Vivek Pandit is an author of two books, By Mistake, a philosophical search of a young man for his homeland, and 21 New Beginnings, a set of short stories — like so many others at the Zee Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF). But he doesn’t have hordes of fawning fans asking him to sign a copy, or journalists pursuing him for interviews. Both Pandit’s books were self-published, and he doesn’t have the PR might of a multinational publisher to advertise his book. But he’s hoping to change things with his third manuscript. He came to Jaipur with a few dozen copies of his books in a suitcase, trying to attract the attention of agents and commissioning editors who throng the fest. He’s already managed to get one Koel Mathur interested: “She has already asked for the manuscript and I have mailed it to her.”
