So on Thursday 11th evening, I got on the other side of the fence, err, the other side of the mike. Metaphorically of course. I was asked to moderate a “Fresh off the Shelf” discussion among a truly eclectic cast of characters: a Britisher, a TV anchor, a freelance writer, an Italian and a newspaper editor.

That’s, respectively: Melvin Burgess, author of some acclaimed “young adult” novels, Nicholas Dane being his most recent one; Amrita Tripathi, author of the soon-to-be-out novel Broken News; Annie Zaidi, blogger and once Frontline reporter, author of one of the essays in the book India Shining, India Changing; Gioia Guerzoni, editor and translator of the aforesaid India Shining, India Changing into its original Italian edition; and Soumya Bhattacharya, editor at the Hindustan Times and author of the novel If I Could Tell You.

I ran into Soumya a few minutes before we started, and after greeting each other he asked me how my book was doing. I mentioned that it had had a couple of positive reviews, a couple of critical reviews. He promptly warmed the cockles of my heart by saying, in a vehement whisper, four words and four words only: “F**k the reviews!”

(That “**” stands for “uc”). (And sorry, I meant three words and three words only. I’m numerically challenged).

(Click here to read the whole post)

What was it that was so dissatisfying about A Decade in Books, a presentation by Nilanjana Roy followed by a discussion with Anita Roy and Amit Varma? It was a sharp presentation – Ms. Roy went through each year in as much detail as possible, she mentioned plenty of interesting facts about the publishing industry and even offered short analyses and thought-out predictions. But at the end of it, I felt that the whole event had been more concerned with the state of publishing – and how to improve that – than with literature.

It was telling that almost all the books and writers she mentioned were mainstream – good or bad, ‘literary’ or ‘popular’, they were almost all published by the big corporate publishers. It was assumed that what constituted books/literature was what the mainstream publishers published and what the mainstream reviewers and critics commented on; the assumptions too were obviously mainstream – the books nominated for the Booker were considered literary in spite of the fact that for the last many years, the Booker has been giving its prize to entirely unremarkable, ‘realistic’, middlebrow books, many of which are aesthetically still stuck with Flaubert. Such as? Hilary Mantell, Aravind Adiga, Anne Enright, Kiran Desai, Ian McEwan. I think somebody even referred to the Booker as the “citadel of high literature”. Yes, the Booker considers itself that. Should we? (Click here to read the whole post)

Less than 24 hours before it was to happen, I was volunteered into “being in conversation with” (what a strange expression that is, and yet with what felicity I use it) the singer/songwriter Biddu (the name behind such song standards as “Kung Fu Fighting” and “Aap Jaisa Koi”). The guilty party knows who s/he is, and will remain nameless except to say that s/he shares her/his first name with an actor who played Lawrence of Arabia, and his/her last name with most of the moniker of a Harry Potter school house. (None of Slitheryn, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff).

But if I sound ungrateful, I am not so at all. Really. Thinking about it for a few minutes after the late night phone call, I started getting to like the idea. And then I got a copy of Biddu’s book, “Made in India”, and read over half of it in the hours leading up to the event. It is a charming book, easy to read and like. A TimeOut Mumbai essay described Biddu — admiringly, I think — as having a “penchant for silly similes”, and it’s true, and I’m admiring too. He tosses them out left and right, with the ease of a guest flinging rice at a church wedding (there, I’m doing it too). And they work, because they leave you with a smile and a nod of the head. (Click here to read the whole post)

Nilanjana Roy, who made several appearances on the Literature stage, in Business Standard, on The lure of the local litfest:

Many of us here — writers, publishers and readers — have come to Kala Ghoda post-Jaipur, and we find ourselves easing into the more laidback space, not lamenting the absence of the big-name international stars in the street-circus atmosphere over here. Chetan Bhagat causes a brief flurry and a slight swell in crowds when he makes a pitch in favour of writing that is accessible and that doesn’t intimidate the first-time or insecure reader. But even the Big Bhagat isn’t mobbed the way he was in Jaipur. Which leads Peter Griffin, one of the friends of the festival, to ask: “Will there still be space for festivals like Kala Ghoda.”

