A celebration of Indian writing

new delhi: midnight's children have now become the millennium voices. a six day festival 'at home in the world', organised by the indian council for cultural relations in close collaboration with the times of india group, proposes to celebrate the coming of age of indian literature which has been increasingly winning international acclaim. the festival will be inaugurated by prime minister vajpayee, followed by a keynote address by nobel laureate v s naipaul.naipaul will also present this year's prestigious jnanpith award. with more and more indian writers capturing the world's imagination, it is time india celebrated its litterateurs and their body of work, feels himachal som, director general iccr. literature, according to him, "has always been the cutting edge of indian culture." describing the current efflorescence of indian writing in english as being akin to the outburst of literary creativity by latin american writers — neruda, paz, marquez — in the 1960s and 70s, som believes indian writers have nevertheless, always been different. "they have consistently mirrored the collective unconscious of a civilisation that has gone through centuries of change," he says. the festival will bring together nearly fifty stalwarts which include naipaul, vikram seth, amitav ghosh, rohinton mistry, pico iyer, arundhati roy, sunil gangopadhyay, vijay tendulkar, indira goswami and nirmal verma.