Lit fests are to this decade what fashion shows were to the last one
BySeema Goswami
Jan 31, 2016 09:54 AM IST
The book’s the thing... Unless, of course, you are at a literary festival, where it is often, quite incidental.
If winter comes, can literary festivals be far behind? Of course not. One follows the other as surely as summer follows spring. And much like the heat of the summer, these lit fests – to give them the fond diminutive they go by in chatterati circles – tend to take over the world.
Unfair fairs: Most lit fests have turned into tamashas, where books tend to get lost in a whirl of socialising and an epidemic of air-kissing. (Photo: Prabhakar Sharma)
Guilty pleasures: Seeing authors like Margaret Atwood (above) in the flesh and listening to Ben Okri recite his poetry can be a surreal experience. (Photo: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times) Duck hunt: The selfie seekers inexorably head for the most famous person in every gathering to press-gang him or her into a selfie. (Photo by Mohd Zakir / Hindustan Times)