I ask local writer Amit Varma, fresh from his Galle Literary Festival experience, what he thinks. “Big festivals can feel a little rushed,” he says, thinking back to his visit to Jaipur as a blogger and reader some years ago. “This is a charming local festival that needn’t aspire to be a JLF: it works for local readers, local writers and serves a different purpose. At the smaller festivals, everyone is drawn together for the love of books and reading. I don’t think it needs to be either/or: why not more Kala Ghodas? Why not a Kanpur festival, or a Vizag festival?”

Spread over nine days, what Kala Ghoda offers is a chance to drop in and pick up on a reading or writing conversation at any time; and it also offers an odd kind of continuity. Three years ago, the poet Adil Jussawalla spoke with passion about the changing ethos of Mumbai; the year after him, Kiran Nagarkar picked up the thread by commenting on the rising culture of intolerance in his city, an intolerance that he felt was alien to the spirit of the city. This year, MS Sathyu departs briefly from his tribute to the late Habib Tanvir to make a point: “This is my Mumbai too. I’m Kannadiga, but I lived here and worked here for years. Cities can never belong to only one section of people.” This is the kind of continuing conversation — or heated debate — you could only have at a city festival, not at a more international festival.

Read the whole article here.

Confession: I am not a foodie. I have never been interested in trying out new restaurants, nor in making an effort to check out the food typical of places I’ve travelled to. So for me, it was an hour of wonder, listening to a panel discussion on food writing. I will freely also confess, what drew me was that two of the panelists (Nilanjana Roy and Shoba Narayan) have been on panels over the last few weeks discussing my recent book, Roadrunner, with me. (Shoba in Bangalore, Nilanjana in Delhi). And in November, this session’s moderator, Vikram Doctor, moderated me in another discussion. He’s invariably knowledgeable and engaging, which only made this panel more appealing still.

(Click here to read the whole post)

Moderated by Vikram Doctor- featuring Nilanjana Roy, Shoba Narayan and Rushina M Ghildiyal .  

Food writing is sizzling! Across the world the interest and amount of food writing in books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs has been exploding. It is a subject with almost guaranteed reader interest - everyone eats! everyone is hungry! Everyone has opinions on where to get the best vada-pav!

Food writing spans the spectrum from serious academic research on the role of food in societies to food as a way of discovering family histories. Food writing is now less a specialised category, than a style that cuts across genres, so you have food and history, food and science, food and crime fiction, food and romance fiction, food and politics… plus, of course, there are cookbooks!

Vikram Doctor is the Editor - Special Features at the Economic Times, but the features he writes are really excuses to support the two regular columns on food that run in the paper along with other articles on food that come in ET, the Times of India and Times Crest. His main focus is on Indian food and the many meanings it has in society and culture, both in India and the Diaspora.

Actively blogging since 2002, Rushina M. Ghildyal has been a food writer for 6 years and written thousands of articles on gastronomy in reputable international publications. She continues to be a prolific blogger and is currently working on two book projects of her own. In her career she has found the perfect cover for her obsession with all things food and brazenly uses it to legitimise her foodie idiosyncrasies; such as an obsession with getting a perfect bite - every time, shamelessly discussing food with anyone, anywhere, and going to any length to get her hands on new and exotic ingredients! Rushina began as a blogger, but quickly grew into a food writer and today heads her own consultancy company (also called A Perfect Bite). Rushina also spearheads her own consultancy firm. Called ‘A Perfect Bite’, this is a fresh new company, that offers a wide range of turnkey solutions in gastronomy related consultancy to clients in the food publishing, hospitality and restaurant businesses. A strong core team of individuals, led by Rushina specialize in identifying and putting together ensemble casts of experienced, creative professionals to best serve a projects requirements on a project to project basis.

The Kala Ghoda Art Festival 2010 kicked off this morning (yesterday morning, technically, since its past midnight as I’m writing this).

My favorite time during the entire of this annual event (Click here to read the whole post)

Saturday, 06 February 2010
20:00 - 21:00
David Sassoon Library Gardens, Kala Ghoda

What did India and the world read between 2000 and 2010? Boy wizards and vampires may have dominated the bestseller lists, but this was also the decade of Roberto Bolano, the return of the short story and the reworked spy thriller, the graphic novel and the forensic thriller. India’s translators discovered a new readership; pulp fiction in languages apart from English found countrywide fans. Though celebrity memoirs dominated the headlines, three surprising topics–climate change, food ethics and evolutionary biology–held sway over the charts. By the end of the decade, we were also debating how we would read and how reading would change, as ebook readers made an entrance.

