The Hindu : New Delhi News : Indian writing travels far afield

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Saturday, Mar 10, 2007
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New Delhi

Indian writing travels far afield

Mandira Nayar

New Delhi: At a time when the city of Paris is on a tour of India to weave its magic on the country's travellers, arguably India's best advertisers -- its writers -- are going to Paris to cast their spell.

All set to hook them "desi" style, India is going to be the guest of honour at the Paris Book Fair later this month.

While Indian movies have made their presence felt in France, Indian writers who are a rage in other parts of the world will get a chance to now woo the French.

Considered the Cannes festival of books, the Paris Book Fair is one of the biggest book fairs in Europe.

Organised by Syndicat national de l'édition (SNE), a French association of publishers, together with Reed Exposition France, the fair had moved from the Grand Palais to Parc des Expositions de Paris after 1992.

Exposing them to different cultures, the book fair aims to get people to bond through books.

With India celebrating its 60th anniversary of Independence this year, the fair is just one event to showcase the country and it will have a bigger Indian presence than ever before.

Bringing together writers of different genres from India's most famous graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee to Baby Haldar, who is perhaps the first domestic help to have turned to writing, other authors who have been invited to the fair are Urvashi Butalia, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Abha Dawesar, Shashi Deshpande and Githa Hariharan.

Not just about reading, the fair also has other events centred on it so that authors have a chance to interact with people and publishers.

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