
Tata Literature Live! 2017 features over a 100 authors, intellectuals, journalists and performers from around the world
Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest 2017 features a series of conversations, panel discussions, workshops, debates, book launches, quizzes, performances and workshops.
The long-list of the 2017 awards have now been announced! Click on an award below to view the long-lists.
TATA LITLIVE MYSTORY CONTEST 2017 JURY SELECTION - POETRY (3 winners picked by the litlive jury based purely on merit) (All winners are in alphabetical order by last name) Recipe For The Perfect Avakaiyya Pickle by Jajwalya…
Read moreTATA LITLIVE MYSTORY CONTEST 2017 JURY SELECTION - PROSE (3 winners picked by the litlive jury based purely on merit) (All winners are in alphabetical order by last name) Dear Mommy by Neveille Bhamgara Do not…
Read moreTATA Litlive MyStory Contest 2017 Public Choice Winners (5 winners picked from the 25 entries with the highest number of votes.) (All winners are in alphabetical order by last name) The Girl With Sealed…
Read moreOn Stage : November 2017 by Anil Dharker A word one hears more and more often nowadays is ‘dystopian’. You come across it in book or film reviews: ’the writer`s/director`s dystopian vision of the world’…
Read moreThese days I long for a daily which just gives good news. I propose to start a daily and will be shortly writing to Mr Adani and the two Ambanis for financial support. Am thinking…
Read more[caption id="attachment_3210" align="alignnone" width="1240"] Harvey Weinstein after the 2016 Academy awards ceremony. Photograph: Axel Koester/Corbis via Getty Images[/caption] How did he get away with it? We have to make sure it doesn’t…
Read moreWINNERS LIST What’s The Scene? Noyonika Goswami and Maschio D. Unnati Dholakia and Saksham Jain Shekhani Aishah and Christopher D. Script Your Tales Tanay Kadel and Dhruv Verma Mitali Muralidhar and Tanvi Chamboowala Sujay Choksey…
Read moreLITERATURE LIVE! 36O@CAMPUS STORY AND POETRY WRITING CONTEST RESULTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY LAST NAME) STORY WINNERS KANIKA JAIN ANINTHITHA NATH SHIFA ZOYA POETRY WINNERS JINIYA CHATTOPADHYAY SAHIR AVIK D'SOUZA ROHITA RAJU CONSOLATORY MENTIONS PREETHI…
Read moreOn Stage : November 2017 by Anil Dharker A word one hears more and more often nowadays is ‘dystopian’. You come across it in book or film reviews: ’the writer`s/director`s dystopian vision of the world’…
Read moreThe Presidential Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Ashwani Kumar [caption id="attachment_3114" align="aligncenter" width="940"] PM Narendra Modi in the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort | Source : @narendramodi[/caption] There is an unconventional makeover of…
Read moreMonologues of a Selfie by Ashwani Kumar Hey, you love me. Does it matter? I don’t need anyone. I love me. I say it loudly. I love me. I am not someone. This is my…
Read moreOn Stage September 2017 by Anil Dharker As I sit down to write this in mid-August, news has just come in that Pahlaj Nihalani has had his scissors taken away. To say that Nihalani was…
Read moreMumbai Notebook August 8, 2017 There are mentalists in many parts of the world. But for some reason, many of them are from Israel. This may have to do with the fact that the ‘father’…
Read moreProfound transformation and extraordinary stories: India's incredible journey from independence to modern nation by Shashi Tharoor As India turns 70 today, politician and acclaimed author Shashi Tharoor writes about its past and its present. [caption…
Read moreArticle for The Independent August 15, 2017 Anil Dharker Mine is a family of hoarders. Nothing worth any money sadly, but perhaps full of precious memories? Yet what memories can old bank statements (in…
Read moreMumbai Notebook July 26, 2017 by Anil Dharker Victorias may finally ride into the sunset. For outsiders that sentence will make no sense, but Mumbaikars will know what it means: that the familiar clip-clop of…
Read moreOn Stage by Anil Dharker They don't use the proverb 'Make hay while the sun shines' as a slogan for one obvious reason - the sun rarely shines at the Hay Festival. The sun could…
Read moreLondon Notebook by Anil Dharker Not by design but by pure chance, I happened to be in Londonduring two important events - the Brexit vote, and now the general elections. The results of both were unexpected…
Read moreOh Romeo, Romeo by Keki N. Daruwalla What next for UP police? Keeping a headcount of legit butchers, and confiscating meat cleavers? I am told there is much excitement in Firenze, Milano and Roma over…
