India, March 7 -- At the ninth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode, India's first UNESCO 'City of Literature', there was much excitement around the presence of astronaut Sunita Williams. She didn't have a book out but highlighted something that remains a concern of all of literature: what do we mean by home, and what does it mean to belong? "From up above, the view makes you question what people are fighting for," she said at a press conference.

Large billboards on the road running along the festival's beach venue did scream out other names: Nobel laureates, Booker winners, and bestselling authors too. Arriving as this reporter did from that other literary mela, the Jaipur Literature Festival, what stood out about KLF ...