The 75th session of An Author’s Afternoon was a storytelling session of a young girl in pre-independent Calcutta. The story revolved around Bangladeshi Author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed’s book “Dust Under her Feet”. She was in conversation with Esha Chatterjee. The protagonist of her book, Yasmine, a heartthrob of city’s nightclub scene seizes a lifetime opportunity when the US sets up a large army base in Burma to fight the Japanese during the 40s.
The 74th session of An Author’s Afternoon with Christopher C Doyle opened up a world of fantasy and mythology which forms the core of his novels. A large number of young guests in the audience lapped it up.
The 73rd session of An Author’s Afternoon with Madhavi Menon transported the audience to a different realm of gods, goddesses, mythology, tantra, sufism and so on – as reflected in her book Infinite Variety: A history of desire in India.
An Author’s Afternoon was taken by a storm on 19th September 2019 by the author of ‘Feisty at Fifty’, Sudha Menon, who bowled over her audience with her unpretentious, folksy disposition. Sudha Menon had everyone eating out of her hand from the moment the session commenced and she lodged into various episodes of this phase in her life. The ladies were all ears for her to share the woeful and not so woeful state of affairs of the much apprehended 50’s. Sudha was in conversation with Kolkata’s Ehsaas woman Esha Dutta who was already drooling over the book.
The 71st AAA with veteran journalist Sandeep Bhushan was a telling account of the evolution of news media in India. Through a hard, unbiased look into his own profession, he recounted the genesis and stranglehold of state-owned Doordarshan to the influx of private news agencies in the post liberalisation era.
Motivational speaker Rashmi Bansal shared some inspiring life-stories about entrepreneurship with the guest audience at the 70th session of An Authors Afternoon. Conversationalist, Hari Subramanium, helped the listeners to get at the very heart of Bansal’s book “Shine Bright” discussed at length.
The young, sparkling author of three best sellers – ‘The Deliberate Sinner’, ‘Mistress of Honour’, ‘Love Bi the Way’ enthralled the audience at the 69th AAA. The latest book “Undaunted” was at the centre of discussion. This book, considered a tribute to Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz, who was in the hit list of Indian Mujahidin, was brutally murdered by the terrorists.
Reputed journalist duo and clandestine couple, Seema Goswami and Vir Sanghvi, were candid at the 68th session of An Author’s Afternoon when they talked about Indian politics pickled with wit and humour. The tete-a-tete began on an informal romantic note on how Kolkata and Taj Bengal played a key role as their relationship came of age.
The audience at the 67th Author’s Afternoon in this election season got a high dose of politics and ideological narrative from journalist-turned-politician guest author Ashutosh. Not that it was unexpected since his book “Hindu Rashtra” is a telling account of changes sweeping across India seen from the eyes of a journalist with political leanings. Ashutosh took 48 hours to quit his 23-year-old job as a journalist to join the Aam Aadmi Party in 2013. He quit politics and his party in 2016 since “it lacked moral capital”.
Namita Devidayal2nd March 2019 An Author’s Afternoon is providing a platform to meet and interact with a new wave authors. Kolkata-born journalist and author, Namita Devidayal, is one such writer who livened up the 66th Edition of An Author’s Afternoon in conversation with famous Manipuri danseuse Priti Patel. Namita’s first book “The Music Room” is…
Lahore-born Sunita Kohli’s heart beats for Lucknow where she grew up and went to a Roman Catholic Convent. She gained prominence as a furniture designer and also pursued an eventful career as an archaeological restorer of prominent heritage buildings of India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
A riveting hourlong session with Lord Meghnad Desai – British economist, politician, author and renowned columnist but very much an Indian at heart – seemed too little to get a full feel of Lord Desai’s ideas and thoughts.
The 64th session with Lord Desai went beyond the allotted time. Though an author of many books, conversationalist Esha Dutta focused mainly only his latest thought-provoking book “Raisina Model” which deals with the subject of high politics. Lord Desai, a Modi admirer-turned-critique shared his views on India – past, present and future.