Read moreA dearth of designers by Quasar Thakore Padamsee Since theatre activity was sporadic and also cash-strapped, designers find it virtually impossible to make a living off of it. There is no question that theatre in…
Read moreGarima and a Buried Fragrance by Keki Daruwalla Taken from Keki Daruwalla's book 'Daniell Comes to Judgement' I wake up at four in the morning. Bad time to go to the loo. When you come back…
Read moreMumbai Notebook by Anil Dharker Because of travel deadlines, this is being written before June 2 which is (or ’was’ when you read this), World Environment Day. I don`t think I am sticking my neck out…
Read moreTime for a change by Shashi Tharoor Back in 1974, as a teenage collegian, I spent a summer holiday at the tea estate of a classmate’s father near Jorhat in Assam. One of the first…
Read moreThe shadow of the past by Keki Daruwalla The past is destiny in a way. The past also embodies the concept of determinism, something that cramps elbow room, free will of the present. In politics,…
Read moreAs Chairman of Parliament’s External Affairs Committee, I have always proudly articulated our tradition that political differences stop at the water’s edge – there isn’t a Congress foreign policy or a BJP foreign policy,…
Read moreOne of the late R K Laxman`s best ‘You Said It’ cartoons featured the city`s favourite subject, its roads. Laxman`s befuddled Common Man, umbrella in hand, glasses in place, is peering into a large pothole.…
Read moreSchool’s out, what should our children do? by Manu Joseph As children spend summer vacations preparing for the serious business of life, are they losing their ability to practise boredom? In the summers, city…
Read moreAishwaryaa on the apple box... by Shobhaa De A ravishingly beautiful young woman with fresh mehendi drying on her palms, walked upto me at a high profile wedding in Udaipur recently, and whispered, “I am…
Read moreThe Last Bastion of a Profitable Press by Shashi Tharoor NEW DELHI – Around the world, newspapers seem to be facing imminent extinction, as a mass exodus to the Internet causes their circulation to slump…
Read moreOn Stage. May 2017. by Anil Dharker When is a black actor black? And when is a black actor not black? These questions arose out of my last On Stage column which was about Mozart and Salieri,…
Read moreThe City and the Writer: In Mumbai with Chandrahas Choudhury By Nathalie Handal [caption id="attachment_3003" align="aligncenter" width="530"] Chandrahas Choudhury. Courtesy of the author.[/caption] If each city is like a game of chess, the day…
Read moreBritain's Empire was a matter for pride, not guilt - as we Indians know by Zareer Masani The Queen’s 91st birthday, last Friday, was an opportunity to reflect upon her reign and to replay those…
Read moreGabriel García Márquez, The Art of Fiction No. 69 interviewed by Peter H. Stone Gabriel García Márquez was interviewed in his studio/office located just behind his house in San Angel Inn, an old and lovely section,…
Read moreMumbai Diary by Anil Dharker Do other cities have famous landmarks, so famous that they are recognised even by the notoriously ignorant tribe of taxi drivers, yet do not actually exist? Mumbai had three: Kemp`s…
Read moreBook Review : Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra by Ashwani Kumar Age Of Anger is vintage Pankaj Mishra, the literary iconoclast. He is also a maverick political thinker—edgy, sly…
Read moreImagine being brought up in a two-storeyed house made of exposed concrete and brick. The living and dining areas are airy, double-height rooms with a bridge that runs across, connecting the two wings of the…
Read moreNawabs Nudes Noodles …. Nerves and Numbers by Ambi M G Parameswaran Circa 2000. My team walked into my room a little distraught. The idea they thought was a winner was shot down by the…
Read moreWarren Hastings ‘Loved India a Little More Than His Own Country’. OPEN ESSAY by Zareer Masani On the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, let’s redeem Warren Hastings from the worst trial of history AS WE…
Read moreHigh on the Holiday Index Shashi Tharoor I write these words on a long weekend holiday for Parliament. Tuesday is Ram Navami, so the Speaker has obligingly given us Monday off. But I do so…
Read moreIndia Conquered: Britain’s Raj & the Chaos of Empire by Jon Wilson Book Review by Zareer Masani Another history of the Raj invites comparison with its two most distinguished predecessors, Penderel Moon’s The British Conquest &…
Read moreThe wealth of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation IT IS A truth universally acknowledged that the BMC is in want of good management. For the uninitiated, those initials once stood for the Bombay Municipal Corporation. But when…
