Harmony, hallucinations and hardbacks: Sidelights from JLF 2026
A Naga choir asserts its Indian identity, a founder's AI anecdote, and the great book rush—the festival's spirit thrives in its fleeting, human moments.
3 min readJaipurUpdated: Jan 30, 2026 04:34 PM IST
Ao Naga Choir performs at Jaipur Literature Festival, celebrating indigenous culture and asserting a proudly Indian identity. (Credit: FB/Jaipur Literature Festival)
Over the sun-drenched days in Rajasthan, the Jaipur Literature Festival generates a climate of unforgettable, human vignettes that unfold off the main stage. These fleeting sidelights, capture the curious magic of JLF 2026.
‘Passionately Indian’: The Ao Naga Choir, in vibrant traditional attire, filled the morning air with mellifluous harmony. The most striking note, however, came as an anecdote after their final song. A choir member shared that just the previous night, a fellow attendee had inquired, “Are you from Japan?” Their answer, he said, was as resounding as their harmonies: “We are passionately Indian.” Performing across the globe, he added, was their way of boosting the nation’s soft power, a mission vividly accomplished in that serene hour.
Rambling AI: Elsewhere, the conversation pivoted to digital fallacy. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales offered a personal — and peculiar — cautionary tale during an interview with yours truly. His exhibit A was an AI-generated encyclopedia entry about his wife. It began straightforwardly, noting her private nature, then descended into speculative fiction about secretive work for the Labour Party. “It goes on and on… complete nonsense,” Wales remarked, dismissing the hallucinatory output. “Just random text, like the ramblings of someone on drugs.”
The Vanishing Act: Meanwhile, in the bustling festival marketplace, there was a tangible frenzy of a book sold out. When poet Alice Oswald sought Rana Dasgupta’s ‘After Nations,’ the store had already surrendered its last copy, leaving her disappointed. The pattern held moments after Kim Ghattas’s compelling session on ‘Black Wave’; her book, too, vanished from the shelves. “It’s sold out,” Ghattas confirmed with amused sympathy to this correspondent who was en route to hunt for it. What followed was a quest through the maze-like store, a testament to the festival’s electric buzz. The reward? Securing the very last copy, miraculously mislaid by the ransacking mob, a literary trophy in a day of vanishing acts.
Spatial awareness: At a packed-to-the-gills front lawn session, as the last seat vanished and bodies began to converge in aisles and pathways, a beleaguered organiser took to the microphone. His plea was not for silence, but for spatial awareness. “Please, I request you, keep your feet, your elbows, your arms in check,” he implored the encroaching throng, “lest you step on a wire or run into our equipment.” He insisted that it was a question of their own safety, and then exasperatedly asked the impatient throng to clear the aisle. A constant negotiation between the crowd’s insatiable intellectual appetite and the very practical need to keep the festival’s own machinery, both literal and metaphorical, from being toppled by the enthusiastic advance of the crowd.
Aishwarya Khosla is a key editorial figure at The Indian Express, where she spearheads and manages the Books & Literature and Puzzles & Games sections, driving content strategy and execution. Aishwarya's specialty lies in book reviews, literary criticism and cultural commentary. She also pens long-form feature articles where she focuses on the complex interplay of culture, identity, and politics.
She is a proud recipient of The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections. This fellowship required intensive study and research into political campaigns, policy analysis, political strategy, and communications, directly informing the analytical depth of her cultural commentary.
As the dedicated author of The Indian Express newsletters, Meanwhile, Back Home and Books 'n' Bits, Aishwarya provides consistent, curated, and trusted insights directly to the readership. She also hosts the podcast series Casually Obsessed. Her established role and her commitment to examining complex societal themes through a nuanced lens ensure her content is a reliable source of high-quality literary and cultural journalism.
Her extensive background across eight years also includes previous roles at Hindustan Times, where she provided dedicated coverage of politics, books, theatre, broader culture, and the Punjabi diaspora.
Write to her at aishwaryakhosla.ak@gmail.com or aishwarya.khosla@indianexpress.com. You can follow her on Instagram:
@aishwarya.khosla, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read More
