Book Launch of ‘Nautanki Sala’ and other stories at Oxford Bookstore.
Mouha Chinnapa, author of Nautanki Sala And Other Stories, has made her debut launch at the Oxford Bookstore in Kolkata on October 17th. A former communications and brand consultant Mohua Chinappa encountered a tribal Khasi woman who owned a tea stall, a journalist from the Northeast seeking to fit in in the big city, and an unassuming college student who couldn’t anticipate the ‘consequence’ of her brutish retort to men ‘inevitable‘ brutal retaliation against Khasi women who run teahouses, Northeastern journalists trying to blend in with big cities, and men. I met a humble college student who couldn’t.
The author’s first collection is based on women and men she met during the 1980s and 2000s. The lives of people are a memorial to the cultural-economic revolution of these decades and an endeavour to empower the hesitant feminist. Theauthor has written heartfelt stories about of partition, war, love, unspoke sentiments, acid attacks, and wrongdecision.Many reviews show relatability since she highlights actual issues women face.
Nautanki Sala And Other Stories launch had invited poriment guests, namely, Jael Silliman, Author, Scholar, and Women’s Right Activist, Ruma Chakraborty, Artist, Writer, Senior English Faculty, Madhubanti Roy Chowdhury, Founder of Participatory Publishing Praxis-an alternative,publishing initiative, Author and the event was moderated by Oindrilla Dutt Founder, Open Doors. Jael Silliman, in the event, said, “Mohua Chinappa, in deft strokes explores the courage, desire, vulnerability, sensuality and grief that women, across social strata and geographies in India, navigate in fifteen compelling short stories. An evocative read.”
Oindrila Dutt, who moderated the event, said, “Mohua Chinappa’s pen is a reflection of the exclusion, deprivation, oppression, lack of opportunity and equality women today must still tolerate, regardless of caste, creed or condition.” Holding up the mirror firmly and relentlessly, Nautanki Saala’s short story deals with their struggle for dignity and survival, but it also succeeds: A compelling read.
Madhubanti Roy Chowdhury reviewed the book and said: To the world they live in, the lives they lead, and the words they speak. But perhaps more than that, we are more concerned with those who leave them untravelled, unliving and unspoken. Her characters are built along cultural and generational divides in a remote part of the Indian landscape, yet strung together in a series of stories, speaking in unison in many languages. It seems to invite us into the space of a rare narrative sisterhood.
Ruma Chakraborty said,“A book that fascinates from the word go with its catchy heading, doesn’t disappoint the reader as they delve within to discover Mohua Chinappa’s deft handling of emotions that are laid bare with a keen sense of observation and swift penstrokes of delineation. A must read book.”