Read moreMany modern apologists for British colonial rule in India no longer contest the basic facts of imperial exploitation and plunder, rapacity and loot, which are too deeply documented to be challengeable. Instead they offer a…
Read moreI am disappointed that my cricket hero Virender Sehwag chose to enter the wholly politicised debate over Gurmehar Kaur’s words by saying, “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did.” Not everyone might agree…
Read moreOn Stage March 2017 The talking point last month was the Symphony Orchestra of India`s production of Puccini`s La Boheme. The first question was, “Why is SOI calling it La Boheme Revisted?” Opera buffs opined it…
Read moreWhat Indian politicians can learn from Shakespeare’s play. THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY of the death of William Shakespeare has come and gone and was dutifully registered in our media with a slew of articles about his…
Read moreCatch a shooting star If you proceed cautiously holding a man-sized kerchief in your hand You might chance upon the shooting star that fell behind the building that faces our house. That derelict…
Read moreJaipur Diary January 30 2017 A local newspaper in Jaipur interviewed some of the bright young things thronging the packed central square at the event venue. “‘Festival dressing is the in thing’ “’ exclaims Juhi,…
Read moreTOO MUCH WILL BE LOST IF WE DON’T SPEAK Muslim Women Lead the Way! Dr. Noorjehan Safia Niaz We as Muslims are going through very difficult times. There is Islamophobia on one hand and an…
Read moreSongs of the Ocean A maiden voyage for any new sailor is an unforgettable experience. In my case, I remember getting much more than I had bargained for. My husband’s merchant navy vessel- a seventy…
Read moreSAMPURNA CHATTARJI ‘Why does it have to be a poet?’ A piece dedicated to all the poets I have read, translated, loved Space Gulliver’s sadness is monumental Monumental her desire for friends Who…
Read moreEDM, as you would know if you are young, ( and are behaving young anywhere in the world), is a happening thing. However, if you are young in Bengaluru or in Mumbai, you would know…
Read moreTRUE LIES Anil Dharker A new year is a time of look forward to new beginnings, new adventures, new explorations. It says something about human beings’ innate optimism, that however bad the previous year…
Read moreBombay Diary January 9, 2017 About a month ago, the Maharashtra government changed the name of Mumbai`s Central Railway terminus and its international airport. Again. To recap, the railway terminus at Bori Bunder, a…
Read moreBombay Diary January 2, 2017 Resuming this column after a mere six weeks, I find that the whole world has turned topsy-turvy. For starters (and middles and enders), Donald trumped Hilary. And Narendra Modi,…
Read moreThe road to new Medina. THE YEAR 2017 will mark the 70th anniversary of the birth of India and Pakistan. While official Independence celebrations will no doubt be organised on both sides of the Radcliffe…
Read moreTo Kill An Arab A Short Story by Sándor Jászberényi We put the two machine guns on the kitchen table. “I’ll take them to headquarters,” said the colonel to the boys, who then stepped…
Read moreThis article was originally posted in The Huffington Post on 17th November 2016 Anybody who’s somebody in India’s sprawling literary world — author, auteur, acolyte — will be at, or will want to be…
Read moreShakespeare Raise the curtain, Shakespeare, Your characters wait in the wings, Adorned in their costumes Their make-up done Their lines memorized – Lines that resonate Four-hundred years later With the same conflicts: To be…
Read moreTHE SAME NEWS Every day the same newspaper column Gulps of the same brackish news Every day the same mouthful of promises; Sentences dissected Each word chewed again and again How long can…
Read moreShobhaa De: I will always remain a curious journalist, permanently in search of a story (Interview by Prayag Arora - Desai on November 5, 2016) You can’t talk about literature in the city of…
Read moreOn Stage November 2016 Every November, Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest attaches itself firmly to almost all venues of NCPA. That`s because Mumbai’s international literary festival is not just a Literature Live! event, or a Tata event,…
Read moreTata Literature Live 2016! will host a series of workshops for adults and children. The workshops feature International and Indian writers, poets and journalists. Limited seats for each, so don't miss out on the opportunity.…
