Jaipur Litfest starts, V.S Naipaul turns emotional

One of the biggest literary events in the world, Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) started on Wednesday, January 21. Vasundhara Raje Scindia, the chief minister of Indian state of Rajasthan, inaugurated this five day celebration of the words.

Festival producer Sanjoy Roy spoke about the importance of “equity” and “plurality of voice”, while co-director Namita Gokhale quoted Mahasweta Devi; “The right to dream should be made a fundamental right.”

The festival is being attended by a large number of Indian and international authors including Nobel Prize winner V.S Naipaul and his protégé-turned-adversary Paul Theroux.

The festival became witness to an emotional reunion when Naipaul broke down in tears after Theroux compared him to Charles Dickens.

This five day long festival expects nearly quarter of a million footfalls. The UK based visitors can easily get there with availability of flights to Jaipur from LHR.

Apart from the Naipaul and Theroux, the festival will host other literary heavyweights like Pulitzer Prize winning poet Vijay Seshadri, Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul, 2013 Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton, Samuel Johnson Prize winner Kate Summerscale and Pultizer Prize-winning historian and journalist Kai Bird among others.

Most of the travelers coming to the city would also love to explore Jaipur’s city attractions.