India, Jan. 30 -- I missed the start of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, held from 29 October to 2 November 2025, thanks to an impromptu plan with fellow speakers. While the crowds were walking into Taman Baca, I was at the top of Mount Batur watching the sunrise - shockingly, even shivering in Bali's early-morning cold. And as Janet DeNeefe, Founder and Director of UWRF, opened the festival and David Van Reybrouck took the stage for his keynote, I was standing under the spouts of the Pura Tirta Empul, getting purified by mountain streams in a traditional Melukat ceremony. It wasn't the start I had planned, but in hindsight, it was an unexpectedly fitting prelude. By the time it was midday and I arrived at the venue on my ojek - every...