will be one of the prime attractions, but there will be plenty of other well-known writers cutting across genres.

"Besides showcasing the best of Indian-language and English writing from India, this year the festival will be importing a Nobel laureate, a winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, two Booker winners and five winners of the Pulitzer prize for literature , as well as leading writers from the world of history, biography , literary criticism, and travel , in addition to the stars of the world of fiction and the novel," says William Dalrymple, festival director .

Among those who will be there at Jaipur are Roddy Doyle, Niall Ferguson, Alexander McCall Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Roberto Calasso, Amit Chaudhuri, Geoff Dyer, Vikram Chandra, Tina Brown, Mahasweta Devi, Steve Coll, Stephen Frears, Lawrence Wright and Gulzar. Namita Gokhale, also a festival director, says with justifiable pride, "Now established as the most exciting event in Asia's literary calendar, the fifth edition of the festival is the biggest of its kind in the literary world, accessible to the general public at no cost. Stimulating readings, panels, lectures and debates showcase both new and established authors."

The festival is not just about books. In the evenings there will be performances by Om Puri, Susheela Raman, Titi Robin, Djaima, Rajasthan Roots and Paban Das Baul. As Pico Iyer described last year's festival: "I've been to so many literary festivals , from Shanghai to Bogota, and this one is definitely the least dry, the most carnival-like . Where else would you go from Shakespeare to contemporary politics to VS Naipaul and then Sufi music - each in such a full-bodied way? The music definitely had a cleansing, clarifying quality after that clash of ideas, like a sorbet in the middle of a rich meal."