Should writers just write, and not talk?

There is an argument that literary festivals make performing monkeys of writers. Yet a lit fest is also a place for dialogue inasmuch as it is a place for autograph seekers

- SANDIP ROY

It was like the before times.

The pandemic had receded and the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) was back with a bang. "Are you going? Will we see you there?" writer friends asked.

I wasn't invited, I admitted sheepishly. Then, to recover some lost prestige, I said I had received an invite for a publisher party at the festival anyway.

But the Kolkata season had also kicked off, with back-to-back literature festivals. There were books to read, writers to interview, dinners to attend. In the tangled skein of insecurities that is a writer's life, literature festivals provide a booster dose of literary relevance, a way to reassure yourself that your words still count for something. As my friends sent cocktail selfies from the Jaipur opening party, and my Instagram feed slowly filled up with JLF-in-action photographs, I worked diligently through my reading list for Kolkata. A friend was visiting from out of town. We cannot meet till the festival is over, I said busily. Then I sent him an announcement for my session with a Pulitzer prize winner.

Right then another friend forwarded an article from Gawker, titled Writers Shouldn't Talk-Stop Encouraging Them. Are you saying I shouldn't talk? I asked him. Or was I not a writer at all but a talker? It's not just that some writers are good at talking while others are not.