'The Ex-Files' is all about empowering women

Ms Sumita Misra, Chairman of Chandigarh Literary Society released Vandana Shah’s book, “The Ex-Files” published by Shobhaa De books and Penguin Books India on 21st March at the Chandigarh Golf Club.

Told through her own personal story, The Ex Files reveals the hardships of divorce and also the joys of emerging stronger with your positive thinking and humour intact.  The book also deals with the legal and social aspects of divorce, so often overlooked in India, and provides an indispensible guide to the ins and outs of proceedings.

Noted author, columnist and tv personality, Khushwant Singh moderated the session.

In 2001 Vandana Shah, despite her best efforts to save her marriage, found herself facing a divorce petition.  But instead of wallowing in self-pity, she picked up the pieces of her shattered life and moved straight on.  She not only found a job but went on to become a divorce lawyer and a community leader, starting India’s first divorce support group and network.

At once funny, tragic and uncompromisingly honest, this memoir will resonate with anyone who has endured the end of a marriage and come out changed.

Vandana Shah studied at St Xavier's College in Mumbai and has since donned various hats including that of a model, a deejay and an advertising professional. After being thrown out of her marital home with just the clothes on her back and Rs 750 in the bank, Vandana rebuilt her world and founded the first Indian support group to help people going through a divorce, 360 Degrees Back to Life. She has since come full circle from being a litigant to being a divorce lawyer and practices at the family court in Mumbai.

Vandana writes a monthly column in the magazine, Black and White Oman and she edits Ex-Files, India's first divorce news magazine.

She has also participated in the Lead India Programme and was the winner from Mumbai in 2010. Vandana's work for the cause of women going through divorce in India has resulted in a BBC documentary about her work, entitled Invisible Women of India. This was broadcast worldwide on international Women's Day in 2014.

Her first book endorsed by the iconic feminist Gloria Steinem won an award and she has translated another book on the Jain faith from English to Hindi.  She also received the NAI Achievement award for the best lawyer in India for Women’s Rights in November 2014.

 “When Holy Wedlock becomes Holy Deadlock, what do you do?  Cry your heart out of laugh it off?  Here is a book which will help you to enjoy your way through the thickets of divorce and plot the second marriage.  Read, relax, rejoice”
Padma Bhushan Lord Meghnad Desai

“Champagne-dripping, solitaire-studded, a Jimmy-Choo-on-steroids divorce memoir that lightens the trauma of divorce…that you just can’t put down”
Advaita Kala

It Happens for a Reason

Preeti Shenoy: “The only woman in the best-selling league”
Sumita Misra, chairperson of Chandigarh Literary Society, released “It Happens for a Reason” by India’s best-selling author Preeti Shenoy at the Whistling Duck restaurant here today.

Best known for her romantic novels including ‘Life is What You Make It, ’34 Bubblegums and Candies’, and ‘Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake’ ‘The Secret Wishlist’, Preeti shared her journey as an author from being a blogger to a columnist for various publications. 

Now author of five best-sellers, an artist who love to paint portraits, or indulge in paper quilling, a oet, yoga-buff, ex-basketball player, Nature lover, Ted X speaker is what describes her multifarious and diverse interests including working with under-privileged children.

“It happens for a Reason” is an engaging and enthralling love story which puts the protagonist, who is just 18, single and beautiful into a situation where she gives up her promising career in modeling to have her baby, and how her life takes new turns after sixteen years, Preeti remarked.

Amidst twists and turns of our lives we come across numerous instances when something unexpected happens, and what Preeti philosophically puts it that it happens for a reason.

When asked as to how she manages her time with the family and professional duties and yet get to write so many books, Preeti said that she got herself into the habit of writing daily, come what may; a promise she keeps.

She is known for her descriptive details and keen observation while writing which, Preeti admitted, is result of her extensive research on subjects and situations by personally engaging herself whether it is a mental hospital or life in the street.

The book has been published by Westland, and Ms Sarita had coordinated her visit to the city. Members lapped up her five books from the stall set up by the Bookstore Partner, Capital Book Depot.
And our special thanks to Mr Ambar, the owner of Whistling Duck Kitchen and Restaurant for an excellent and elegant snacks over a warm cup of tea at the end of the session.

Why do children need stories?

Stories help Children make sense of the world: Samina Mishra

Writer and film maker Samina Mishra from Delhi strongly recommended the need for study of literature and art in school curricula in the country, while addressing the Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS) at ‘Meet the Author’ programme here today at the UT Guest House.
Samina, who is a part of Scholastic India’s programme, Storytelling Night, and UNESCO’s Travelling Literature Festival, Ghummakad Narain, shared her work she is doing with the children from lower middle segment of the society around the country.
Stories, she said, are important for the children to make sense of their their homes, their neighbourhood, and their surroundings and learn to express themselves through different media, whether it is images, text or sound.
With the availability of variety of media to the young generation today, they need to be told the stories of both positivies and not so good part of the happenings around them so as to have a better understanding. She shared her experience of working with children in the walled city of Delhi and areas referred to as Muslim ghetto, and conducted art and writing workshop with children there, out of which has emerged soon-to-be-published book, ‘Come, Walk Through Our Streets”.
Having been awarded the Sea Change Residency by the Gaea Foundation of USA for her works, Samina Mishra shared clips from her documentaries on girl child which she shot in Punjab as part of UNICEF project, “Stories of Girlhood”, and “I found My Way to School”.
Large number of writers from the city interacted with her including Vivek Atray, Deputy Commissioner Panchkula,  CLS Secretary Madhav Kaushik, Suparna Saraswati Puri, Saguna Jain, Manju Jaidka, CJ Singh, Hardeep Chandpuri, etc.

