ORANGE CITY LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Mr Farhad Dadyburjor is known to be an amazing conversationist along with an outstanding storyteller and he did not forget to bring those to the table when he joined the conversation with Mr Ruhi Gilder who’s an interesting author herself. The conversation starts around Farhad’s new book, “The Other Man” which is the story of a closeted gay man who is being forced into an arranged marriage in Mumbai. The story in Mr Farhad’s words goes through a Bollywood style rollercoaster where the protagonist has to manage two lives in order to keep things intact and how those two realities come together in order for him to eventually come out to his family and lead to a happy ending. As Mr Farhad points out, he wanted the story to have a happy ending, unlike other famous Gay books that have excellent storylines but often end with a sad climax. Ms Ruhi takes the conversation towards how Mr Farhad developed characters for his new book and that’s when the accomplished author opens up about his struggles with finding relatable literature around his sexuality and how he wanted the characters to be relatable to anyone reading the book. While the protagonist was very much inspired by Mr Farhad himself, the hardest character for him to write was Disha, the girl protagonist is getting married to. As the conversation closes to an end, Mr Farhad and Ms Ruhi find themselves in agreement that “The Other Man” is a breath of fresh air if not more.

After a warm welcome by the anchor, Dr Shakti asks Ms Shylashri about how she came up with the name Turmeric Nation and why she barely talked about turmeric in the book. Ms Shylashri explains that she was looking for a name that represents the entire nation from past to present and is also a defining factor in so many things. That’s how she came up with the idea to name it Turmeric Nation, as turmeric is present in the food across India and was also used by a number of civilizations in the past. As the conversation moves ahead, Ms Shylashri talks about how food defines diversity as well as the culture of India. As geography, religion and culture change with every passing mile on the road, so does the cuisine in unimaginable ways. Ms Shylashri comes up with the example of Khichdi which is cooked in millions of ways across the country but its definition is bringing up a lot of ingredients to make something that’s not only easy to cook but also tastes good. As the conversation on India’s food comes to a conclusion, the session comes to a close.

After a warm welcome by the anchor, Mr Tushar Mulay takes the opportunity to appreciate Ms Ruchira Chaudhary and her work over the years, he requests her to give the viewers an insight into her journey. Ms Ruchira gladly accepts the request and talks about she worked at an advertising agency and how things changed when she moved into the field of HR development and then eventually into leadership development. She also talks about how her journey was not a cakewalk as she had to escape organisations where growth didn’t come about and stagnation was imminent. Mr Tushar is amazed by Ms Chaudhary’s approach to work as a whole and asks her about the idea of her new book. Ms Ruchira tells the viewers that she always wanted to bring to the fore her thoughts and ideas about how coaching can unleash incredible leaders if done in the right way and that’s what the book is about. She goes on to talk about how the book hits the link between coaching and leadership development in a very subtle way. The conversation goes on in the same direction with a few more questions before coming to an end.

Two very charismatic and flamboyant personalities got together and kept everyone hooked with their conversation. The very lively, zestful individual and amazing orator R J Nisha as the moderator of the talk took us into the life journey of the award winning author Mrs Ashwini Devare and her book ‘Always a Foreigner’. The book is the Indian version of her prize winning book ,’Lost at 15, Found at 50’. In which she gives an account of how her life has been spent traversing through various countries witnessing many historical events like the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the student led movement in South Korea. It is a story of how the whole family has together been through the constantly changing circumstances by gracefully adapting to them. Despite all the challenges and difficulties they faced in the foreign lands they managed to keep the patriotism towards their country India alive within them.

After a very warm welcome by the anchor, Mr Naveen Choudhary takes the initiative to appreciate Mr Nishant Jain for his numerous achievements and requests him to talk about how he started working at a very young age and how it led to his love with books and stories in general. Mr Nishant welcomes the viewers with a brief introduction to the topic and then narrates his story of how he was always an avid reader and started working as a proofreader when he was 15. In Mr Jain’s words, he never got a choice when proofreading, thus he ended up reading books from a variety of genres and from a variety of writers. That’s where his thought of diversifying reading habits came from. Working at a young age also gave Mr Jain the liberty to be independent and stand out from the crowd. The conversation rolls on in the same direction with a few more questions and discussions around how a world that’s impressively diverse is better understood by having knowledge in diverse topics thus diversifying reading habits fits well in today’s world, with that conclusion the session comes to a close.

