Bonding over books

“At Doon School,we were told that a room without books is a body without soul and we seem to have achieved nirvana today,’’ Badal said as he recalled how in early childhood,books were his constant companions in the village,as there were no other means of recreation. Biographies,history,the freedom struggle.

Badal talked about his favourite subjects and how books on these topics had shaped his convictions and had given him strength. He read a passage from ‘How The Steel Was Tempered’,“a book that changed the way I thought. And then of course,growing up in Punjab had us influenced by poets like Baba Bulleh Shah,Iqbal,Faiz.’’ The love for reading,he added,was the biggest gift any parent could give to a child and workshops and meets like these were a boon for writers and readers. The session was followed by Dr Rana Nayar and Neelkamal Puri in conversation on the topic ‘Writers Plenty’. The writers and academicians discussed how young writers in smaller cities were making inroads into the field of literature,with new writing emerging from regional social,political economic situations.

Sanjana Roy Chaudhary of Amaryllis Publishing,Khushwant Singh author and columnist,and Akash Banerjee,a television journalist and writer,had interesting outlooks on the fiction vs reality debate and how the lines were blurring in both fiction and journalism.

Authors Rahul Saini of ‘Those Small Little Things Unsaid’,Durjoy Dutta,who has written ‘Of course I love you.’ and Sudeep Nagarkar of ‘Few things Left Unsaid’ talked about their new works. City-based,young authors Nikhil Mukhija and Hardik Dhamija had an informal talk with Harsh Aggarwal of the Fountain Pen Guild,as Nirupama Dutt and Arvinder Kaur ended the packed day with Two Languages,Two Worlds.

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