Not the Way This Was Supposed to Turn Out

From The Guardian:

Literary festivals, inevitably, cannot please all of the people all of the time. But this year’s Kitab festival – held in Mumbai from February 22-24 – was remarkable in pleasing no one. Its founder Pablo Ganguli, the 24-year-old former darling of the literary circuit, now stands accused of mismanagement, failing to pay his debts, and favouring British authors over Indian ones.

According to this article, just before the festival was set to begin, three key employees accused Ganguli of owing them thousands of pounds. They started a petition, circulated it to a bunch of the writers (and included info about how Indian authors had to pay certain expenses that British authors didn’t), and, well, the shit hit the fan.

Twelve high-profile authors – including Amit Chaudhuri, Ian Jack, Geoff Dyer, Helen Simpson, Esther Freud, Deborah Moggach, Philip Hensher, Kamila Shamsie and Jackie Kay – signed a letter in support of the protests, calling for a boycott of Kitabfest 2008. [. . .] Sponsor after sponsor withdrew at the last minute, including media partners the Times (UK) and Vogue India. Authors deserted en masse, including virtually every Indian author.

Unsurprisingly, Ganguli passed the blame to two of the key employees who started the scandal, although he did admit to being “too ambitious.”

Regardless of who’s to blame, it looks like this controversy has pretty much dismantled the festival:

Amid the blame games, the festival limped on, but with no funds for publicity, hastily assembled sessions ran to nearly empty rooms. Its future looks bleak. “I don’t know what will happen next year,” said a harried Ganguli.