Writers, Etc. – Session 32

Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/08/2014
6:30 pm

Location
M L Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance Francaise de Delhi

Categories


Alliance Française de Delhi, Institut Français en Inde and The French Embassy in India

 present

Writers, Etc. – Session 32

Kishwar Desai

in conversation with

Namita Gokhale

08th August 2014, 6.30pm

M. L. Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance française de Delhi

Writers, Etc is our literary platform: a space where the written word gets primacy, where written ideas and their practitioners can interact with each other and the general public, coming together to ask pertinent questions and seek their answers: what role does literature play in contemporary societies? How do writers see their responsibilities vis-à-vis the public and, turning that over, how do we see writers? How has the written word adapted to its place among the growing pantheon of varied and addictive forms of cultural transmission? The aim is to encourage a discovery, unencumbered by genre, of all the written oeuvres, ranging from living legends to new and emerging talent.

For our thirty-second session we are very excited to welcome Kishwar Desai to be in conversation with Namita Gokhale.

Kishwar Desai’s debut novel, Witness the Night  won the prestigious Costa First Novel Award (2010), was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize,the DSC South Asian Literary Prize, the Waverton Good Read Award and shortlisted for the UK Author’s Club Award, among others. It was shortlisted for a readers prize by Elle magazine in France,and has just been nominated for the Le Grand Prix de la Litterature Policiere.It has been translated into over twenty languages and optioned for an international film. Her novels Origins of Love and The Sea of Innocence, and  Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt , a biography of the iconic Indian film actors, covered 100 years of Indian cinema, have all received positive publicity and critical acclaim. She had previously worked in television as anchor/producer at various TV networks including NDTV, Doordarshan, TV Today and her last job in TV was as Vice President, Zee Telefilms. She is presently completing a book on Devika Rani and Himansu Rai and early Indian cinema. She is also a columnist for The Asian Age, The Week and The Tribune and has published articles in The Guardian as well The Daily Mail, among others. But her only real achievement is to be the lucky mother of Gaurav and Mallika Ahluwalia, wife to Meghnad Desai and daughter to Padam and Rajini Rosha. Her favourite occupation is daydreaming and coming up with impossible ideas.

 Kishwar Desai

Writer and publisher Namita Gokhale has written twelve books including several works of fiction. Her first novel, ‘Paro: Dreams of Passion’, which created a furor with its candid sexual humour celebrates its thirtieth anniversary edition in 2014. Other novels include ‘A Himalayan Love Story’, ‘The Book of Shadows’, ‘Shakuntala: The Play of the Memory’, and ‘Priya’, a recent sequel to Paro. Gokhale has worked extensively with Indian myth. She has written ‘The Book of Shiva’ and retold the Mahabharata for young readers. She also co-edited the landmark anthology, ‘In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology’. An edited anthology ‘Travelling In, Travelling Out’ was released in January. One of the founders and a co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival and of ‘Mountain Echoes’, the annual Bhutan Festival, Gokhale is committed to showcasing literature from across the Indian languages. She currently curates ‘Kitaabnama: Books and Beyond’, a multilingual book show on Doordarshan.

Namita Gokhale

For more information, please contact [email protected]