Read moreTata Literature Live 2016! will host a series of workshops for adults and children. The workshops feature International and Indian writers, poets and journalists. Limited seats for each, so don't miss out on the opportunity.…
Read more1st Prize - Existentialist Conspiracy Club by Kalpak Bhave Yesterday, I saw you look at the stars, Our bottoms cold on the marble floor, A garden of light above our head, None of us…
Read more1st Prize - “LORD OF THE RINGS AN UNTOLD STORY” (parody) By Aditya Mewati and Isha Mahajan The irony of life is that everyone is going to die but unexpected things tend to occur at…
Read moreDad's the Word (Excerpt from the Fatherhood Memoir) I was sitting in the rocking chair that no longer rocks, twisting myself around so that my book caught the best of the light from the lamp…
Read moreReading to Borges THROUGH a series of strange circumstances, I had the opportunity as a British schoolboy to read aloud to Jorge Luis Borges. I was 16 when I first climbed the staircase to…
Read moreIn the 2016 edition of the Tata Literature Live MyStory Contest, we had over 1850 entries and 30,000 votes. Below are the five winners picked by our jury on the basis of merit. They are…
Read moreMountain Echoes (Written for Dhaka Tribune on September 5, 2016) Nothing quite prepares you for the magical landing in Paro; one of the world’s most dangerous airports. It’s breathtaking setting amid green peaks of Bhutan’s Himalayan range…
Read moreAmish Tripathi: In our culture, we've always believed that even the Gods cannot judge (Published in FirstPost on October 15, 2016, Written by Prayag Arora - Desai and Sohini Guha) Since his unprecedented…
Read morePaws for thought Could feeling for one stray cat foster a community in our oft-hard hearted city? By Gauri Sinh Come to think of it, I cannot even recall his colouring. He came into…
Read moreSomething of Nothing (Written for London Library magazine) Rakesh winced as the car lurched into a pothole. A tremor of annoyance radiated through the hand that he rested on the steering wheel. He had taken his…
Read moreIn the 2016 edition of the Tata Literature Live MyStory Contest, we had over 1850 entries and 30,000 votes. Below are the five winners picked by our jury from the 25 entries with the maximum…
Read moreBy Shivani Bhasin The house was like one of those picaresque models – huge, bubble-gum-like and easily spotted on the covers of magazines like good housekeeping. It was an incogious sight in a city like…
Read moreThe Buzzkill By Suneha Sethi Young Joe sat painting in the yard, His brush birthed the boulevard, And tinted blue the morning sky And golden rays the clouds belie, When startling him so, buzzing hard.…
Read moreThe Journey is the Destination © Ashwin Sanghi (Written for the Times of India - Speaking Tree) What is spirituality? Numerous sages, philosophers and thinkers down the ages have attempted to answer that question. Many…
Read moreCoffee and the Writer Can it be Tuesday ?? The years days and seconds roll into one as I sit in a small hotel room in Delaware and my non conforming memories try to follow the…
Read morePatna Roughcuts (Written for Granta on March 31, 2015) 1 When I was a boy in Patna in the seventies, the Boring Road crossroad boasted two businesses that were popular among the locals. One was Quality…
Read moreThe Many Faces of Lord Ganesha(Written for The Taj Magazine in the First Quarter, 2002) The remover of all obstacles and bestower of wishes, he is worshipped in myriad expressions of form and material…
Read moreSecular Confessions (Written for Mint on July 8, 2016) I push open the door of dark, weathered wood. There are always a few seconds of suspense before you enter an unfamiliar church. What exactly is…
Read moreAll that Matters (Written for Times of India on July 31, 2016) For Swachh Bharat, we must teach our kids to pack light, flush right Dear Mr Modi, I admire the Swachh Bharat campaign. I'm…
Read moreThe 'I' in Eve (Written for The Hindu on April 30, 2016) Why should women artistes be apologetic about the use of the first person singular in prose and poetry? At a recent literature fest, a…
Read moreThe Lore of Renuka (Written for mid-day on April 22, 2012) A sacred narrative needs to be distinguished from a parable (story with moral ending), a fable (story with animals that express human emotions),…
Read moreSet Kanhaiya Free, Dissent is not Anti - National (Written for NDTV.com on February 24, 2016) A great deal has already been written about the arrest of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and the ensuing national…
