Defiant Dreams: Tales of Everyday Divas Book Launch in Kolkata
Defiant Dreams: Tales of Everyday Divas Book Launch in Kolkata
Dear Bookworms,
We appreciate when book lovers share their experiences with us. Sharing their inspirations about a book and the people behind a creative piece of work gives us the hope that books are still thriving in our world. We hope you will enjoy this personal experience as much as we did.
Of “No Vanilla Women” and a Lot of Incredibleness by
Dr. Amit Shankar Saha
Women have long
been objectified by the male gaze and let me do the same here but with a
difference. I shall use the gaze as a deconstructionist’s critical tool and try
to make it the agency of the subaltern called women much like how women’s body
has been used as an ecriture for their subjectivity. So I excuse those who do
not have a literary bent of mind to from further reading to avoid affront to
their sensibility or lack of it. There was a nip in the air and so the berets
were out. A black one caressed the auburn head of the young poet Joie Bose, who
exuded warmth that the grey cardigan hugging her pink dress desperately tried
to contain. She was one of the panelists for discussion on the book launched.
Beside her, looking no less stunning in a green sari but with a nervous mixture
of coyness and confidence, was Rhiti Bose, the Founder and Chief Editor of IWI.
On the other end, to the right of the audience, sat the Creative Editor of IWI,
Lopa Banerjee, looking like a sweet brew of coffee in a brown sari. 
Next
to her was the eminent author of many books, the latest being Ballad of Bapu,
and one of the contributors of the anthology under discussion, Santosh Bakaya,
who looked fetching in green with a prim bob cut. She was followed in the
seating order by the noted filmmaker and social activist Anindita Sarbadhicari,
whose black bindi complimented her black dress perfectly. And in the
middle in pastel patches of red and black sat the moderator Rakhi Chakrabarty,
the Assistant Editor of The Times of India. Apart form the panelists there were
other contributors of the volume present too. There were Paulami DuttaGupta, in
black and red dress from Nagaland paired with red and gold beaded necklace from
Meghalaya, Debosmita Nandy, sparkling in a pink sari with a golden border,
Radhika Maira Tabrez, in a vanilla diffused blue dress, and Anirban Nanda, one
of the three male contributors to find a place in the volume, in a pale white
shirt. They either read extracts from the book or narrated their experiences
about the “no vanilla women” they wrote about. 
What transpired
amongst the panelists in the next hour or so could have been found in the first
page of a newspaper delineating the struggles of a nineteen year old girl in
Kashmir while overcoming drug addiction and starting an orphanage; or the
inside page of a newspaper portraying a girl in the North-East trying to come
to terms with the mental trauma caused by the army’s AFSPA and the ULFA’s
insurgency; or could be heard from a housemaid of how she escaped her
traffickers, made herself economically independent and now wants to go back to
her village; or could be experienced first hand in the dusty paths of Basirhat,
where regularly parents are duped with promises of work or marriage to
virtually sell off their teenage daughters; or could be an anecdote about an
acid attack victim and her convicted perpetrator attaining realization and
turning over a new leaf; or it could just happen among one’s family and
friends, where a widow from a foreign shore brings her husband’s ashes to her
in-laws, whom she has never met; or it could be found in the cancer ward of a
hospital where a woman defies the deadly disease to live again; it could very
well be surreptitiously seen behind closed doors of so-called respectable
people of society where gender identity becomes pronounced. I could write about
how Rakhi Chakrabarty and other panelists spoke about the vulnerability of
women and their fortitude. I could also write about how Readomania founder
Dipankar Mukherjee and resident editor Indrani Ganguly brought Rhiti and Lopa’s
vision into a reality. But those things I have already written about during the
cover reveal event of the book.
Rather I will
love to write, perhaps still with a male gaze, about the bonhomie shared by
friends meeting for the first time after a long acquaintance in the virtual
world. I will love to write about the literary bond I share with Lopa. I will
love to write about the warmth with which Rhiti welcomes me. I will love to
write about how Lopa, despite being settled in Dallas, Texas, still calls
Kolkata her home, even though each time she comes here she has a bout of
Laryngitis. I will love to write about
how Rhiti stalked some of my friends in the virtual world to bring out the extra-ordinariness of their apparently ordinary lives for IWI.
I will love to
write about the sparkle in Santosh Bakaya’s eyes as she penned her autograph in
my copy of the book. I will love to write about how Mona and Sushroota pursued
me with their cordial invitations for the event. I will love to write how and
why Sufia made me write about this event. I will love to write how Joie gave me
a lift in her car amidst goodbyes at the end of the programme. But all these
are personal musings and I will restrain myself here. Maybe someday there will
be one more nip in the air and I will revisit this event, probably without
being a voyeur and without a deconstructionist’s agenda, and the incredibleness
of it all will engulf me once more and make me write again. Till then my best
wishes are with Defiant Dreams.
Bio: Dr. Amit
Shankar Saha is a scholar, critic, poet and writer. He has a PHD in English
from Calcutta University. His research articles have appeared in anthologies
and journals both in India and abroad, prominently in the journals of Purdue
University (USA), Drew University (USA), Bordeaux University (France), BHU
(India), etc. He was a guest lecturer in the distance education center of Madras
University and is currently pursuing postdoctoral research. He is also the
co-founder and coordinator of Rhythm Divine Poets group. He has won a number of
creative writing competitions too.
Do read this wonderful book and if we like you review we will publish it in Being Bookworms..
Keep reading that love called books
His website is
http://sites.google.com/site/amitshankarsaha and he blogs at
http://amitss6.blogspot.com
Thank you for such wonderful coverage.
ReplyDeleteYour welcome Anirban...keep writing:)
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