I can't believe the number of festivals I attended in 2008. It started with the Jaipur Literary Festival in January, followed by a small festival at Howard University, Washington, DC, in Feb. In May, I went to the Hay-on-Wye Festival in Wales, and in June, to Aspen Summer Words in Colorado (where they had a special year on India). Then came the Brooklyn Book Festival and theLiterary Sojourn in Steamboat Springs, Colorado (both in Sep). In October, I participated in the New Yorker Festival (see entry below) and in November, the South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival SALTAF at the Smithsonian. Wow! They were all great, but naturally, the Brooklyn Festival wins, because of the opportunity to show my Bollywood dancing (see entry below).

It's been over a week since the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, and it still feels very unreal. I think it will only be after I've walked around on the streets there myself, looked at the Taj and the Oberoi and all the other targets with my own eyes to see that they're still standing, that I will be able to recover more fully. It's amazing to realize that we've come to this - that there are people out there who will mindlessly kill you for no other reason than you being on Indian soil. A broadcast of my talk yesterday with Marty Moss-Coane (WHHY Radio - NPR Philadelphia) on the terrorist attacks may be heard here.

The folks at Hartford sure know how to organize an event! They chose "The Death of Vishnu" as their "one book" for 2008, and on Oct 24, I had the privilege of giving a talk at their brand new library. This was the culmination of events that had been going on since August - see their website. Great questions from the audience, and a lavish buffet of Indian delicacies afterwards for everyone who came.

It gave me great pleasure to join five other South Asian writers: Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kiran Desai, Suketu Mehta and Akhil Sharma to put on a benefit reading for Obama on October 4. The event was organized by author Meera Nair, and emceed by film maker Mira Nair. Suketu had a great party at his house afterwards. We ended up raising $56,000 for Obama! Here's more on it on Sepia Mutiny.

On October 3, I participated in a fiction panel at the New Yorker festival. I was a little horrified by my cartoon in the catalog, but I suppose that's supposed to be the point. Enjoyed the party afterwards!

Here's an account of the session on emdashes.com.

At the Brooklyn Book Festival, I was asked to do a reading and then perform something risky/embarrassing afterwards. Decided to do Helen's immortal Bollywood number from the movie Caravan, "Piya Tu Ab To Aja." Figured something this over the top would help me to not take myself too seriously. Glad to see it up on YouTube!

In April, I had a stimulating three hour conversation with Claudia Dreifus, a writer for the Science section of the New York Times. Here is the article based on this conversation, published in the New York Times on June 17, 2008. Read Interview