Rama Krishna Sangem
Koral Dasgupta was at Taj Vivanta, Shillong on September 8 Sunday for the “The Write Circle” organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation. This was the third such event organised by PKF. Koral Dasgupta is an author who has published an eclectic range of books from academic non-fiction to relationship dramas.
Her books are discussed from the context of gender studies, art, myth, and ecocritical literature. Her books are shelved in the libraries of prominent US Universities- University of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and others. She has worked on the five-book Sati Series – a retelling of the stories of the Panch Kanya from Indian mythology. The five books – Ahalya, Kunti, Draupadi, Mandodari, and Taara are on the shelves and highly appreciated.
An attentive audience was spell bound by Koral’s interpretation of the mythological characters. The session began with the welcome address by Ehsaas women Pooja Goenka. Ehsaas women Jyoti Agarwal ably moderated the discussion by picking up interesting insights into the author’s mind concerning the deep understanding she has of the “Panch Kanyas”.
Everyone’s story
The author spoke how these five books of the Sati Series is everyone’s story from one perspective or the other. Tje author also spoke about the book “Tje Summer Holidays” a comedy and a family drama. Summer holidays has also been optioned for screen adaptation. After a 50 minutes conversation the discussion was opened to the house for an interactive question answer session.
The curious audience had numerous questions, Koral patiently dealt into the conversation to answer each of them. During the question answer Koral’s metaphor to explain the most iconic scene from Mahabharata where Arjun questions his “Antaraatma” or conscience before going ahead with the wear- is it important to kill, will it benefit anyone?? If we had every human being thinking like Arjun, the world would be a much more peaceful to live in.
