Meet the Bombay Boys – Suketu Mehta and Salman Rushdie
Where would we be without words, words, words? Without books, digital and the real touch me-feel me papier ones? And where would we be without literary festivals which celebrate all the joys of the thinking, writing, musing world? Think Salman Rushdie and Suketu Mehta!
So if you’re missing your word-fix, here’s good news! The Second Annual IAAC Literary Festival at Hunter College, New York City, October 23-25th, brings some of your favorite South Asian writers to a stage near you.
The IAAC Literary Festival & Writing Stars
The kick-off starts with Madhur Jaffrey’s delicious new offering, ‘Vegetarian India’ – not to be missed by the legions of fans of Indian cooking and especially of veggie eats. Here’s a taste of this new book: “Vegetarian cooking is a way of life for more than 300 million Indians. Jaffrey travels from north to south, and from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal, collecting recipes for the very tastiest dishes along the way.”
On October 23, you have two of the jewels of Mumbai’s crown – Salman Rushdie and Suketu Mehta – the Bombay Boys in New York. We all love their writings about everyone’s favorite city and what bigger joy than to see them together chatting?
Suketu wrote ‘Maximum City Bombay Lost & Found’ and is currently writing a book on New York. Salman has set several of his novels in Bombay and his current book ‘Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights’ opens in New York with a trip to Bombay.
You also get to understand the way the written word travels from paper to audiences in the real world, with Mira Nair and Sabrina Dhawan talking about the challenges of going “From Page to Stage.” They collaborated on ‘Monsoon Wedding’ which won the Leon D’Oro at the Venice Film Festival – and now they are working on a stage production of that very popular film. This is on the final day of the literary festival and is followed by a reception.
If you love reading or writing books, the Literary Festival is the place to be. Check out some of these highlights: whether you want to write for network publication, self publish, delve into historical fiction, or have a dialogue about Islamophobia or LGBT issues – there’s a panel discussion for you. There’s even wisdom from the wiz of social media, Sree Sreenivasan, on how to publicize your books through social media.
Lots of wonderful discussions with many authors in different genres. Padma Lakshmi talks about her eclectic career in writing and how she got there via her first cookbooks. Tania James, Maya Lang, and Mira Jacob discuss women’s writing with Sujata Massey. Chefs and food writers Suvir Saran, Vikas Khanna, Saransh Goila, and Nandita Godbole discuss food writing. Something to chew on!
So check out the schedule and book yourself into a vigorous, fun book event.
For full details – http://www.iaac.us/Literary-Festival2015/festival-schedule.htm
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