Guest Author Sumana Roy grew up as a small-town girl from Siliguri who longed for her city to be in the limelight and in the national news. But that rarely happened. This, she later came to realize, was a blessing in disguise and she liked Siliguri for its “remarkable ordinariness”.
The invitees to the 55th session of An Author’s Afternoon with Guest Author Joshua Pollock were in for a spiritual experience with a 10 minutes of meditation under the author’s guidance. The purpose was to set the pace for the session for his book which deals with a subject that is purely experiential in nature.
Being an author is no big deal. You must have in you a story to tell and tell it in style, the language and creatives and marketing will follow. Debutante author Tony V Francis was lucky to come into contact with ace director Raj Kumar Hirani of Munna Bhai MBBS, 3Idiots and PK fame, who had advised him that each chapter of his book should make the reader laugh, cry or tell a compelling drama that would keep them interested and whet their appetite for more.
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.