Sobhaa De, Nandana Sen, Mark Tully, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Mira Nair, Advaita Kala, Vishal Bharadwaj, Pushpesh Pant, Jayant Kriplani, Casi Dylan, Sue Ryan, Minu Bakshi, Raga Jazz, Cactus, Nikita Gandhi and many others. They were all there in Kolkata between 11th and 15th January. All through the day you would meet writers, poets, singers, publishers, readers at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary film Festival. I was there and lost track of time as one day moved into the other. The St Paul’s Cathedral’s lawns, once more, played host to the eagerly awaited for Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF).

Maina Bhagat, Director, AKLF should be proud of the meticulously curated program bringing the world and the nation to Kolkata.  According to Anjum Katyal, Co-Director, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival “Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2018 is woven around the main theme - India@70 with key sessions emerging from this theme.”

There were writers from Australia, UK, Scotland, France, Germany, Haiti and also from all over India.  Damien Syed, Consul General of France in Kolkata shared his thoughts: “We are delighted and excited that Bonjour India is associated with the highly reputed and prestigious Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival. This is a matter of pride for us.” St. Paul’s Cathedral lawns, Goethe Institute Max Mueller Bhavan, Tollygunje Club, Harrington Street Arts Centre, Indian Museum, and Lalit Great Eastern were the heritage venues where you would meet eminent novelists, filmmakers, artists, poets and social commentators.

There was excitement over the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize, the new annual literary award for emerging woman writers in India called “Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award”. Each day at the literary festival had something interesting like the poetry cafe, plug in, the Oxford Junior Literary festival. Especially for students and the young, there was a new B2B session introduced called Mind Your Own Business. The festival days were loaded with back-to-back hours of interesting interactive sessions from 10 am to 8 pm each day.

For a very long time I was glued to the Poetry Cafe inauguration, Mauj-e-Saraab where Minu Bakhsi presented her new Urdu ghazals. The evening was so mesmeric that I did not want it to end as Minu kept us all wanting to listen to her poetry recital and songs. Along with cultural activists Sundeep Bhutoria and Saira Shah Halim, Minu created the mood for the festival that day.

I also happened to be at the plug in session in the evening listening to the young and talented Nikita Gandhi who sang not only the famous title track “Raabta”, “Dil Ullu ka pattha hai” but kept everyone listening intently to her Bengali film track “Cockpit” and “Majher jhol” too.

There was enough food from IIHM, WOW Momo! and others as well as tea from Typhoo to keep the energy levels flowing throughout the Lit Fest. When I was not munching a sandwich or sipping coffee, I was getting books signed by my favourite authors. I was lucky to get signed copies of “Nude” and the script of Haider signed by Vishal Bharadwaj. I also queued up to get my signed copy of Soha Ali Khan’s first book −“The Perils of Being Moderately Famous”.

What was interesting to listen to was Sobhaa De’s memoir “Seventy and to Hell with it.” Sobhaa and Rakhi Sarkar discussed life, well lived in Independent India with the session being well-moderated by Oindrilla Dutt.

Being fond of murder mysteries over the years I had to attend Sandip Roy’s thriller – on page and screen with Basharat Peer, Advaita Kala, Jerry Pinto and Abir Mykherjee. Abir Mukherjee, the bestselling author of Sam Wyndham, (whose parents are from Bengal while he grew up in Scotland) noted that: “The cultural roots between Scotland and Bengal run deep: this is at the heart of my writing.”

At the Future Tent it was a treat listening and later talking to women writers from all across the world. There was award winning Australian writer Anna Funder, Sanaz Fotoushi of Asia – Pacific writers and Translators, Bangladesh-US writer Abeer Hoque, Scottish poet Nalini Paul. Moderated by Tishani Doshi they all spoke about the challenges ahead. At the Future Tent I also witnessed Prof. Kavita Panjabi talking with Vidya Rao about expressions of spirituality. Anu Majumdar spoke on Auroville, while Minu Bakshi sang Gurbani. The hour they were on stage was rightly called An Inner Quest. There was a harmony and peace listening to each of them.

There was another very interesting session I attended called A Cup of Brew and a Make-up Kit. This was moderated by Urvashi Butalia and presented by Zubaan in collaboration with Sasakawa Peace Foundation, where woman writers from the Northeast spoke about work and life. This was the first time I interacted with and heard Zubeni Lotha, Rini Barman, Haripriya Soibam and Prashansa Gurung.

Shobhaa De, Eminent novelist, who attended the 2018 edition, said “The AKLF is a rare gem of a lit fest. It attracts terrific writers. But most importantly, it attracts informed and engaged readers. The lively audience interactions remain stimulating for both - authors and readers - which is rare! The venues are spectacular and historic. As for the gourmet spread in the author’s lounge! Food for thought ...and more!!!”

Sobhaa De, Nandana Sen, Mark Tully, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Mira Nair, Advaita Kala, Vishal Bharadwaj, Pushpesh Pant, Jayant Kriplani, Casi Dylan, Sue Ryan, Minu Bakshi, Raga Jazz, Cactus, Nikita Gandhi and many others. They were all there in Kolkata between 11th and 15th January. All through the day you would meet writer