New Delhi, 13th March: On a recently held event at The Park, New Delhi eminent satirist Sanjay Rajoura, musician Rahul Ram of Indian Ocean fame, acclaimed theatre director Abhilash Pillai and Umar Khalid (member, United Against Hate) joined acclaimed novelist Sreemoyee Piu Kundu in an animated discussion around Kundu’s book latest book CUT, published by Bloomsbury.
At the unveiling of CUT at The Park, New Delhi.
Standing from L – R: Sanjay Rajoura, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, Abhilash Pillai, Umar Khalid and Rahul Ram
Picture Credit: Bloomsbury
Set in a world of government censure and ruthless stifling of anyone who questions their ways, CUT is a posthumous look at the personal and professional life of a visionary theatre artist.
Would he be considered an ‘urban naxal’ today or remembered as a fearless agent who fought for social change? Did he and those close to him have to pay the price for their voices to be heard? Told in disparate voices, CUT explores commitment to artistic integrity and art as a platform for social reform against all odds, even when it becomes a question of survival.
Commenting on her book Sreemoyee said, “CUT is a very important book for the times we are living in. It is my reaction to this constant atmosphere of fear”
Rahul Ram was all praise for the book and said, “the thing which stood out for me the most is that the protagonist of the book, Amitabh Kulasheshtra, is a flawed person but he is very aware of it”
Speaking through his experience, Sanjay Rajoura commented, “Cut is important because it dares to question all kinds of powers”. “IT QUESTIONS”. Umar Khalid, who has been most vocal about the subjective nature of freedom of speech quoted, “There is no absolute freedom. The problem arises when you question power”.
About the Author, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu: Sreemoyee Piu Kundu is an acclaimed journalist and columnist on gender and sexuality. She wrote Faraway Music, her first novel, in 2013, followed by her bestselling feminist erotica, Sita’s Curse, which explored female desire through the eyes of a Gujarati housewife. You’ve Got the Wrong Girl, her third work of fiction, a light-hearted rom-com, broke new ground in Indian ‘lad-lit’. In 2017, she wrote her first non-fiction work, the widely-appreciated and critically acclaimed
Status Single, a narrative drawing from the lives of 3000 urban Indian single women, about the daily struggle of being single in a country where the highest validation for women remains marriage and motherhood. Sreemoyee is the recipient of the NDTV L’Oréal Women of Worth award for Excellence in Literature. She has been signed up for her memoirs,Bad Blood, by Bloomsbury and has just completed an inter-generational family saga set in Kolkata, All Our Other Lies. Sreemoyee is single and lives between New Delhi and Kolkata.