A riveting hour-long session with Kishalay Bhattacharjee – journalist, professor, author, documentary film maker and social activist – was barely enough to get a feel of his illustrious life. It was obvious the 53rd session of An Author’s Afternoon on 24 February 2018, presented by Shree Cement, took more than its usual allotted time.
The 52nd An Author’s Afternoon session presented by Shree Cement was the first one in 2018 with the very multifaceted Dr Kusum Ansal as the guest author. With someone who has authored 32 books including short stories, travelogues, novels, autobiography and plays there was no dearth of topics to discuss. Dr Lavlin Thadani, chairperson of Muskan Productions, who has pioneered many breakfast shows and anchored innumerable shows and whom Dr Ansal fondly calls “Chutki” was the conversationalist for the session. Needless to say they were on the same wavelength right from the word go.
The 51st An Author’s Afternoon series added some antique flavor with a written portrait of Bengal community – ‘The Bengalis’ – by journalist-author Sudeep Chakravarti.
The 50th session of An Author’s Afternoon presented by Shree Cement with Sujata Prasad and special invitee Sonal Mansingh was a big affair. The venue was shifted to the Taj Terrace to accommodate 120 plus special invitees to mark the Golden Jubilee session held on 29th November 2017. Eminent Kolkatans turned up in strength for the session which began a tad late at 6 pm as planned.
The 49th session of An Author’s Afternoon was all about an ordinary girl’s extra-ordinary life. Sister Nivedita formed the crux of the discussion at the session sponsored by Shree Cement and organized by Prabha Khaitan Foundation in association with t2, Taj Bengal and Siyahi.
An Author’s Afternoon on September 6, 2017 hosted Neelima Dalmia Adhar in a candid conversation with Supriya Newar at Taj Bengal, Kolkata. The session was presented by Shree Cement and organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation.
The 47th session of An Author’s Afternoon on 12 August 2017 had Himanjali Sankar, a local Kolkata girl, as the Guest Author. She was in a tete-a-tete with Swati Gautam in a power-packed discussion that touched upon serious topics and issues like patriarchy, feminism, teenagers, relationships and dementia.
Writing, self publishing and marketing one’s own book at the age of 24 is quite an achievement. Savi Sharma, the 46th guest author the An Author’s Afternoon session, is a one-woman army who was in conversation with Nilisha Agarwal. Her books Everyone Has A Story and This is Not Your Story has brought her success and helped her garner a huge fan base on the social media.
A high dose of cricket and a modicum of Bollywood marked the 45th session of An Author’s Afternoon with Guest Author, Devendra Prabhudesai. Former cricketer Raju Mukherjee engaged Devendra in tell-all conversation.
It was all smiles when a dark-haired portly gentleman from southern India perched himself on the Guest Author’s chair at the 44th session of An Author’s Afternoon. His lively presence and contagious sense of humour made Anand Neelakantan the darling of the audience. He was in conversation with Esha Chatterjee.