ORANGE CITY LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Literature is the reflection of the life in all its varied forms and shapes. Literature is the mirror to life and society. It depends upon the writer where he places the mirror. From time to time writers have been exploring the various dimensions of the relationship between man and society. Every age has its own compulsions, tensions, fears aspirations and logic which characterize the works of that time. Novel emerges as a powerful medium to present the age in a descriptive and analytical manner. It represents the social, political, cultural and historical growth of society at a great length. Literature and history are intimately linked with each other. The modern Indian English writers are representing the historical incidents and events in their works time and again. It is difficult for a writer to escape the major historical events. Historical events and momentous happenings are one such domain, which are truly mirrored in literature, mostly through treatises, essays and novels.

Indian English fiction has always been responsive to the changes in material reality and theoretical perspectives. At the earlier stage the fictional works of the writer like Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan And Raja Rao were mainly concerned with the down- trodden of the society, the Indian middle class life and the expression of traditional cultural ethos of India. Then writers like Kamala Markandaya, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Chaman Nahal, Ruth Pawar Jhabvala, Nayantara Sahgal, Arun Joshi and Khushwant Singh wrote about the themes related to social reality of the times. Their views were not only related to the study of external reality, the psychological reality expressed through different characters formed another aspect of fictional works.

Public speaking, seen in universal perspective, arrived late in India. There was a time lag of two thousand years between the first documented speech in the West (Greece) and that in India.

The rise of speechmaking in nineteenth century India was a sort of revolution. It transformed her national life, giving it a modern outlook. The matrix of power in the ancient or medieval times did not allow persuasion. There was no concept of shaping a collective future. Force, rather than reasoning, was the instrument of change.

I never feel that I am a “woman” filmmaker; may be I never recognized or gave any importance to the fact that I was a woman and a filmmaker. I think I am very blessed and lucky but I never take myself too seriously. Even when I was called for the “Femina Power List – South” awards, I first thought it was a joke. I was like what I am doing in the midst of people like Sudha Murthy, Arundhathi Nag and others; these are achievers, what I am doing here!! My mother wanted to come with me to the awards function but I did not get her as I thought it was some kind of joke somebody was playing on me. I did not set out to get awards or anything and feels that God has been kind to her. I though am happy to get them, I think they are incidental to what I am doing and I did not set out to get this. I am just too happy in my space.

There is no advice to be given to women wanting to get into films; if they want to get into it, they will and nobody can stop them. These are the only kinds who can get into films, if that is you’re calling that are the bug in your system, your passion, you will be there. People who are passionate about something don’t listen to anyone. It is not your job, it is your life. There’s nothing else. If people are coming in with advice they won’t last, they will only last with passion. Only advice is “If you want to do it, just do it.

Gauri Sawant- LGBT community is seeing light the end of the tunnel. Discrimination persists and anti-discrimination laws are absent in work places. This, clearly, is a reminder that while 6 September 2018 is historic, it is more about basic rights. It's not about equity or equality, but more an allowance to have sex. Several activists and lawyers within the community felt that the right to own and inherit property, nominate their same-sex partners on hospital and insurance forms, and receive legal recognition of same sex relationships and marriage were areas that needed urgent attention.

Manvendra Singh Gohil- After these years of overturn of Section 377 criminalizing same-sex relationships, the fight for equality is far from over. India's LGBT community has marked the anniversary with a call to for civil rights for gay couples – though marriage equality is not the immediate priority. The country embarks upon another year of freedom for same-sex couples, discrimination remains and progress has been slow. The anniversary still called for celebrations to commemorate the ground-breaking and unanimous decision of India’s Supreme Court on 6 September last year, which decriminalized homosexuality in the socially and politically conservative society. All this while, this law was used to discriminate and harass us. But we can now be free and step outside without fear. In the past year, we have got to do, now we want to be.

Nandita Om Puri- Petitions pertaining to reservations for trans-persons in government jobs and educational institutions, and seeking the formation of transgender welfare boards, among other things, are in the works. Just last month, the country got its first dedicated hiring consultancy firm for the members of the LGBT community. At present, even after the change in law, the community lags behind their Western counterparts in attaining equal pay, corporate representation and other benefits. And unfriendly policies towards businesses that cater to LGBT consumers have led to huge loss.

Naveen Choudhary - We says that violence increases, is it or it was happening before with same extent we are getting know it frequently due to social media ? We may say what happen in 2002 was wrong but what about 1984? That too was bad. People take side according to their ideology. Those who says Terrorism has no religion talk about Bhagwa Atankwad, how this is happening? People are divided and perhaps we can’t do much about it. We always gets slips to wrong path while raising issues, that’s huge problem. It seems being divided is in human nature. That why we need middle path.

Purushottam Agrawal - Everyone is born blind in politics. Our country is divided society where horrible trends are visible. Many issues are being faced by country like pollution, political murders, job issues and many other. Violence among them is a worst crisis we are facing. When anywhere crime happen we must not look at caste, creed or religion of victim or criminal but let the legal process complete due process. Thinking and conscience is important for any healthy society. Science and technology should be our priority for welfare of people then unnecessary expenses. Our “Budhhi” should get hurt than our “Bhavna” which is more important for any society to awaken.

