Dear friend,

What could be more fun than spending a weekend with books, authors, illustrators and storytellers and in a city like Srinagar?

You are in for a treat. Spread over the second weekend of June is a feast of plenty. Twenty seven speakers from 10 cities across India will present 58 sessions, ranging from stories to craft and activities to book readings to doodling to poetry to music.

Bookaroo has been hosted by the DP Dhar Memorial Trust in Srinagar five times before a four-year absence. This year, Kashmir beckoned once again and here we are, delighted to be back with the sixth edition at Delhi Public School – and the 41st overall.

The Bookaroo Srinagar story begins in 2010 when Vikas and Sunanda Dhar walked into the festival during the third edition of Bookaroo in Delhi looking for the organisers. “Will you come to Srinagar with the festival,” they asked “if we hosted you?” It was an offer that we could not refuse. Bang in the middle of the busy grounds of the festival we said yes instantly – the formal meetings could come later. And the thrilling part was that this would be Bookaroo’s first destination outside Delhi.

Next up was a meeting with the founders Vijay and Kiran Dhar, who had no doubts that Bookaroo should have a home in Srinagar too. The Dhars and the entire school team unhesitatingly backed us to the hilt and the first edition took off in 2011. It is the extra special touch – from a hot cup of Kahwa to hot-water bags at night to take the chill off when it snowed suddenly – that makes Bookaroo with the Dhars memorable.

Bookaroo Srinagar goes far beyond the city. Just last year, when one of our speakers was in Paris for a conference, one former student of DPS who was in France travelled nearly 200 km from Le Havre University in Normandie to meet her ‘because he remembered attending her session’. More recently, just after a theatre performance in the German Book Office in Delhi one young man greeted us and talked excitedly about Bookaroo Srinagar. He was a student from DPS during one of Bookaroo’s early editions.

We hope the excitement continues.