Read moreDear Kanhaiya Kumar (Written for scroll.in on March 16, 2016) Post Script This is first time I am starting a letter with a Post Script instead of ending with one. Dear Kanhaiya Kumar, I finished…
Read moreLOUNGING ABOUT It's important to be lazy ! To make room in one's life for periods of laziness .. not weeks or months (necessarily) but at the very least happy little blobs of time that are sufficient…
Read moreEvelyn Waugh: 50 years on In 1933, a group of naked Amazonian Indians who had never before seen a white man encountered a young traveller from North London wrapped in a red blanket, lame…
Read moreRituals of Writing (Written for Hindustan Times for May 3rd, 2015) I am writing this on a train. It is dark outside, the dark window reflecting the interior of the bright-lit train car, the beige plastic…
Read moreThe sanctioned, sleeping beauties awake (Written for Gateway House on June 2nd, 2016) There is something about American sanctions on countries. They are thorough. They are brutal. They strangle the financial system and beggar the population,…
Read moreA conundrum called Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. Kiran Nagarkar (Written for Sueddeutsche Zeitung) Let me start with an anecdote. Just a few months after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India,…
Read moreThe cause of problems - What some Kashmiris owe other Kashmiris (Written for The Telegraph on September 3rd, 2016) I was reading a recent interview with Adonis, the great Syrian poet who is frequently mentioned as…
Read moreToo many mistakes - What the rest of India owes Kashmir and Kashmiris (Written for The Telegraph on September 2nd, 2016) In the late summer and early autumn of 2010, the valley of Kashmir was gripped…
Read moreHappy Under the Padishah (Written for Outlook India Magazine) It’s a measure of Tipu Sultan’s charisma that, two centuries on, an Australian historian has spent most of her academic life studying the man and his reign.…
Read moreThe Man Who Invented Poetry The violence and passion of Afzal Ahmed Syed (Written for Caravan Magazine on June 1st, 2016) My first encounter with the work of the Karachi-based Urdu poet Afzal Ahmed Syed left me…
Read moreTHE GALLIC SHRUG SURVIVES IN NORTH AMERICA ! How cool it is to see people talking on their mobile phones in the province of Quebec, here in Canada. The only thing that seems to be moving when…
Read more10 rules of Writing (Written for The Indian Quarterly) Illustration by Hazel Karkaria When I was promoted to the rank of professor, the library at the university where I was then employed asked me to…
Read moreA Lovely Wedding (Written for Day of Reckoning) There were times when words seemed to have lost their meaning. This was one of them. Vira was on the phone telling Priti about the lovely wedding…
Read moreHANGOVERS (For Independent dated December 13th, 2014) According to Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man Despite authorities tightening their grip on the causes of hangovers, the hangover itself enjoys halcyon days. It can only mean one thing: authorities…
Read moreAustralian genius Christina Stead showed me what a novel is for. Anna Funder Only children can see their parents from the inside. This is what novelists never grow out of: sitting quietly in the…
Read moreHarsingar Catapult - Feb 29th, 2016 “I didn’t want him to be the one who was disrobing Zeenat Aman. No one who was even half-literate in Hindi in the early seventies would have missed the…
Read moreRequiem for the BDD Chawls Kiran Nagarkar (Originally pulished in The Hindu on Jan 24th, 2016) Illustration - Satwik Gade It appears that by now it’s well nigh impossible to de-link my two protagonists, Ravan and…
Read moreLiterature Live! is excited to announce the second edition of our Creative Writing Contest - Story and Poetry Writing! Come on over and show off the writer that lives inside you. - Participants will be…
Read moreIn her younger days, my sister Minal Dharker was an accomplished Bharat Natyam dancer. Watching her practice, rehearse and perform with her guru, Kubernath Tanjorkar, I became reasonably familiar with the idiom of Bharat Natyam.…
Read moreRegular readers of this column will know that Literature Live!, the little organisation I started, runs the annual Mumbai International Literary Festival every November. In addition, there are fortnightly Literature Live! Evenings when writers talk…
Read moreStudents at SNDT College, Churchgate were delighted to be introduced to Literature Live! workshop on Narrative Conflict. Despite the capacity of 25 people, double the number showed up, actively participating in the workshop.