A brief presentation celebrating and analysing the Decade of Books will be followed by a discussion between Ms Roy and critics Anita Roy and Sanjay Sipahimalani.

Nilanjana S Roy is a book reviewer, food writer and literary columnist with the Business Standard, and has worked extensively in the worlds of media and publishing. As chief editor from 2007-2009, she was part of the team that started up Tranquebar, a Chennai-and-Delhi based publishing house. She edited A Matter of Taste: The Penguin Book Of Indian Food Writing; some of her short stories have appeared in the Scholastic anthologies of science fiction, horror and fantasy writing for children. Her journalism has appeared in publications from Outlook to Biblio to The Hindu and Le Monde, and can be found online at Akhond of Swat.

Sunday, 07 February 2010
18:30 - 19:30
David Sassoon Library Garden
M G Road, Kala Ghoda

The Kala Ghoda Lecture seeks to set the tone of the festival, to focus on the opportunities and challenges ahead of the community that loves books and reading. The inaugural Lecture was delivered in 2009, by Urvashi Butalia, founder of Zubaan Books.

This year, the very popular author Chetan Bhagat will speak about Reaching Out To New Readers.

Mr Bhagat’s first three books, Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005) and The 3 Mistakes of life (2008), have done just that. They have each sold in the neighbourhood of 700,000 copies, redefining the idea of a bestseller in English. While they continue to fly off the shelves, his latest, 2 States (2009), aims to do even better.

From his website:

Chetan also writes op-ed columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development based issues. Many of the issues raised by Chetan’s columns have been discussed in Parliament and among the top leadership of the country.
Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009, to devote his entire time to writing and make change happen in the country. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Anusha, an ex-classmate from IIMA and his twin boys Shyam and Ishaan.

BNHS  Auditorium

Saturday, 13th February,  16:30 - 19:30

The quiz is organised and conducted by the Bombay Quiz Club.

The Literature Quiz is an open quiz, which means anyone can participate, in teams of two members each. No prior registration is necessary.

If you don’t have a quizzing partner, land up solo, and the BQC team will hook you up with someone.

Format
There will be a written preliminary round followed by a final round.
Questions will draw from literature from all parts of the world, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, the history of writing and writers, criticism, and other topics for which we haven’t found names yet. The quiz will feature a healthy dose of audio-visual content - pictures, music, video - pertaining to, or drawn from, the world of literature.

Prizes: Rs 3000, Rs 2000, Rs 1000, sponsored by the Kala Ghoda Association.

This is an attempt to give performance poetry a bit of a push, to bring some new voices out into the open, to put a little more audience participation into poetry, and, not least, to have a little fun.The slam made its debut at Kala Ghoda in 2007 (the first in India, actually) to much enjoyment from the audience and the participants, and has returned in 2008 and 2009 to just as much enthusiasm and support.

Themes
There are no required themes. Since it’s St. Valentine’s Day, we suggest you bring at least one love poem.

We’re proponents of free speech, but please understand (1) that we must abide by the laws of the land, and (2) that there may be children present in the audience. Please don’t bring poems that could get the Festival in trouble with the law.

Date and Venue
6:00 p.m., Sunday, 14th February, 2010, at the David Sassoon Library Garden

Deadlines
For initial submission via email: midnight 10th February, 2010. (We may extend this deadline, but don’t count on it.)
To respond to the invitation to the Slam: noon, 13 February, 2010.
On the day of the Slam, 14th February 2010: report to the sound console at the David Sasson Library, Kala Ghoda, by 5.30 p.m, and ask to speak to one of the Literature volunteers. Please show all five of your poems to the contest organisers present.

How our Poetry Slam works
Even if you know how a conventional Slam works, please read this section. There are more than a few tweaks.

Before the Slam:

Each poet must have ready at least five poems.

To be invited to compete in the Slam, you must submit one poem via email. (See address at the bottom of this post.)

The organisers/judges will short-list poets from the entries. Selection criteria will be the quality of the writing and how well, in the judges’ opinion, those poems lend themselves to performance.

The selected poets will be informed of their selection only via email. Their participation will be confirmed only once they reply to that email and commit to performing at the Slam on the 14th February and that they will come prepared to perform five of their poems.

