The first day of Asia’s second largest literature festival, Kerala Literature Festival witnessed something no other literature festival has ever got the opportunity of witnessing.
Man Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy graced the venue with her presence. Her presence at Ezhuthola drew in a massive crowd, fans waiting to catch a glimpse of their favorite author. It was an hour conversation between Divya Dwivedi and Arundhati Roy. The session began with a 6 minute short film written and directed by Arundhati Roy which was based on her new novel ‘Ministry of Utmost Happiness’. This is her second novel after ‘The God of Small Things’. It is after 20 years that she is publishing a novel. It is looked upon greatly by the literary world.
She read out excerpts from that novel and after every part she explained the characters and compared each of them. She gave a quick but neat insight of what’s inside the book. This session evoked curiosity among the listeners. The novel deals with some of the darkest and most violent episodes of modern Indian history. This novel has a diverse character list that includes a trans woman (hijra), a rebellious architect ect. She spoke about the protagonists, Anjum, Miss Jibeen,Naga, Saddam Hussain, Tilottama and so on.
Every character is distinct and special. She says she feels happy to have written about such characters, characters which a lot of them would feel are a bit out of the social sphere.
The session concluded soon with her fans flooding around to get an autograph.
This session evokes curiosity in the listeners to read the book. Later she attended a press meet and left the venue.