Jaipur is part of the plot

The Jaipur Literature Festival celebrates books, authors, publishing and stories. But there's music, parties and fun too

- SEEMA GOSWAMI

I have been attending the Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) on and off for more than a decade. And I have to confess that I had begun to take the wealth of riches it brings to us a little bit for granted. But when the Rajasthan deputy chief minister (and Jaipur princess) Diya Kumari inaugurated the festival this year and declared that JLF did more for Rajasthan tourism in five days than the state government could do in a year, I realised with a start how right she was.

Jaipur has, of course, always been on the tourist map. But it took the JLF - spearheaded by Sanjoy K Roy, Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple to turn it into a literary mecca, which attracts writing stars from across the world. This year you had Peter Frankopan, Mary Beard, Bonnie Garmus among the stellar speakers. And there were a plethora of authors from all across India, who write in such languages as Assamese, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu and so many others. And, of course, there was Shashi Tharoor...