At the event:

Participants in each round will perform in random order.

After each round, the judges will vote, and the competitors with the lowest points in that round will be eliminated, until we have a winner. The exact number that will be eliminated in each round will be decided depending on the number of participants selected to compete in the Slam, and will be announced before the performances start.

Scoring will be cumulative. Those who survive each round will carry their points with them. Elimination in each round will be based on total scores up to that point. In case of a tie, the totals from that specific round will be used as a tie-breaker.

Rules and Conditions

Submit only one poem via email.

The contest is open to anyone, anywhere, with the exception of the jury or their family members. No, to make it absolutely clear, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been published or not, whether you’ve performed before or not.Since the main event is live on stage, selected participants must be prepared to travel to the venue (at their own expense), from wherever they are, to perform their work.

Each poem must take no longer than two minutes to perform. Time on stage will be kept strictly, and you will be cut off if you exceed the limit.

Entries must be in English.

Entries must be your own, original work.

Participants selected for the Slam can, on stage, read, recite, declaim, shout, or sing their words. They can stand still, gesture, pace, even jump and up and down. They will be judged on both the quality of the words they perform and the performance itself.

No costumes, musical accompaniment, or audio visual aids allowed.

There is no entry fee.Submissions remain the intellectual property of the entrants, but by submitting an entry, you give the the Kala Ghoda Association, the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and its Sponsors, and Caferati permission to use your entry, with acknowledgement, but with no payment to you, in their websites, as part of Press Releases (where they may be reproduced by media organisations), and in a possible special booklet or CD featuring the best of the Festival.

The decisions of the jury are final and binding, and no correspondence will be entertained regarding the jury’s decisions.

Judges

Caferati’s editors will evaluate initial submissions.

On the event day, there will be a panel of 6 judges.

The expert panel:

(to be announced)

The Audience Panel:

Three randomly chosen members of the audience will join the experts to help judge each round.

Prizes

Prizes worth approximately Rs 3000, Rs 2000, and Rs 1000 to be won.

Winners will be announced at the end of the contest, on the evening of 14th February, 2010, at the David Sassoon Library Garden.

How to enter
Email editors AT caferati DOT com with the subject line “Kala Ghoda Poetry Slam 2010“

And we’re back! Apologies for the late post; here are the details for the 6 Literature workshops at Kala Ghoda this year. To register please write in with your name and contact number to kalaghoda.workshops@gmail.com with the name of the workshop in the subject line. Registration includes a Rs.500/- fully refundable deposit.   

Writing to be Published (Advanced)
6th and 7th February: 11am to 4pm both days.
Venue: Seminar room,  first floor, Elphinstone College, M. G. Road, Fort.  
Conducted by Anita Roy, Manisha Lakhe and Annie Zaidi.
This two-day workshop will be a series of presentations, intensive exercises, and discussions which will help any would-be authors avoid the pitfalls and make the most of opportunities in the contemporary publishing world. There will be a lunch break during which participants may go out for a meal at their own expense.   

An Introduction to Freelance Writing (Beginners)
6th and 7th February: 11am to 4pm both days.Venue: Kala Ghoda Association Office, 4th floor, c/o ATE enterprises, Dr. V. B. Gandhi Marg, Fort. 
Conducted by Kavitha Rao 
This 2 day workshop will introduce participants to the basics of what a freelance journalist does, and show them how to write pitches or story proposals, approach editors and write for the foreign media. Kavitha will also share tips on negotiating payment and copyright. The workshop will feature interaction with editors of different magazines and newspapers, who will share their thoughts on freelance writers. There will be a lunch break during which participants can go out for a meal at their own expense.  

Creative Writing and Reporting (Kids up-to age 15) 
6th and 7th February: 11am to 4pm both days, including an hour-long break for lunch.
Venue: BNHS Auditorium, Fort.
Conducted by Amrita Ganguly Salian of Disney Adventures Magazine
Everyone can creatively write and report! You don’t need to be gifted to be able to write well. But you can always learn how to sniff out a story, observe the world around you and process all kinds of information for creative use. Learn how at this fun, game-packed, two-day workshop. There will be a lunch break, during which participants may go out for a meal at their own expense.  

