Jaipur Diary – Long Queue for JM Coetzee

Jaipur Diary – Long Queue for JM Coetzee

The big draw. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] A great crowd collected to hear JM Coetzee, one of the two Nobel laureates attending the Jaipur Literature Festival (the other is Orhan Pamuk). A reclusive South African author who…

Jaipur Diary – Orhan Pamuk's Girlfriend Kiran Desai on Mother Anita

Jaipur Diary – Orhan Pamuk’s Girlfriend Kiran Desai on Mother Anita

Her mama’s girl. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Instead of talking about boyfriend Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer who too is attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, novelist Kiran Desai talked – in great detail – about her mother,…

Jaipur Diary – Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

Jaipur Diary – Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

The anti-Mao couple. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Mao was as big a draw as Orhan Pamuk in the Jaipur Literature Festival. The ‘Vodafone’ Front Lawn in Diggi Palace Hotel – the venue – was full as Jung…