That the show must go on was put to test at the Brahmaputra Literary Festival in Guwahati last weekend when senior actress Asha Parekh had a session to promote her autobiography, The Hit Girl. She'd spent the morning shopping along with her co-writer Khalid Mohammed where she picked up two beautiful saris from the local shops. And she looked lovely when she turned up well on time for her session in the afternoon. But just as she took her place on the stage, her stomach began to act up. Asha Parekh had already been hospitalised last year for a stone in the gall bladder, which, later, strangely vanished on its own. But she had a couple of painful colic attacks since then.

That morning at the breakfast table, she'd tried the local tea, laal cha , a throat-warming brew with ginger, pepper and other ingredients. Little did she realise that the cuppa she enjoyed in the morning would come back to bite her in the tummy a few hours later. She had spasms and cramps, the pain worsening every minute. Khalid quietly got her a bottle of water which gave her a wee bit of relief as she continued to answer Dipa Chaudhuri, the moderator, and even took questions from the crowd.

Nobody could tell that she was actually in agony, her mind only half functioning.

An hour later, she was tucked up in her hotel suite with medicines prescribed by her Mumbai doctor over phone. And writer Khalid, who was to fly out a day later, decided to brought forward his return so that she would not have to travel to Mumbai all by herself.

Lit fests are thus full of action - behind the scenes. It's fun too, since there's a mixture of all kinds of writers and celebs. One evening, there was Mohammed Rafi's son Shahidat. He sang Aaja aaja from Teesri Manzil in Asha Parekh's honour. Elegantly dressed in a sari and pearls, the actress blushed while I imitated her sparkling dance movements to that super hit number of the 60s. This was, of course, the night before the spasms.

With celeb books selling well, publishers seem to have put all else on the backburner to grab a starry story. And lit fests, which are mushrooming all over the country (more than 500 at last count), are feasting on celebrity appearances. Shatrughan Sinha continues to be a draw although he has already spoken at over 20 such events, all of them related to his biography Anything But Khamosh . A record by itself.

I'm waiting for the day when the two Priyankas, Priyanka Gandhi and Priyanka Chopra, allow authorised versions of their life stories. And if they do, one wonders if they'll be as forthcoming as a biography should be. While PG's would be fascinating for its political revelations and marriage to the hot-headed Robert Vadra, PC's ride from Bareilly to Mumbai, New York and LA will make terrific reading if she doesn't whitewash any of it. Currently, she's looking for substantial work in Mumbai while making time for the third season of Quantico . Unfortunately, she'll have to agree to a price cut (50 per cent is what one hears) as Season 2 hasn't been as kickass as the first. Still, Priyanka has made such a big pile of money that she rides a Rolls Royce and has more real estate investments here and in the US than she can keep track of. Accordingly, she has upped her price with Hindi film producers who've become all too aware that they'd have to come up with a surefire script to recover their investment in her and in a film worth her while. What a long way she's come from the girl who was professionally distanced by Akshay Kumar and then Shah Rukh Khan, under orders from their respective wives. Even today, when she signs a Hindi film, you may be sure it won't star either Akshay or SRK. Ah, so the Kumar and the Khan do have something in common after all.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author