Read moreStudents at St. Andrews were delighted to be introduced to Literature Live! workshop on Narrative Conflict. Despite the capacity of 25 people, double the number showed up, actively participating in the workshop.
Read moreTo those who are disappointed with India`s Olympic performance, I would say only one thing: what were you expecting? If you know anything about world standards in athletics and field games, you know that our…
Read moreIn Bihar, drinking liquor is worse than terror,rape or murder. If that sounds like an outlandish statement, consider the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act, 2016 and the revised Bihar Special Courts Act through which special courts…
Read moreStratford upon Avon in the summer of 2016 is the place to be. After all, this is Shakespeare's birthplace and this is the 400th anniversary of his death. The Bard, as Shakespeare is universally known,…
Read moreBombay Diary July 29, 2016 A few years ago, when for my sins, I was a member of the Bombay Gym`s Managing Committee, I tried to liven up the club`s library with ‘Meet the Author’…
Read moreWhen you see photographs of a former Chief Justice of India on the sports pages, it is a clear sign that judicial overreach has reached a new high in our country. From dictating the age…
Read moreBombay Diary July 22, 2016 A friend said to me, “Your London Diaries are far more entertaining than your Bombay Diaries.” She then added a smiley to show this was a light hearted comment –…
Read morePolaris kickstarts the Department of mass media festivals in Mumbai and is a much coveted one. This year Lit live! 360 @campus collaborated with them to hold a workshop on Writing Sonnets by Sampurna Chattarji…
Read moreENGLAND DIARY JULY 15, 2016 "Sylvia and I are delighted to welcome you to our home for the 28th annual Celebrity Cricket Match in aid of Wellbeing of Women." So began the letter from Sir…
Read moreLondon Diary / July 9, 2016 July in England means the sun occasionally coming out of purdah, locals walking about in flimsy tee shirts while we jettison our overcoats for pullovers. It means children tugging…
Read moreIndian Express What is Brexit about? Is it about Britain leaving the European Union? Is it about the disruption this has caused in the world economy? Is it about hyper-nationalism and the fear of immigrants…
Read moreBombay Diary July 1, 2016 If you go past Mumbai`s Brabourne Stadium, you will see a sign telling you that the offices of BCCI (Board of Control of Cricket in India) lie in the vicinity.…
Read moreBombay Diary 24th June 2016 Many years ago, a British literary magazine held a contest for the most boring headline. The winner went something like this: SMALL EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE/ NOT MANY INJURED. What would…
Read moreBombay Diary 17th June 2016 India must be the most movie-crazy, star-obsessed country in the world. Yet, how many books are there on Bollywood heroes and heroine? Very, very few. One of the reasons could…
Read moreAwards go a Long Way in Recognising Good Children’s Literature Summers are hot, humid and long in the sleepy town of Cuttack, in coastal Orissa. Even the birds fall silent. People take long siestas and…
Read moreLiterature Live, in association with Theatre Group, calls for entries for playwriting for the Sultan Padamsee Award for Playwriting 2016, to recognize upcoming talent in the same field. For more details, write to theatregroup@shunyata.in .
Read moreFor our next installment of LitLive Evenings — organised in partnership with Tata Trusts, the NCPA and Roli Books — we are proud to host Pramod Kapoor as he launches his book Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography , in Mumbai…
Read moreFor our next installment of LitLive Evenings -- organised in collaboration with the Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation, and in association with the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture and Rupa Publications -- we are proud…
Read moreWe're immensely proud to present our next edition of LitLive Evenings, organised in collaboration with the Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation, and in association with the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture and Rupa Publications. This…
Read moreMumbai, November 25, 2015: 'There is nothing like first-hand evidence’ believed legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. Voted as the most desirable fictional character in the Tata Literature Live! Survey 2015, his words come to life with…
Read moreHere is everything you need to know about attending Mumbai's largest literature festival. Passes to the festival are available from the morning of the day of the session. Register and collect your passes for…
Read moreHead over to our schedule and pick your literary workshop of choice! Register now as limited seats are available.
