📣 For more lifestyle news, click here to join our WhatsApp Channel and also follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
On a coldcold December night, the library at Delhi’s Max Mueller Bhavan gleamed like a warm jewel amid the frosty gardens. The event was the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize presentation.
Over a talk with journalist and author Aman Sethi, Mohan spoke about her experience in writing the novel, a process which took five years. She recalled how her narrators came to trust her only over time and after much persistence and how her love for fiction helped her write the non-fiction book. “I don’t think I can ever write fiction because I don’t think I have the kind of imagination needed. But yes, fiction helped me imagine the scenarios my narrators found themselves in and imagine myself in similar situations; this helped me frame the correct and most revealing questions to ask them,” said Mohan.
This year’s prize was perhaps the most inclusive, with categories ranging from fiction, non-fiction and even graphic novels. Jeet Thayil, while noting that three of the novels were based in Delhi, said, “India is still a nation in the making and we remain in a state of flux; a single narrative cannot transcribe our nation.”
The jury for this year’s prize comprised Pakistani author and journalist Mohammed Hanif, South Korean-American writer Krys Lee and graphic novelist Samhita Arni.
