A Writer's Job is to Question Everything

When Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree came to Lucknow to pick up the Ram Advani Award, she received thunderous applause for keeping alive the language and way of life of the heartland of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The audience enjoyed the down to earth way Shree had chit chatted about Ret Samadhi, the book that has earned her a large following around the world.

In a riveting conversation with well-known Hindi academic Virendra Yadav, Shree insisted that the job of a writer is to question everything, including the spread of venom amongst citizens. It is the responsibility of storytellers like her to figure out why humanity is disappearing from society.

She enjoys imagining the potential of a woman and continues to wonder if the existence of women is really as fragile as a tomb of sand? Shree is sure that once women decide they are able to walk through man-made borders, and to bring down the thickest wall of separation.

She was born Geetanjali Pandey in UP but at some stage in her life she dropped her upper caste surname. She took her mother's first name and used it as her second name. Shree did this to acknowledge the importance of her mother's role in her life.

The novel was originally written in Hindi and it is the story of an 80-year-old protagonist who begins to 'live' after the death of her husband. At that ripe old age she decides to return to her place of birth across the border. That journey also helps her to confront unfinished business, and come to terms with emotions that had weighed upon her for decades.

Shree talks in the same attractive, philosophical and playful way as she writes. She is thrilled at the thought, she said that the elderly female character in her book is able to pull herself out of the deathbed to reinvent life.

Tomb of Sand is the English translation of Ret Samadhi, the first Hindi-language book to win the International Booker Prize. Accepting the Ram Advani Award on ten years of 'Metaphor', the literary festival organised by Lucknow Expressions Society, Shree said that she is humbled to be this year's Booker Prize winner but every award is precious to her.

Shree never met Ram Advani but had heard about him. What a bibliophile he was! Ram Advani was the best friend of all book lovers. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 95 years, after having sold books to several generations. His bookshop had opened in Lucknow in 1947, and it was popular with academics because it had a living room air about it.

A Family Affair

The wedding of Lucknow boy Ali Fazal with Richa Chadha swept family members and friends back to the days of grace and splendour when the city was a glamorous imperial capital. When people in the faraway land of Cleopatra had envied the way of life and the look of those who had lived in Lucknow.

The moon was at its silver best, and the theme was off white and gold. There was qawwali in the background and a traditional feast was prepared by descendants of the royal Mahmoodabadi chefs. The bride looked more beautiful than Rekha as Umrao Jaan, and the groom seemed like a fairy tale prince who thunders down on an ivory coloured stead to swoop the bride away.

The actors had married two years ago but they were unable to get together with friends to celebrate the occasion due to the pandemic. Ali's family chose to host the valima, the wedding reception on the premises of an art deco private home built in 1936 which has now been renovated into a dream heritage hotel.

Lucknow thanks the actor couple for returning a little magic back into the life of the city and wishes them a long and happy married life.

That was khushi, all the happiness experienced in Lucknow in the last few days. The gham, or sad news is that Mulayam Singh Yadav, the 83-year-old founder of the Samajwadi Party (SP) is still in hospital.

The Neta Ji

The mood within the Samajwadi Party (SP) and in the Mulayam Singh Yadav household is sombre. Ever since Mulayam Singh Yadav, Netaji to his followers, was admitted to a hospital, his flock has been concerned about the former Chief Minister.

Pooja Shukla, SP leader tweeted that she prayed to the almighty for the good health of her leader. Mulayam Singh is a popular politician in UP. He won his first seat to the provincial Assembly at the age of 28 years, and in 1996 he nearly became Prime Minister.

A former wrestler, Mulayam Singh founded the SP in 1992 to represent the large population of backward caste people in the state. His Left of Centre politics had managed to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the state for years.

UP Congress

Perhaps Priyanka Gandhi cannot cope with the rough and tough politics of UP anymore. As it is, Priyanka was only in and out of the state, never able to give up Delhi or to make a home in Lucknow. The Congress general secretary was in-charge of party affairs in UP for a while. But despite her hard work, the party has lost election after election. The Congress managed to win only two seats in a house of 403 seats in the UP Assembly elections of 2022.

In the last Lok Sabha elections held in 2019, it was only Sonia Gandhi who won a seat for the Congress in Rae Bareli while Rahul Gandhi was defeated by Smriti Irani (BJP) in Amethi. In order to clean up its act in the state, the Congress has made Brijlal Khabri head of the state unit of the party. Khabri is a Dalit and a former Mayawati supporter.

He joined the Congress in 2016. However, in the 2022 state Assembly elections, Khabri lost his deposit and received about 4000 votes. Apart from Khabri there is an army of politicians from Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who have joined the Congress, like Nakul Dubey, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Anil Yadav.

Only time will tell whether the breakaway politicians welcomed into the Congress in recent times will be an asset to the party, or not?

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