close to the arched entrance of the bangalore literature festival stood an installation from which popular first lines of books and poems penned by enthusiastic visitors were hung the idea of the opening line was stirred by joseph hellers it was love at first sight from his novel catch22 while not everyone put down first lines which was the theme as was namma bengalurus inaugural litfest there were plenty of lines blowing in the lateevening breeze old favourites like margret mitchells scarlett ohara was not beautiful but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the tarleton twins were from gone with the wind cropped up more than once it set the tone for the evening where people lounged on garden chairs relaxing with their favourite beverage as they listened to words of appreciation in kannada hindi and english from the men on the dais poet lyricist gulzar and jnanpith awardee u r ananthamurthy among others gulzar was apologetic for not being able to deliver his speech in kannada while ananthamurthy lauded the 1000yearold tradition of kannada literature switching to english every now and then so that his friend gulzar could understand what he was saying the question of whether bangalore needed a literary festival came up for discussion more than once author sashi deshpande said at first i thought do we need another literary festival then the more i interacted with the organizers i thought why not a literary festival in bangalore festiva founder vikram sampath put it simply blf fills the gap in our cultural calender long before the it revolution swept us off our feet we were a city of thinkers writers and poets with the winter sun at its radiant best the lawns of the jayamahal palace saw a dazzling array of saris silks chiffons and heavy cottons in a kaleidoscopic range of colours the crowd was a lively mix of the fresh and the seasoned while most of the male gathering turned out in formal attire of one kind or the other jeans was the popular choice among collegegoing girls the denims were paired with statement tees or tunics there was the odd illfitted dress too but mostly it was an evening of classic choices