The Wise Owl Awards Function14 to 17th March , 2025 -PART 2 Boisterous Banter and Back-slapping Bonhomie
Feisty folks congregated from different parts of the country in the breathtakingly beautiful environs of Foothills Club, Chandigarh, and within no time hit it off, if I am allowed to use the cliche- like a house on fire.
But alas, it is in hindsight that I realize that all along it was poor five-foot-nothing me - who had been the 'butt' of ridicule! Of leg-pulling! of senseless jokes! Need I add that I loved it all!
Incredible but true- all of us had been meeting for the first time - even Top Ramen, with whom I had been Facebook friends for, I don't remember, how long. The moment he met me, his part of the banter started. We picked up from where we had left in our endless Zoom meetings. Did you know that he is very talkative, with a wife who is as charming as she is intelligent and articulate? A serene, babbling brook Madhavi Kumar, a lady I liked immediately. And Immensely.
By the way, Ramendra and I have written an e-book together, Melange of Mavericks and Mutants, which I believe, readers loved.
Once during lunch, Ramendra, even tried to gag me, [with his bare hands] because he wanted to speak, and he thought I wouldn't give him the opportunity. I don't know who gave him the idea that I am a chatterbox! But, thankfully, I was able to regain my loquacity soon- because of the timely intervention of true friends. Ha ha!
Mughda Asnikar, a young, intelligent, beautiful Bharatanatyam dancer, put the audience under her spell with her amazing dance! We are now friends for life. I love the girl, and methinks she loves me too!
Lilith, oops, the lady who wrote the majestic book Eden Abandoned- The Story of Lilith, Shinie Antony, winner of the First Prize for Fiction, is not just articulate but armed with an incisive wit, and a great sense of humor. In Lilith, she has successfully created a fiery, ferocious woman - if you want to know, whether Lilith is a demon or a modern-day heroine, please grab hold of the book before it goes out of stock.
Did I tell you that Shinie Antony is a great mimic too!
Thankfully, she did not mimic me.
Arun Ezhuthachan, winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, charmingly shy and witty in his quiet way, was the first runner-up in the non-fiction category for his book, Sacred Sins: Devadasis in Contemporary India, which is 'an explosive journalistic account' of the Devadasis.
Friends, grab hold of it and 'follow the whispered clues to these forsaken women in all corners of the world.'.
I plan to read the Kindle edition soon.
I met Sudeep Sen for the first time, and he and Lalit indulged in some- nay-a lot, of Monk-ey business. And of course, the banter continued, unabated.
Pulling each other's legs seemed to be the unwritten law, where everyone chipped in, without any qualms. Soon the days of fun and frolic came to an end. Or did they?
I have just finished reading his award-winning book, Anthropocene: Climate Change, Contagion, Consolation, in which he writes with an impassioned intensity about how the utopian world spiraled out of control into a dystopian world, and where toxicity now reigns supreme
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