(An Article by Dipankar Mukhopadhyay)
The official launch of a book that has never been hyped, yet the assemblage, however thin it appeared, geared up to a burbling intellectual discourse over a sensitive issue like society and the other sex, made one respectful!
This was exactly the ambience in a soothing weekend evening (18th of October, 2014) at STORY (located at 8, Elgin Road, Calcutta – 20) where Kiriti Sengupta’s latest book The Reverse Tree had formally been opened up to his readers. AHAVA communications had been the event manager, and the launch was followed by an in-depth discussion on a sensitive subject like ‘society and the third-sex.’ Among the panelists the presence of a representative from the transgender community, Madhuja, had raised the discussion to a naturalistic degree! It was a rare privilege to know in detail the real-life stories of the struggling transsexuals in India right from the horse’s mouth! The discussion also took a plunge into ancient history and tried to scoop up transsexual activities in those days!
The author also spoke about his book and his inspiration at length. As the book partly deals with transsexuals, Sengupta highlighted a few words on the subject too. In his speech he was all in praise of his mother as she has been a paramount importance in his life!
The evening hit its core as the author enacted a few lines from one of the poems from the book in order to elicit his Nelson Mandela patch, and thus, he created a gigantic roar against acute racism. Sengupta posed a question to the moderator, Mona Sengupta, to know her views on racism. According to the panelists that comprised of the famous poet and essayist Dr. Sharmila Ray, image consultant Saira Shah Halim, LGBT activist Madhuja and Pawan Dhall, the book, which is said to be written mostly in ‘agony,’ is power packed to keep the readers alive ecstatically! The event ended with an important take as the author put forward, “Struggles come much later. Challenges surface much later, and in life agony is agony. Agony is pain. With every book that I wrote it only added up. Agony tears my soul apart.”
Infibeam and Spectralhues have been the online partners of event.
Book Details:-
Author: | Kiriti Sengupta | ||
Publisher: | Moments Publication | Language: | English |
ISBN-13: |
9789384180775
|
Cover: | Paperback, Hardcover |
MRP: | Rs. 160 | Year of Publication: |
2014 |
Buy From: | Infibeam.com, Flipkart.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com |
* Dipankar Mukhopadhyay is a poet, translator, and a former journalist from Calcutta, India.
Tags: Book Lauch kiriti sengupta Novelette poetry The Reverse Tree