An Author Deserves to be Known

In order to create a community of creative people in the literary domain, Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS) has initiated the drive to build a database of authors in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

CLS has initiated the process of inviting authors to share information about their published works and their profiles with the readers through facebook, and we do hope to make CLS a more strong platform to encourage interactions and creative writings. 

You as an author are special. You are the one who has gone through the grind of spending hours to pen down your thoughts and opinions and shape the throughts of your readers...and new dimensions and perspective to the world we live in.

So go ahead, and share your profile.  Enter it here: http://goo.gl/forms/xpTBTEqgcq.

The World of Image, Sound and Text

THE WAY OF STORIES: The World of Image, Sound and Text

Meet the prolific writer and documentary maker from Delhi, Samina Mishra. CLS has scheduled an interactive session with her on 16th January at 5:00pm at the UT Guest House.

Samina Mishra, an alumnus of St Stephens College, Delhi University, who did her Mass Communications at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

She works as a documentary filmmaker, writer, facilitator/teacher and sound recordist, and has a special interest in media for children.

Her films include Two Lives (2007), The House on Gulmohar Avenue (2005) and Stories of Girlhood (2001). Her short stories The Goat That Got Away, Looking Through Glass and The House At The Corner have appeared in anthologies by Scholastic, The Wisdom Tree and Penguin.

Look forward to meeting you.

"Thanks for the warmth..."

Thanks to Team Literati, the beautiful notes of thanks continue to pour in.

 

Just a note of warm thanks to you and the entire team of Chandigarh Literary Society for the hospitality and warmth you extended and for giving me the opportunity to share and listen to thoughts with the Chandigarh audience.-  Shefalee Vasudev

Participating in Literati-2014 was good-   Jaswant Zafar

Thank you very much for having me- Thomas Timberg

A lovely experience at the lit fest. I enjoyed it all and so did my wife and son. It was quite lovely- Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri

Thanks for inviting me. I enjoyed it- Gurcharan Das

Thanks, we enjoyed coming to the conference. You organised it
so well-Mamta Kalia

It was a great festival. Lots of good sessions. I enjoyed the ones on Defence Literature and Susmit Sen & others especially- Chitra Viraraghavan

Thank you so much for inviting us to Literati 2014. We had a wonderful time and do hope we can visit again :)- Devapriya Roy & Saurav Jha

Bouquets from Authors for Team Literati 2014

Literati 2014 is over, and we are overwhelmed by the response from the people of tricity, the support of our partners, advertisers and sponsors, and of course, our valued authors who left with lots of good wishes to Team Literati.  We reproduce here some of them. 

The photographs of Literati can be viewed on our facebook page. 

Thank you very much..it was a wonderful day ..Shekhar Gupta (attending Day 1)

Thank you for the imaginative memento Literati 2014 presented its participants with. I really liked the elegant plate! – Prof. Rukmini Bhaya Nair

It is the best memento I have ever received. What a thoughtful gift! -Susmit Sen

I had a really nice time at Literati 2014. Thanks a lot for your gracious hospitality and for creating a forum where meaningful discussions can take place. Ratika sends her thanks for sending her memento.- Amitabha Bagchi

Thank you all for inviting me. It was wonderful to be in the panel- Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

Thank you for inviting me to be a part of a very elegantly conducted Fest, where the session were all, repeat ALL, meaningful, well attended, and participatory. It is not easy, but you all managed it! Congrats, and hope to be a more involved participant next year... As moderator and with my book on Jagjit Singh-  Sathya Saran

I really wish to thank you and your wonderful team for inviting and hosting me in the most wonderful way for Literati 2014. The Lake Club is indeed the perfect venue for talking books and literature.  I genuinely had a very good time and was fortunate to meet some very interesting fellow authors. I am now a confirmed Literati evangelist and will remain one forever :)- Akshay Manwani

Compliments for the way you organized it all. Quiet efficiency is how I would put it.Indian Express Chandigarh covered my talk well and I am seeing some very good reviews of the fest all over. It was good to be panelist and I would always come back if invited.- Lt. Gen.Syed Ata Hasnain

Thanks for nice session- Prof. Chaman Lal

I had such a good time! I hope I can be there again. What a lovely venue!- Aruni Kashyup

I really enjoyed the sessions-you had organised an interesting and varied range of subjects--and the play Amrita... The logistics were well co-ordinated and I felt very well looked after. Many thanks for having included me.-  Sudha Shah

Thank you for a fantastic Literati 2014. It was great to meet and connect with some wonderful people at the venue. Also, thanks for lovely memento!  Gautam Chinatamani 

Congratulations! On a well organized festival- Atamjit Singh

Thank you for having us and looking after us so well; I really felt very nice being at Literati 2014- Nony Singh

It was lovely to speak at the Festival. Thanks for everything- Benoy K Behl