The Hindu Lit for Life 2026 | Nirmala Lakshman on India’s sharpest lit fest

The Hindu’s literature festival has witnessed remarkable growth over the last decade and more. I recall that we began in 2010 with the simple exercise of awarding the best fiction of the year prize chosen by an independent jury. A small gathering of some 200 people was at the event and the enthusiastic response from them led us to think we should do something more the following year.

Literature festivals were just about mushrooming then, and we felt that with our infrastructure, we could pull off a festival that would showcase great new writing across a range of topics. We kept the prizes going too with awards for fiction and nonfiction until budgetary constraints and structural issues precluded us from continuing it. Nevertheless, the festival itself grew year upon year, over two and three days across several cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi, with the initial 200 now at roughly 20,000.

This year by all purports the footfall is likely to be even greater. For me, the audience’s enthusiasm with people walking in and out of sessions, wandering through the festival grounds buying books, enjoying the fringe activities as much as the main discussions, is very heartening. It demonstrates the value of reading and literature across a wide cross-section of people.

We have seen great interest in LFL Unplugged (something we have added this year), using venues like cafes and other spaces across Chennai and Bangalore prior to the festival to discuss diverse and often off beat subjects. The burgeoning audiences every year, the celebratory, almost joyous mood at the festival, and the remarkable writers whose work we are privileged to celebrate year upon year leads me to believe that there is a great appetite for reading. We hope to continue this journey as part of The Hindu’s own mission to bring the best to its readers.

Tamil legacy

Besides work on the festival, I’ve been quite overwhelmed honestly, by the positive feedback on the book [The Tamils: A Portrait of a Community, which Nirmala Lakshman authored]. While writing and working with the editors, I had no clue about how it would be received but am very grateful that it’s a book that has drawn attention as well as appreciation. And yes, lots of questions and even wonderment about Tamil culture and history in casual conversations. What surprised me is that so many people (including Tamilians), seem to be quite unaware of the history of this community.

Personal wellness

Living well at this point in my life means being more conscious and mindful every day. Breathwork, careful eating, as much walking as possible, enjoying art and music, and being grateful every day. And of course, lots of positive thoughts to counter some gloom and doom scenarios that threaten to engulf us. It’s a constant work in progress! One of my guilty pleasures is vanilla ice cream with lots of chocolate sauce sprinkled with nuts — may be a bit farfetched to say it makes my day better but it’s one treat that I really enjoy!

I’m reading a couple of books right now. Running from one to the other, which is something I’m doing of late. One is Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan, another is Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief(She’s coming to the lit fest and I can’t wait to meet her) and of course, the wondrous book by Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. I am going to be talking to her at Lit for Life, so that will be exciting.