The Mountain Echoes Literary Festival brings together authors and singers all under the attentive eye of Bhutan’s Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, in an oasis of calm. Madhu Jain is charmed by the fairy-tale aspect of the place.
When we look up, a rather orangey moon appears to be nudging the sinister, ominous looking, three-storeyed house perched on a low hill. “ah, that looks like Dracula’s house,” says a saucer-eyed, 20-something journalist standing next to me. “no, i think it looks like Edward Rochester's house in Jane Eyre....” remarks the slightly older literary journalist, equally entranced by the strange sight. Whatever, it gives us goosebumps. We give a metaphorical shrug of our shoulders and return to the dinner being hosted by the ever-gracious Her majesty the royal Queen mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk.
We join the guests, who linger by the bar or sit around the elegantly laid tables under two white shamianas at the terma Linca resort and Spa, located a little outside Thimpu, Bhutan's capital. A rivulet of the river Thimpu gushes by in full spate. The hill and the rocks behind it look like sentinels, guarding the purity of the surroundings. It seems we have still not come down to earth from paradise. The evening marks the grand finale of the ninth edition of the mountain echoes Literary Festival, organised by the Indian Bhutan Foundation and the Jaipur-based literary agency Siyahi, headed by Mita Kapur.
HEAVEN ON EARTH
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