“Bapu always said that he is Sanatani Hindu. Pune in those times were seats of Brahmin supremacy and nationalism. There was a lot behind why Bapu was the target. Bapu was seen as a threat by a Hindu nationalist. If the soft corner for Pakistan was the reason, then there were previous attempts when there was no Pakistan. The support group of Nathuram Godse was Narayan Apte, Ramchandra Badge, Vishnu Karkare, Gopal Godse. V D Savarkar kept himself away from this entire scene very aptly. Without his support, this would not happen; that’s what I think. Nathuram was made gun available by these support groups. It was a massive conspiracy, and Bapu’s murder was beginning. They wanted to create a Fascist Government for the newly formed democracy. The last nine months of his life were opposed by all means. The murder was attempted to frame Muslim refugees. Savarkar was an iconic leader in the Hindu faction. Congress too has a soft corner for Savarkar at that time. The case was not fought properly against the VD Savarkar. He was left out deliberately. Muslims who live there they chose to be here as their motherland. Kasturba met Savarkar because Bapu was denied meeting him. Many people tried to demean Bapu. You can hate or love him, but you can’t ignore him, and he is still very relevant.”

After a warm welcome by the anchor to the third edition of OCLF, Mr Sinha and Mr Prasad talk about how the Indian publishing community was moving into the era of celebrating books and authors which also paved the way for a genre that hasn’t really caught up to the Indian readers yet. Subsequently, Mr Sinha and his co-author Mr Prasad talk about how the characters in the book are inspired by real-life people and scenarios. The book is about how China plans to dominate the world one way or the other and how the pandemic is a part of the same master plan. Both Mr Tuhin and Mr Suraj have managed to weave in reality and fiction in a way that makes them inseparable and hit the right notes at the right time. The conversation continues in the same direction as both the authors talk about curating the characters and how they made them more impactful throughout the narration. An excellent conversation comes to a close with an insightful sneak peek in one of the most appreciated books of the year.

After a warm welcome from the anchor, Mr Utkarsh Majmudar and Mr Kartik Borikar start their conversation on a much-awaited topic by the audience. Mr Borikar starts the conversation by requesting Mr Majmudar to give the audience an insight into his journey which led him to environmental conservation. Mr Majmudar tells the audience how he ended up in environmental conservation from working in the private sector. As per Mr Utkarsh, it’s high time that we start implementing groundbreaking methods to conserve the environment. He talks about how corporations have incredibly massive carbon footprints and how he along with his compatriots calculates these footprints and helps these organisations take actions with a lasting impact. Mr Majmudar talks about why corporates need to be pushed onto a path that eventually leads them to a net-zero carbon footprint to save the planet. And that’s what his new book is about, in which Mr Majmudar talks about net-zero as a concept and its practical implementation in the coming years. With a few more questions on the book, the session comes to a close.

OCLF 2021 witnessed an amazing session on the Importance of Reading among Children and Young Adults by Author and Poet Anoushka Sabnis. She talked about building reading habits and how parents play an important role in helping children start reading. She talked about how reading and setting small achievable goals starts with the parents. The young poet was confident with her answers when asked what changes she would want in the world. She said if she could, she would change the way we see each other. We only see the differences among us, but the world would be a better place if we start seeing each other for our similarities. The session consisted of thrilling questions, rapid-fire, and reading a small excerpt of her book. A fresh take on reading and with so much clarity in her thoughts, Author Anoushka Sabnis hosted a fantastic session at the Orange City Literature Festival 2021!

Two fellow book club members Dr Tarana Hussain Khan and Mr Amitabh Baghel got together to talk about her latest book, ‘The Begum and The Dastan’. Dr Tarana is a cultural-historian from Rampur and has done extensive work in this arena. They start the talk with Mr Amitabh commending her for her outstanding work in this particular work which he himself has read and enjoyed. It is a book about the story of a woman called Feroza Begum who represents all women of the 19th century. It is a tragic, gripping, moving tale of a young woman who gets kidnapped by the Nawab while attending Sawani celebrations for which she has gone against her life. This event proves to be a turning point in her life. Mr Amitabh discusses various aspects about the book and her writings. The session turns out to be a very poetic and pleasant experience for all.