Still, it dovetailed neatly into the purpose of my visit, which was to attend the annual Jaipur Literary Festival, held at Diggi Palace, just a few hours south of Delhi in the capital of Rajasthan. The train journey down showed how all-pervasive the piracy industry is. In the next-door seat, there was a passenger watching a bootleg DVD of Slumdog Millionaire on his laptop – a day before it had even been premiered in India.

I was slightly gritting my teeth about attending the festival as I imagined it would have all of the usual literary figures performing in tents to many of the familiar chattering-class groupies. Given the explosion of literary tourism in Asia, I imagined it might be along the lines of ‘If it’s Wednesday, it must be Jaipur; Thursday, Galle; and next week, Bali…’

Well, thankfully, I was wrong on all counts. For once, this actually delivered the message on the wrapper – it was indeed a festival, with festooned buildings, colourful drapes, performing artists, hundreds of people milling around and more than enough entertainment being offered simultaneously to keep the most jaded participant amused. Oh yes, and there were 160 authors too, ranging from Thomas Keneally, Simon Schama, Patrick French and Colin Thubron to local superstars such as author Chetan Bhagat, editor-turned-novelist Tarun Tejpal, William Dalrymple, Vikram Seth and Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan. And unlike the Hong Kong and Shanghai literary festivals, which are dominated by expatriates, there was hardly a European to be seen among the thousands of Indian participants. The only Western tourist I observed had a baby boy on her knee, so I assumed she was an Embassy wife here for a day out. In fact, it was actress Julia Roberts, who had heard about the festival while staying with Bubbles Jaipur – the Maharaja – and came along anonymously to see what all the fuss was about.