Book Nook: Chandigarh saw three book releases this week

Bittu Safeena Sandhu’s anthology of poetry, ‘Sonasha’, was released here today at the CII, Chandigarh. The book is her third poetry book and second written in Hindi. A unique element of the function was dancer Suchitra Mitra’s Bharatanatyam performance, who synchronised her moves and her nuances with Bittu’s poetry, with Subhash Ghosh playing the nav swar raginee. Journalist and filmmaker, Balpreet was in conversation with Sandhu on her latest work. Talking about her book, Sandhu said, “My book is on human relations during every phase of life. For example, the strange behaviour of a mother, like her being concerned about her children, her continuously thinking about any strange situation happening around her and other similar feelings.” This is Sandhu’s third book, her first in Hindi – Safeena and her second book in Punjabi – Sadhran and her poetry talks of human relations in all forms. Sandhu has an NGO – Rani Breast Cancer Trust – to create awareness about breast cancer and help poor patients. Sandhu said that her (author’s) share of the proceeds of the book will go to Rani Breast Cancer Trust.

Risham Raag Singh, Ripudaman Singh Roop, Ranjivan Singh (Left to Right)

Too queer to be true

Sejal Marwaha

‘The purple Couch’ is released at a time when India is in the midst of a controversy whether same-sex marriages should be made legal or not. Written by Dr. Sunaina Sindhwani a Canada- based clinical nutritionist and skin specialist, the book makes a bold attempt to go to the roots to prope what kind of psychological traumas a person goes through when their choices are at odds in a society which accepts only conventional man-woman love. The protagonist of the novel, which is based on a real-life story, is a girl named Tina who is unable to define her love choices and is forever threatened by the fear that she will never be accepted as she is. She believes that queer people are more exploited than others in search of affection and due to emotional fragility. As the book says, “I was just like anybody else. An eight-year-old child who couldn’t define her love choices. It was too hard for me…I couldn’t find my place in a society that only accepts conventional love. I am a woman who struggled most of my life to define my love choices. Am I going to be accepted as I am?” The book is dedicated to the LGBTQ community and Dr. Sunaina says, “Acceptance matters the most to people of this community and I strive to bring sensitisation a notch higher. I also believe it’s very important to ignite parental support in the process of acceptance,” the author believes that it is a mutual process where both the people who claim to have different worlds need to be patient and trust the process. Queer activist Maninderjit Singh was a special guest at the book launch, and he shared his opinion on what it meant to be gay in India in general and macho Punjab in particular. “Patriarchy gets an upper hand when it comes to queer rights, it’s difficult to make a smooth road for queer people but films and books make it a little easier, I would love to see more books in my mother tongue.”

The Purple Couch book launch

All in the family

In a unique event, three advocates, all from the same family, Ripudaman Singh Roop (88), his son Ranjivan Singh (52) and his grandson Risham Raag Singh (23), practicing in the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh, launched their books on the same platform this week. Roop’s Punjabi novel titled Preeti revolves around the struggle and revolt by the protagonist against the emergence of gangs in educational institutes, Ranjivan’s poetry collection Surkh Hawawaan touches contemporary social issues and Risham’s compilation of lyrics Iktarfa explores the depth of human emotions. The authors gave credit of their works to the literary legacy of Santokh Singh Dhir, National Sahitya Akademi Awardee (1996), elder brother of Roop and Giani Ishar Singh Dard, folk-poet, father of Roop.