Hic! In high spirits at Jaipur lit fest (Notes from Litfest)
January 25th, 2011 - 2:22 pm ICT by IANSBy Mohita Nagpal
Jaipur, Jan 25 (IANS) Some 500 bottles of wine, over 800 pints of beer, 500 vodka bottles and more than 500 whiskey bottles! Free booze flowed from every corner at the five-day Jaipur Literature Festival.The three liquor stalls sitting next to each other undoubtedly attracted the largest crowd in the whole of Diggy Palace, the venue of the five-day event. Those behind the counters worked tirelessly to keep people in high spirits. The demand for a drink was directly proportional to how expensive it was.
Wine, without fail, everyday has been the first to get over, followed by whiskey and vodka. Beer survived for the longest time. Perhaps thanks to onion and petrol prices, it did not seem an expensive indulgence anymore.
-*-
Doodled autographs
Scribbling a personal message for a fan is the done thing but ever heard of doodled autographs? Graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee did exactly that for the beeline of fans (mostly women) at a book signing session.
He happily mingled with the crowd, kept them in good humour and actually took the effort to draw caricatures for everyone even as the queues of his fans kept growing longer and moved at a slower pace than Delhi’s traffic.
-*-
‘Kulhar chai’ makes a killing
A thrilled foreigner sipping piping hot tea from a humble earthen pot, the ‘kulhar’, is a sight to behold even if it is not the stuff tourism department’s postcards are made of.
The Jaipur lit fest saw the kulhar chai selling like, yes you guessed it right, hot cakes! The authors set the ball rolling by taking a fancy towards the beverage and locals followed suit, in the hope of attaining literary nirvana.
-*-
Fire Exit fails to rage
They came, they sang, but they failed to set the stage on fire. Delhi rock band Fire Exit tried everything in the rock band handbook guide to get the crowd rolling but they couldn’t even manage the customary applause, forget about the precious headbanging.
They jumped, joked, laughed, but the inebriated audience yawned in boredom. As a girl said to her apologetic friend who had entered midway during the performance, “Dude, don’t be in such a hurry. You missed nothing.”
(Mohita Nagpal can be contacted at mohita.n@ians.in)
- What's your 'visitor type' at Jaipur lit fest - Jan 24, 2011
- Delhi's youth in high spirits during World Cup - Mar 25, 2011
- Authors' day out at Jaipur lit fest (Snippets) - Jan 23, 2011
- Beer batter squids, anybody? Or beer cheese soup? (Eating out with IANS) - Dec 14, 2010
- Brewdog 'End of History' Beer Packaged in Dead Animals - Jul 23, 2010
- Literary carnival over, wait for next year begins (Letter from Jaipur lit fest) - Jan 26, 2011
- Anarkali, shaken not stirred - cocktail wisdom (With Image) (IANS Books) - May 20, 2011
- Former Teen Idol David Cassidy Taken Into Custody For Drunken Driving - Nov 05, 2010
- England team's 'booze and cigar' bender following ignominious World Cup exit - Jun 30, 2010
- Thirty years on, he's still the real Nowhere Man (Tribute) (Dec 8 is John Lennon's death anniversary) - Dec 07, 2010
- Poet Sibal charms Jaipur Lit Fest - Jan 23, 2011
- News Anchor Kimmo Wilska Fired for Beer Prank - Oct 16, 2010
- Russia to raise liquor, cigarette tax - Apr 29, 2012
- Scottish brewer Brewdog have made the strongest Beer in the word - 'The End of History' - Jul 23, 2010
- Now, Cupcake Vodka with 'creamy texture' - Apr 29, 2011
Tags: beeline, caricatures, chai, diggy, earthen pot, foreigner, free booze, good humour, headbanging, high spirits, hot cakes, hot tea, lit fest, literature festival, longest time, nagpal, petrol prices, pints, tourism department, whiskey bottles