Graphic Storytelling (Advanced)
13th and 14th February: 11am to 4pm both days.
Venue: Seminar room,  first floor, Elphinstone College, M. G. Road, Fort. 
Conducted by Sarnath Banerjee, Samit Basu and Ambarish Satwik. 
Creating a Graphic novel is rarely a one-man effort. In this 2-day workshop the workshop leaders will demonstrate how in good storytelling, there is no hierarchy between writers and illustrators! How a story arc can result from  a communion- with prose writers and artists/illustrators as communicants. Participants will also observe how devices and maneuvers on  the panel can change with collaborations. There will be a lunch break during which participants may go out and have a meal at their own expense.  

Beginning Playwriting (Beginners)
13th and 14th February: 11am to 4pm both days.
Venue: Kala Ghoda Association Office, 4th floor, c/o ATE enterprises, Dr. V. B. Gandhi Marg, Fort. 
Conducted by Anuvab Pal.
Writing a play is always terrifying. Not half as terrifying as looking at a blank sheet of paper before starting it! This two-day session takes you through the nuts and bolts of writing for the stage, if not to make you write the next Hamlet, at least to think about it.  There will be a break for lunch during which participants may go out and have a meal at their own expense.  

Creating your own Tinkle Superhero! (Kids up-to age 15)
13th and 14th February: 10:30am to 3:00pm both days. 
Venue: BNHS Auditorium, Fort.
Conducted by Savio Mascarenhas and team from Amar Chitra Katha.  
Do you dream up stories and create imaginary characters? Do you wish to see yourself as a comic book artist or write stories about your own superhero? This is your chance! This 2-day Tinkle workshop will teach you to convert your story into a comic format. you will learn to develop main characters, write dialog, and illustrate your story! At the end of the workshop, you would have created your own superhero comic! 

Posts on Literature events and readings coming up shortly! We look forward to seeing all of you at the festival!        

‘Finalists’ in the links below refers to the entries with the top 10 scores after the second round of judging, in random order.
‘Scores’ are for both round 1 and round 2.
Clicking on the Entry ID number in the Scores page shows you the full entry and its scores in the both rounds (if it got through to round 2, that is), plus remarks (if any).
‘Winners’ shows you all the prize-winners, their names, the scores they got on both rounds, and remarks, if any.

There are quite a few ties. We follow a simple system when that happens: we drop the next prize, and the tied contestants share the prize money for both places.
For example: a two-way tie in first place - no second place, and the tied entrants share equally the prize money for first and second place;
Another example: a three-way tie for first place - no second or third prize, and the tied entrants get an equal share of the prize money for 1st + 2nd + 3rd; and so on.
For a tie in third place, since we only have prizes for the top three, the tied winners simply share prize money for third place.

Now then.

Literature Quiz
1st place, Mahesh and Bala
2nd place, Anand & Ajith
3rd place, Girish & Aniruddha.
(ISix teams made it through the written elims into the final round. We’ll ask our quizmaster if he’d be willing to share the scores in the elims and the finals with us)

SMS Poetry
Scores - Finalists - Winners
1st place (tied): Sandeep Shete, Kanika Parab, Anitha Murthy

55-word Stories
Scores - Finalists - Winners
1st place, Nina
2nd place, Krishnakumar Sankaran
3rd place (tied), B S Keshav, Dilip D’Souza, Sandeep Shete

Flash Drama
Scores - Finalists - Winners
1st place (tied), Sandeep Shete, Chandrima Pal
3rd place, Menaka Raman

Lyric writing
Scores - Finalists - Winners
1st place (tied), Amrita Chatwal, patrick,
3rd place (tied), sheela jaywant, Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, Joshua C. Love

Poetry Slam
Finalists - Arjun Kariyal, priya shah, upasana vikram mukherjee, Ahmed Karim, Virendra Gupta, Dr. Taher Kagalwala, Swayamprava Panda, Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, Mukul Chadda, Nithya Subramanian, devesh sharma, Abhishek Kumar, patrick (Arjun Kariyal’s entry, though an edited version of his own work, was not submitted by him, which we very nicely told us. Ahmed Karim and patrick did not respond to our invitation to participate in the Slam.)
Winners -
1st place, Mukul Chadda,
2nd place, Raamesh Raghavan,
3rd place, Devesh Sharma

As I entered the David Sassoon Library Gardens, my attention was grabbed by the provocative book covers which were being flashed on the screen, beauties with guns, some with fangs and blood stained lips. I stared at them, unable to tear my eyes away. They were covers of popular Tamil pulp fiction. I wished I could read the titles.

