Bangalore Literature Festival 2023

 There is always a festival going on in India and it is common that they overlap with one another, which happened in Bangalore. An art festival overlapping with a book festival with a food festival…many events and things happening in BLR.  

I was wanting to go to the Bangalore Literature festival which was at Lalit Ashok. It was 1:30 and a bit late in the day, but boy was it worth it.  

A reminder that Bangalore is a city with such rich history and culture. It is a city to be proud of and it’s a city of my culture and heritage where my father, grandmother and grandfather was born-it is my city.  

Paul Fernandez wrote a book about the pandemic and the history of India-he was a very famous illustrator matched with a woman who wrote the text.  

There was talk about fasting and Jainism, the unconscious bias, live poetry, children’s book readings, great displays and a beautiful setup overall. The location was perfect!  

I left and the traffic police were hilarious yelling at everyone to keep moving and telling the autos not to stop. A small Indian on a huge loudspeaker shouting at everyone to move along. It was raining off and on and it took me an Uber, Ola, and Rapido to finally get someone to show up. The traffic police would get on the phone to tell the driver to come to the main entrance. It just kept going on and on. The two guys sat with me trying to make sure I got a ride amongst all the madness everyone was trying to help me. The guy sold me peanuts and gave me extra ones after. He gave me chance for 500 and said, “did you get all the change is it right? Honesty… 

We are all just laughing with this total mess going on and finally my ride shows up and he knows exactly where he is going without a gps. His Indian license, which is placed in every auto, has a photo of him at like 25 years old and he now looks 50. He must know the city inside and out.  

I got there and it was very open setting with everyone sitting on floor cushions and a room of people doing pottery. I grabbed a seat on the floor and was amazing at the voice I was hearing. It was like Atif Aslam and literally my favorite sounds.  

The people were very calm, peaceful, and not really that welcoming, but nice. They had open mic with people all singing different styles of music. They had an amazing Indian band singing Hindi songs and  the second act reciting poetry, singing after it, and then having someone ask questions about how they felt after the music-how therapeutic. I was astounded by how much talent was in the room and became a bit emotional again feeling like I was missing out on India for so many years…..We all got up and sang together at the end and danced. The MC went around putting people on the microphone to sing the different lyrics-what joy and happiness was present in the room and what a place full of beautiful energy-you could just feel it. They have all kinds of artistic events there on a regular basis. I was thinking of not going and just losing my ticket because the car situation and the weather but boy am I sure happy that I went!  

After the event, I contacted my friend to see if he was in the area. He was at a birthday party, but he said he could meet for chai after if I could wait until 10. He was always so kind and caring about making sure I get home safe. We have this thing where we meet for chai, catch up, and then he drives me home. He is pretty busy with work and lives on the outer parts of Bangalore.  

We stopped by a great chai stop-he orders the same thing I do to make sure I do not get anything with caffeine. We both have ginger lemon tea and catch up on life. Just 15 minutes later, he drives me home on his super comfortable bike that lifts me high up into the air and feeling bump free- love it.  

He is actually very good looking and I did not notice because he is just my friend. Tall, beautiful dark Indian hair, nice teeth, and an overall nice build for an Indian guy.  I guess I never seem to notice the good guys….I know he is one, but I just have no interest in ANYONE, which makes everyone a FRIEND.

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