I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT

I really, really do. (Lyrics courtesy Tara June Winch and her adorable daughter Lila - these have stayed with us long after we bid farewell to our Ubud neighbours).

Speak of being spoilt for choice. Yes, that's what lit fests have done for us. They've opened a whole new world of possibilities, of discoveries, of journeys, of friendships, of sharing music and lyrics, and I'm not about to get started on the mammoth reading lists.

Yes, they steal a piece of us - not that we mind. It's happened at Ubud, at Galle, at Byron Bay. These three lit fests have been my picks and will remain so. Click here to see why.

SPOILT FOR CHOICE?

Too busy for all the festivities in March? Then block your diaries, calendars, gadgets or gizmos or whatever else you use to block dates for some other fine festivals.

In July, its Byron Bay, tons of coffee and stimulating conversations in wind-blown marquees.

In September, get ready for 'The Seen & Unseen' or 'Sekala Niskala' at the Ubud Writers Festival. Lots of vocal writers have confirmed their attendance. Let me assure you any festival that gets the likes of Catherine Lim and Shashi Tharoor has a lot to talk about. That's not all, they've also got nods from Mohsin Hamid, Kiran Desai, Peter Goldsworthy. More names are likely to follow, so keep watching their seen space.

In December, Singapore hosts its own festival. The website isn't out but it will be soon. Lots of exciting venues are being explored as I pen this. So here's as good an excuse as any to visit us, even if you don't want to be part of the legendary shopping extravaganzas.

NOT ALL LIT FESTS ARE EQUAL

For the longest time, Janet de Neefe and I did a 'shall we, shall we not' head to the Kitab Lit Fest in Bombay/Mumbai? Sure, we'd had our dose of the sub-continent at the Galle Lit Fest in January but Kitab sounded sorely tempting. That was till we learnt that Kiran Desai - whose mug stayed on the front page of the website for the longest time was not going there, nor was MJ Akbar, whose name appeared on another panel. Then another panel had one moderator and eight panelists - wonder what they said in the span of an hour. All of this meant - take your chances.

In this brilliant report, Jerry Pinto pens an intensely personal account of the festivities or lack thereof:

"In the morning, the discussion on the veil was equally arbitrary. Everyone spoke about veils. Except for Kamila Shamsie, no one made any sense. A feminist friend was startled by the complete arbitrariness of the remarks. “Did they come for a holiday?” she asked. "

Looks like we missed nothing.