It is a great piece of news for all literary lovers in Delhi as it is all set to host its very own Literary Festival in November this year.

The grand launch of the Times Literary Fest Delhi at the Taj Palace hotel on July 4, 2015 was both erudite and fun, popular and highbrow. It was an evening with the whos who of the literary world. Six of us from our School, Ms. Navreet Shergill, Ms. Mithu Ghosh, Ms. Punam Thapan, Ms. Nidhi Bindra, Ms. Radhika ..... and Ms. Gandharvi Mukherjee, were the lucky ones to win invites to this Times of India Litfest launch.

The event featured the worldwide launch of Amish Tripathis new novel The Scion of Ikshvaku. Amish, author of the bestselling Shiva trilogy was in conversation with writer- columnist Pritish Nandy. Asked by Mr. Nandy whether the marketing of a book has become more important than its content, Amish used science to debunk the perception, calling the product a plane and its marketing, a propeller. The Ramayana dominated much of the conversation and Amish believed that Indians openness to recreate and contemporise Rama for the times, has allowed it to become a central part of the Indian culture for so long. When Nandy concluded by asking if he believed that all 300 Ramayanas ( as mentioned in A.K.Ramanujans controversial essay by the same name) had a right to exist, Amish answered in the affirmative saying that they already do! The overflowing audience, with many people standing in the aisles, cheered most of his answers.

The next session was conducted by Nalin Mehta, writer and columnist, with Upamanyu Chatterjee, a known figure in the world of Indian English writing. Also on stage was Rahul Bose, who played Agastya Sen in the movie "Being Agastya Sen - the literary birth of the Indian in Bharat". This was a tribute to the fact that the publication of Upamanyu Chatterjee's novel "English August" was an important moment for English writing in India, a moment when young urban English-speaking Indians perhaps for the first time found their lives reflected in a novel.

Chatterjee was asked about his book English August and his most famous character, Agastya Sen. He answered that the character had survived all these years in public memory because he is so weird. Bose spoke of how the success of the movie had led many to believe that there was a market for English language movies, but this did not happen in reality. There was much humour in this conversation which left the audience in splits.

The house was then opened for the audience to pose questions to their favourite authors. The event also featured an introduction to Times Of India's "Write India" initiative, a unique venture by which TOI readers partner with 11 selected authors, to each author their own novels!

The event itself was planned to showcase the variety of the literary scene in today's India as tastes in reading are diverse and eclectic. True to the spirit of the Times Of India, the event showcased the entire spectrum of literary engagement, from best sellers to niche writers, slated for the Literary Festival of Delhi in November this year.

The event came to an end with the literary bigwigs mingling with the audience, answering questions, signing books and happily posing for selfies with fans!

Ms. Gandharvi Mukherjee.