Read moreBY MEGHA SOLANKI SOUND OK HORAN Do you know that sound? The rumbling monster taking over. Mystical it looks, Monstrous it feels; There's power in its body, Force in its thrusts; You feel like ignoring it…
Read moreBY PRAKRITI VASHISHTHA LIQID TEA AVAILABLE HERE Tea, for Dadi is milky but without the cream Dadi's son, however, relishes the aftertaste of cardamom. Dadi's better half, would deride the drink to be the…
Read moreBY KAAJAL AHUJA Thank You for the Inconvenience I walked through a garden far somewhere A canvas painted in the month of May But the painting brought me no delight And each step that…
Read moreBY VAISHNAVI PATIL & RYAN D’SOUZA “Swad Zindigi Ka”, she sighs as she licks away the last crumbs of chocolate layered wafers of her cornetto, lacing the tip of her weathered fingers. “Did you…
Read moreBY MAYANK SOOD AND TIGRAN WADIA THE MAD MAN’S CONSPIRACY ‘‘Jaago grahak Jaago’’, screamt the mad man. Nobody paid heed to him. He continued with his endeavour. All would hear him, none would listen. Sujoy had…
Read moreBY SHASHWAT KARKARE & SAHEJ MARWAH “Doodh si safai, corruption se mukti yehi mera vaada hai,”the candidate, Mr Goswami, said during his speech while addressing the huge crowd gathered before him commemorating the upcoming…
Read moreBY GIRISH RASAM & SAEE PATKAR “Dimag ki batti jala de”, said Dr. John Waghmare while offering his joint to Shairlak Khan, the best consulting detective Bhiwandi has ever seen. Just this morning, Dr.…
Read moreBY AMALE NARAYAN & MAVIS RODRIGUES “Thodi se pet puja karoge?” asked Elisabeth as Ramesh drove past her father’s office in Colaba. The Hindi words sounded heavy and uncomfortable on her British tongue. The…
Read moreSo story? I've been thinking for two days about a story I'll write here, since I registered for the event. There's nothing interesting I can write and shoot a series of photographs for it. It…
Read moreA small story of a man, who came to Mumbai to make up his dreams. Works hard day and night, doing odd jobs but still have faith in himself. After struggling the whole day he…
Read moreCindrella Paradie Cinderella in the modern world. He is the step brother of Sheldon, Zenior, Dylan and Calvin. Cinderella is burden with all the work at home and has no social life. He goes to…
Read moreHere’s the thing about smoking in Kasol. You shouldn’t do it. He took three intermittent breaks to catch his breath, along the - what the locals typically called ‘Pandraha-foot maap’, or The Scale of…
Read moreAmar held my hand firmly. He had a charming smile. Baba trusted him- " You are meant for someone who will protect you." I was a ten year old girl and the only child of…
Read moreMeant for someone else by Sharon It was half past noon and I was lost in Fountainhas. The Goa Tourism brochure urged me to " explore the historic Old Quarter of Panjim on foot" but…
Read moreWALK AWAY by Shalini Mother was furious, he needs to listen to me! " I'm his mother, of course I know better than him...." Father tried his best to convince him, " Son, it's not…
Read moreTHE QUICK STEP by Kelly Woller " But darling, I love you!" " Do you really expect me to believe that, you cheating scoundrel?" " Trust me when I say it's over" " She's here…
Read moreMEANT FOR SOMEONE ELSE. – Divya Samtani No amount of books on childbirth you memorise can prepare you for the excruciating, body tearing pain that comes in the chance circumstance you push another human out…
Read moreONE LAST DANCE by Lekha Nambiar My crane tipped junk into the landfill. The stench of decomposing waste filled the air. The sky was dark, for a 'bright' summer day. It started to rain- I…
Read moreSowing and Weeping by Jai Subramanian The last time we met you’d said there was no way to fix something so far beyond dead. “Rotting” was the word you’d used. Rotting for the world to…
Read moreFaded Smiles by Ritu Poddar She sent her son, to far off lands for degrees & better tomorrows She lived alone, & aged alone Behind her wrinkles, hid the sorrows. Over the phone he said,…
Read moreThe Heart Knows by Priyal Panchal Why don’t I ever bite that dog in return? Why is that spider spinning webs of sorrow never shun? Why do I give that parasite right over my body?…
Read moreLiterature in the Australian Commonwealth characteristically expresses collective values, perhaps more so than in other parts of the world. Even the experiences of the individual are viewed through a representative lens, with the aim of…
Read moreIt was more than two hours past midnight, yet Ramulu was unable to sleep. He has been a small scale farmer and the successively failing monsoon and mounting debts were pulling down his morale. Year…
Read moreThey looked down upon him. All of them. His favourite time of the day was when the Sun stood behind him. He looked down then, at the ground, to see an almighty long shadow of…
