ORANGE CITY LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Nandita Om Puri - Let's talk about Jennifer In conversation with Monica Bhagwagar

In the land of the lovers – a Punjab kissa is a book that tells a story of the ethos of Punjab. The interesting tag line – A Punjab Kissa is based on the genre of storytelling known as the kissa. The other genres are katha, daastaan etc. This book is the debut book of the writer Sakoon Singh and has already made ripples in the literary world. The author wants to bring to the reader the reality of the land of the five rivers. Punjab has its own history, traditions and culture and this book will help the readers experience that in their minds. To add to this the book is also inspired by the genre of kissa which is an Indian genre of storytelling.

This book promises more excellent writing from Sakoon Singh and most of her readers are looking forward to her next book. Just like Laila Majnoo the story of lovers Sassi Punnu is famous in this land and many romantic books have been written inspired by them.

Sfurti Sahare is a multi-talented personality who is a much awarded corporate trainer, motivational speaker and now writer. She has won many awards in India and abroad as well not just for her books, but also for the social activities she organizes. She belongs to Nagpur and from this small city, she studied computer engineering and then changed her profession. She teaches people how to think positively. She is very fond of Dhoni and while watching the world cup she realized that there was something about Dhoni’s personality which Intrigued her. She spent a lot of time thinking about Dhoni and also collecting information about him. She got interested in the thought process of Dhoni which makes him such a winner. India won the world cup in the captaincy of Dhoni and after much ado Sfurti decided to write the book which analyzes Dhoni and his mind set. It took her 3 years to write the book, but now that she has written it many people are benefitting from it.

Panel on - Is Politics Really about serving the Nation ? with Tuhin Sinha, Sanjay Jha, Kingshuk Nag in Conversation with Abeer Kapoor

Shantanu Gupta on Bharatiya Janta Party, Past, present and Future, a story of World's Largest Party In Conversation with Shefali Vaidya

Nandini Sengupta a writer, parvati sharma writer, mogiya Basu writer, Vaibhav Purandare well known for his book on Sachin Tendulkar, moderator Naveen Chaudhary. This is the team discussing hisorical fiction. This webinar is based on how different writers write historical fiction not to narrate history but to present your own frame of mind through written words. Usually writers who write historical fiction are the ones who are already interested in history. Sometimes some particular thing inspires them. For instance Nandita Sengupta was inspired to write historical fiction after she visited the Ajanta and Ellora caves near Mumbai.S

She researched the story of these caves and then studied history as a hobby. This is usually the case with most historical fiction writers. Most Indian historical fiction writers get their characters from Indian history for instance the story of Salim and Anarkali which everyone knows about. Even characters like Laxmi bai Queen of Jhansi, Bajirao and Mastani etc. are the movies inspired by real life historical characters.

Chanakya also known as Kautilya is considered to be a great thinker, a king maker and foremost as an excellent teacher. If you consider the important things in life then education comes first according to Chanakya. In fact according to the author even Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam had the same opinion because he once said that he wanted to be known as a teacher. Dr. Pillai points out the significance of education by saying that if you don’t have good education you will not be respected. You may have money power etc. but only education can get you respect. The other thing that Chanakya Neeti propounds is to be a good listener. Dr. Radhakrishnan says that listening is very important and people love listeners. Good leaders are always good listeners as they understand what is happening to the last man. The third lesson of Chanakya Neeti is to understand your own super power.

Harsh Madhusudan and Rajeev Mantri have jointly written this book. It portrays India as a growing nation. As Rajeev puts in strongly that India was not born in 1947, but is an ancient country which has a rich culture and ability to become a world force. The current times are such that there is a social transformation is happening in the country. Unfortunately there are communal forces which have become more active, and therefore have created some unrest in the Indian society. Still however, India and its leadership needs to pull its weight as a powerful country not just in the region of South Asia, but across the world. The writers consider that the recent communalism can hamper the growth of the country and there should be a one law for one country situation where people from all religions can live in harmony in the country. This will add fuel to the development of the country and make it a world recognized power that it is.

Anushree Kaushal questions Jahnvi Barua about her latest novel, Undertow. This book is about a young girl of 25 who goes to Assam to look for her family on the father’s side. Her mother was shunned by her father’s family because she belonged to a different culture. Of course, Loya who is the young girl we are talking about pretends that she wants material for her thesis but the real reason is to get back to her roots. In the process she develops a strong bond with her grandfather and both learn from each other, Anushree asks Jahnvi about her style of writing which is very simple. Jahnvi says that this kind of writing comes very naturally to her and actually it is very difficult to be simple in any literary work. She very closely relates to the character of Loya and says that in a way it is her own sense of a family that brought about this book, because she grew up in a joint family.

Ajay Shah - The Art & Science of Economic Policy in Conversation with Kautilya Chajjed