Report by Balasubramanyan Shridharan
Uttarakhand : To celebrate International Women’s Day, The Booknerds team organized an all Women Writer’s Hangout at Dehradun to honour women excelling in literature from across India and to discuss women voices in publishing.
The session was moderated by social entrepreneur Aloka Niyogi.The panel comprises of Gauri Mittal, Harshali Singh, Madhulika Liddle, Tanuja Sharma aka Meera, Anita Krishan and Veena Nagpal.
Rohan Raj, Co-founder of “The Booknerds” initiated the session by familiarizing the audience with “The Booknerds” and its literary endeavors.
The books up for discussion were `Despite Stolen Dreams’ by Anita Krishan,`After Annhilation’ by Gauri Mittal,`Woman to Woman:Stories’ by Madhulika Liddle,`Radius 200’ by Veena Nagpal, `The Anatomy of Choice’ by Harshali Singh and `Tumhari Meera’ by Meera Naveli.
Aloka began with briefing the audience about the history and relevance of International Women’s Day.
She talked about how the feminist movement began when the first movement for women voting rights began in America and Europe.
Anita Krishan,the author of “Despite Stolen Dreams”,a story set in Kashmir Valley and a group of terrorists.She spoke of common man’s woes in the valley due to prolonged terrorists activities.She said that only love and brotherhood can end this menace.
A young budding writer,Gauri Mittal,a doctor by profession talked about striking a balance between medical carrier and her passion for writing.
“Radius 200” is a novel about aftermath of nuclear attack.The author of the book Veena Nagpal said she had to put three years in research to write the book.
When the questions were raised about “feminism”,almost all writers expressed it as “humanism” rather than “feminism”.
The authors were inquired about how publishing in India is developing and what positive and negative changes it has gone through?The authors provided their inputs while discussing their own preferences and struggles.
Wrapping up with a quick question-answer session in which many budding authors talked about the problems they are facing in the industry.
Neha Raj, Co-founder of “The Booknerds”, presented mementos to the authors and the event concluded with a book signing session.