Prerna Bindra - The empirical study in the paper ascertains that the developed regions are developed due to advancement in Industrial sector. This, however, is the prime reason for migration of adept class of society to developed region leaving rest of the region poorer. This puts extra burden on the developed city’s infrastructure. Hence Backwash (Myrdal) effect could be seen in in developed Nagpur district of Vidarbha region primarily due to Industrial development policies.

Upliftment of Folk and Village Cuisine - Chef Parminder Bali with Ravishankar Mishra

Acharya Chanakya says that one should not be too honest because trees are cut first and honest person is killed first.Friends here, through this statement Acharya Chanakya wants to say that one should not be more honest because this world is full of deceit. Most people in the world cannot do any wrong thing unless they get a chance to do so. An honest person treats all people honestly but those who cheat are the first ones. Acharya Chanakya has told us the greatest Guru Mantra in this statement.

He says we should never tell our Secrets to anyone. If you cannot keep your Secrets secret, do not expect others to keep them secret. The habit of telling your Secrets to others can ruin you. Everyone wants to share his secret things with some friend or close relative. We should befriend good people thoughtfully and do not trust anyone too much. Due to more trust,we tell our friends our Secrets, which they can take advantage of and harm us. He has told us that behind every friendship there is some self-interest. There is no friendship in which there is no self-interest

And this is a bitter truth. Most people befriend you for their selfishness. When you make new friends, you do not know what their interest behind that friendship is. If you pay a little attention, then you will know what your friends want from you and gradually their self-interest will come in front of you. We should befriend good people thoughtfully and do not trust anyone too much. Due to more trust, we tell our friends our Secrets, which they can take advantage of and harm us.

The inspiration of the book came from my daughter who once jokingly said that she can write a book on me. She gave me some ideas about what she would include and I got enough material to take from. Parents have too much expectation from children to be perfect though they are not and no parent can be perfect. The perfect parent is a myth. The age of parenting is equal to what the children’s age and there is no training to be a parent. There is also no such thing as successful parents. On the go, everyone has to change themselves according to time and it changes everything. Parents must update themselves regularly to keep sync with children. Children have a right to an opinion so if they speak back it doesn’t necessarily mean they are disrespecting. In personal parents may or do scold their offspring but the same way in general scenario they endorsed their children too. Children must understand that. Parents find their childhood perfect

(which is not actually) and try to convey the same to children to be spotless which is a bit exaggerative. The parent is synonymous with Patience and if you lack patience you can’t be a parent. A parent needs to be learning always expressing themselves as they want without hesitation as it would help to accommodate their children. Constructive Communication needed between parents and offspring to look through what children are doing. Maintenance of transparency and a friendly conversation needed to maintain peace among parents and children. The parent must listen to their children without judging them. Asking for stability in children’s life is an oasis in the desert. Parents must correct their fault line before changing their offspring lives.

Vaibhav Purandare- Writing history gets you in the habit of synthesizing large quantities of material. Evidence must be gathered and prioritized. General thesis statements must be fashioned from the evidence at hand. You begin to learn about the general topic upon which you are writing as well as several topics which appear on the peripheries of your topic. Take charge of your efforts to do history. Gain as much confidence as you can.Develop your own historical perspective. Remember, the study of history and the writing of history is not a passive response to the historical past. No, it is much more than that. History involves the active engagement of your life with all life. The pastness of the past is the key to the present.

Ashutosh nadkar - Writing history will help you learn history. We have already discussed the importance of becoming actively engaged in the subject of history. What better way to do so than to actually do it? In other words, writing about history means a personal involvement with history and this will necessarily produce a greater understanding of history, a good thing in itself!

P K Agrawal - Writing history will force you to understand history to a much greater degree. Listening to a lecture, or viewing a film, or reading a monograph or taking part in a class discussion is one thing. But writing about this "experience" will demonstrate your general understanding of history. As you write, you demonstrate evidence. You produce a logical argument. However, there are also times when writing allows you to express your confusion regarding a particular idea, event or thing. Writing allows to you to bring that confusion to the surface and hopefully, you'll be able to answer your own question. At the very least, you'll be able to show that something needs to be more fully explored.

I was born in Bhavanipeth in Pune as Ganesh Sawant, as a police officer's son, being raised in an even more masochistic environment than normal, in the sarkari quarters. My mother didn't want me to come into this world, and even tried to get an abortion in the seventh month. But the doctor told her that this baby was now so evolved and strong that one couldn’t destroy her even if she were slammed against a wall. It was into such yes-and-no back-and-forth circumstances that I was born, so I also turned out with an equally confused gender identity.

My behavior was so effeminate that anybody and everybody would make fun of me, calling me names. Dad would fire bullets at work and come home to a son that everyone made fun of. He was not always like this. When I was young, like every other father, he would take me on bike rides and love me equally. But there has never been any discourse in my family about sexuality, gender etc.; they were not sensitized at all. Once, my father told me, ‘Tu road pe taali bajaate ghoomega’. It hurt me a lot. This other time, when I called him for some work, my 'hello' itself was different, so he told me, ‘Kya hijre jaisa baat karta hai ’ (why do you talk like a eunuch?) So, I never answered the phone when he would call.

While adopting Gayatri I didn’t know that I would become a mother, that I would raise her and be narrating my story one day. Now I’m working with 1,000 to 2,000 people for sensitization about their legal rights and STDs, is actively involved in the running of a shelter for young Trans-individuals who are turned away by family.