By Palak Jha
Dehradun, 13 Nov: The Book Launch took place of ‘The Daivya Sutras’ by the famous LSR alumna, Mona Verma, on the second day of the VoW Literature and Arts Festival 2022, in the Hall of Words at Hotel Madhuban, here, today. She was was in conversation with renowned author and poet, Dr Harshali Singh, while in the Chair was academician and JNU alumnus, Dr Avinash Joshi.
The book explores dimensions of stories from the Puranas. Joshi began the session by addressing the audience and sharing his personal experience of reading this book, and emphasised the importance of the author’s effort in putting together this compilation which would prove to be interesting for readers of all age groups.
Dr Harshali then continued the session by appreciating the author’s idiosyncratic style and choices. She asked the author about her inspiration for this book. Mona Verma replied that the lockdown played a major role in making her realise she could write stories from the Puranas although she was initially hesitant when she discussed it with her publisher. She remarked that India’s mythology is ancient but not shabby. Collecting the stories was not a cakewalk and she wanted to make her stories convincing. She also points out that it’s very important to make children develop the habit to read. Dr Harshali asked if she intentionally wanted to make her stories didactic. The author replied that she wanted to make the reader’s mythological understanding a lot more rational, relatable and convincing. Dr Joshi added that it’s important for the stories to be both fascinating and didactic. The author also talked of the interesting background story of the Kauravas, Pandavas and the ritual of Ekadashi fasting. Dr Harshali asked the author what her favourite story was from the compilation, to which the author replied ‘Shukhdev’, the story of Radha Rani’s favourite parrot.
Dr Harshali asked a very interesting question: “How has writing changed your professional lifestyle?” In reply, Verma said she uses a lot of storytelling and dohas to provide logical reasoning to everything she says and it has also profoundly enhanced her knowledge.
The session concluded with the book release, which the author dedicated to her husband. This was followed by the author’s felicitation with the VoW author’s kit and a brief reading of her favourite story, ‘Chandradev’, as insisted by Dr Harshali.