Read moreRevathy "Amma", her voice goes as she strides barefoot towards the entrance door. The inkling of her silver anklets still echoing in the silent dark room. Her forehead kissed with a big red moon placed…
Read moreIt is not just worn at weddings, parties and ceremonies It is also worn at a construction site Amidst the cement, sand, gravel Under the ruthless sun Over a parched throat and blistered feet It…
Read moreThe pyre smolders wetly under the tin shed, from which grey afternoon rain still drips; echoing a family’s grief. sifting through grandmother’s still-warm ashes, my fingers taste the wood-smoke and sour-milk scent of funeral rites;…
Read moreIt was a sultry Kolkata afternoon right in the middle of my summer vacation. The heat had climbed to a level that one might get a stroke just by poking his head out of the…
Read moreIt was a sultry Kolkata afternoon right in the middle of my summer vacation. The heat had climbed to a level that one might get a stroke just by poking his head out of the…
Read more2015: The Year in Literature There's no denying it. It's been a busy year in the world of literature, and it isn't even over yet. The United States alone published more than 300,000 new titles…
Read moreAlanna Mitchell is an award-winning Canadian journalist and author, who writes about science and social trends. Her most recent full-length book, Sea Sick:The Global Ocean in Crisis, is an international best seller that won the prestigious US-based Grantham…
Read moreDear Fellow Bibliophile, Would you rather read in your bathroom or a café? Which fictional character from a book would you date? Book crimes you have committed? We want to hear all about it from…
Read moreArshia Sattar has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her translations of the Sanskrit texts Kathasaritsagara (1993) and Valmiki's Ramayana (1996) have been published by Penguin Books.…
Read moreTwo venues: NCPA, Nariman Point and Prithvi Theatre, Juhu. Germaine Greer, Vikram Seth, Kiran Nagarkar and over 120 celebrated writers and thinkers from across the worl. Presenting seven literary awards. Media registrations open today. Entry…
Read moreFounded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising over 100 independent operating companies. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission 'To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust'.
The National Centre for the Performing Arts is a multi-venue, multi-purpose cultural centre in Mumbai, India, which aims to promote and preserve India's heritage of music, dance, theatre, film, literature and photography. For more information, visit www.ncpamumbai.com.
Performance Sponsor : The Debate JSW Group is one of India's largest business conglomerates, with a strong presence in the core economic sector based in Mumbai. It has diversified interests in steel, energy, minerals and mining, aluminium, infrastructure and logistics, cement and information technology. It is led by Sajjan Jindal and part of the US $ 15 billion O. P. Jindal Group. JSW Steel Ltd, JSW Energy, JSW Infrastructure, Ispat industries Ltd are subsidiaries of JSW Group. For more information, visit www.jsw.in
Every day we wake up to the fact that more than 250 million lives are part of our family called LIC. We are humbled by the magnitude of the responsibility we carry and realise the lives that are associated with us are very valuable indeed.Though this journey started over five decades ago, we are still conscious of the fact that, while insurance may be a business for us, being part of millions of lives every day for the past 52 years has been a process called TRUST. A true saga Of Trust. For more information, visit www.licindia.in
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The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) and its subsidiaries are collectively known as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces and is recognised as one of Asia's largest and finest hotel company. Incorporated by the founder of the Tata Group, Mr. Jamsetji N. Tata, the company opened its first property, The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Bombay in 1903. The Taj, a symbol of Indian hospitality, completed its centenary year in 2003. For more informaiton, visit www.tajhotels.com
Performance Sponsor : White Rabbit Red Rabbit (Hindi) and Blank
Sourced primarily from TATA plantations in South India, this coffee is roasted and processed to perfection, making Grand an intensely rich, fresh and aromatic coffee. A unique instant coffee for the economy segment, Tata Coffee Grand has both decoction crystals that lock in the freshness, and powder that gives you the aroma and taste. Visit our facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/
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