Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF), a premier literary festival, recently initiated an online literary webinar series titled, Bhava Samvad.
The platform has conducted 51 sessions so far, and has reached over nine lakh views.
In one of its sessions, nonagenarian writer Nayantara Sahgal was in conversation with Kedar Mishra, an eminent art critic and political analyst.
The discussion covered the writer’s early days of education and how she got inspired by Gandhiji. She lost her father Ranjit Sitaram Pandit in her teens and her mother Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was a strong force of support. Talking about how the transition in politics has inspired her writings, she said, “My novel characters continue to reflect the contemporary times.
As writers, it’s incumbent upon us to reflect the social reality. I wrote against the policies of Indira Gandhi and criticised the Emergency, and as a result I was denied a posting to Italy as an ambassador. The freedom struggle fused with Gandhian ideas of non-violence struggle continues to provide oxygen and I don’t fear to criticise any government for their policies and ideologies.”