I had missed the Pulp Fiction workshop. Gods of KG festival had slotted it for Sat and Sunday morning.  I mean, have mercy! This year I found a lot of good workshops happening earlier in the day and I had to miss them. Grrrrrrr!   It had made me doubly keen to attend the event  Pulped and Popped. I could see some girls setting up a table by the side piled with books. A girl with a rasping voice was here there and everywhere. My attention was divided between the screen and that girl.

Jerry Pinto entered the scene almost like a master-ji, asking every one to take their places. The energy levels were high and the sassy girls insisted upon sitting down on the stage. After some persuasion everyone took there seat, order was restored and Jerry started the introductions…

Meanwhile the gruesome slides were still being flashed on the screen.

The panelists were Rajshree aka Raju whose book was launched during this festival, Pritham K. Chakravarthy, Sudarshan Purohit, Kaveri Lalchand, Rakesh Khanna and Rashmi Devadasan who worked on Blaft Anthology on Tamil Pulp Fiction.

Rakesh confessed that his interest was roused by the covers of the books he used to see everyone in Chennai read, but was unable to read them himself.

Sudarshan was well versed in Hindi PF which is known as Pocket Books.

Pritham ( the the most vocal one in the group) was the only one who could both read and write Tamil,

The discussions were energetic. Pritham talked for everyone else and others listened appreciatively. Jerry did a great job of making everyone participate, even the girl who was content to hide behind Pritham

I remembered the Pulp I was hooked to James Hadley Chase, Star Comic romances, Mills And Boon ( are they  still pulp or have been declared  classics by now ? It seems ages…) I am sure everyone had their own favorites.

Meanwhile Jerry was quizzing Raju on her book. She was denying vehemently that her book falls in that category. It was Chic-lit, if you please! Don’t put it on the same shelf along with pulp. Then everyone launched in the debate defining chic-lit and pulp.

Looks like Pulp has a LOT of rules. They have to end happily. Only so much promiscuity was allowed for the main characters, bad girls had more freedom, the language also had it’s own style.

Guys, I enjoyed every minute of the hour long discussion, perhaps best in the whole series. The images were back, a stabbed woman lying in a way to display her  feminine beauty , a macho Inspector with his moll with goggles, with a skull in the back ground etc. etc. A sudden craving for pulp hit me, almost like craving for chaat!

The title “Impact of globalization on Marathi Poetry” sounded promising. As it was slotted right after the Translation workshops I was in a right frame of mind to listen to the poems.

The event was moderated by  Hemant Divate, a young poet who is also a publisher. Others were unknown to me but perhaps familiar to the regulars of Marathi poetry. I am still stuck into the pre- globalization era as I realized .

I was looking forward to listening to the panel’s discussions about their poems, but that didn’t happen. The poets preferred to communicate only through their poems. No discussions took place.

I found the poems mostly mediocre with an exception of Divate himself, and a young poet from Buldhana, Manoj Surendra Pathak. His poem about Death of a man and how it affected his son reached even those who didn’t completely understand Marathi. The words were raw, and emotions true. I thought this was the best poem of the evening.

Another one which I liked was- Sachin Ketkar’s poem in which a lonely man sits in front of his computer, waiting to chat with someone. But even here he is disappointed as no one would chat with him.

Beyond a few references to technology, like computers, chat rooms, and some profanity I didn’t find any marked difference between pre and post globalization poems. Free verse is not newto Marathi poetry. As for the content, God traveling the world in a helicopter, saying ‘Fuck You’ to his devotees, was neither amusing, nor shocking, nor interesting. As a result everyone just waited for that rather long poem to be over.

Dilip Zaveri read the English translations of a few of these poems. Some were done decently, but most were just word to word translation, missing out the essence completely. One was a rather tongue in cheek poem where the poet had strung together street signs, and the messages which we see everyday around us. The poem had a rather humorous feel to it. But when translated, the entire line up of messages became meaningless. Lost in Translation- once again?

Satisfying or not, inclusion of regional language literature in Kala Ghoda Arts Festival added an interesting dimension to the events. How about getting us some popular Marathi  theater guys next year ?