The 63rd Session of An Authors’s Afternoon turned out to be a very touching session with Co-Authors Reshma Qureshi and Tania Singh. Social activist Agnimitra Paul was in conversation with both the authors and Reshma, who spoke in Hindi, shared her life’s tragic heart-wrenching experience of being an acid attack survivor. She refuses to think herself as a victim and tells everyone her story of how she survived the incident.
Shashi Deshpande was the first octogenarian guest author so far at An Author’s Afternoon. A recipient of Padmashree, Shashi’s deep knowledge and experience stood out as she shared her views on many topics of human interest. She was in conversation with Professor DebnitaChakravartiwho is very well familiar with the format of the session as a conversationalist.
61st session of An Author’s Afternoon with author, essayist, poet and playwright Anita Nair was a lively session. Anita carved out a niche writing crime fiction and women-oriented stories.
The 60th session of An Authors Afternoon with author, famous nutritionist and weight management consultant, Kavita Devgan, revealed many wise-dining tips to take home for the audience. Conversationalist Esha Dutta came well prepared. Her questions elicited many answers regarding food and diet that many of us have from time.
59th AAA with Guest Author IsaqueBagwan in conversation with Dinesh Vajpai. Action thrillers always appeal to the audience but real-life action is far more attractive than the tinsel version. It was a thrilling Author’s Afternoon session at The Souk, Taj Bengal, with top ex-cop IsaqueBagwan. The entire session was pickled with interesting anecdotes from his life experience as a top cop who spent over three-and-half decades combating crime.
The 58th session of An Author’s Afternoon welcomed Assamese poet and author Rita Chowdhury whose life has been a saga of struggles. The lady got into political activism early in life. After much socio-political turmoil and a few deaths of near ones, including that of her sister, transformed her view towards life.
It was a smooth ride into the 57th session of An Author’s Afternoon with doctor-turned-author Dominic Franks. He began his career as a medical practitioner but called it quits to become an author. But writing a book is not an easy task, he soon realised. However, the adventurer in him bailed him out.
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.
