Uma Mishra’s book launched at Booknerds event

By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 14 Jan: With the aim of promoting the town’s budding authors, The Booknerds conducted the launch of “Smritiyan” by Uma Mishra, an academician and a writer.
Uma Mishra was born in Moradabad and since her childhood had the flair and inclination to write. She has been published in various magazines and Smritiyan is her debut in the field of books. The book is an amalgam of her reminiscences, her poetry, and her literary creations. The session was moderated by Navneet Gairola in collaboration with Rohan Raj, co-founder of The Booknerds. Gairola works as an announcer and content editor for Community Radio and has expertise in the field of theatre, poetry, and education.
The session commenced with all the bibliophiles introducing themselves. The discussion started with Navneet Gairola briefing the audience about his work in the field of art followed by his experience and his thoughts while reading the book. He commended Uma Mishra for her discrete and judicious use of language and her extraordinary work in maintaining the curiosity of the readers as the book progressed. Rohan then asked Uma about her journey while publishing the book. She recollected that it was the words of her mother who had asked her to only keep the beautiful things in her mind and discard the ugly ones that shaped her into the writer she is. She had the habit of writing the thoughts that crossed her mind on small bits of paper and losing them, until recently when her younger daughter presented her the collection of these pieces, and her elder daughter supported her in publishing the book.
The discussion touched topics like the threat of Hindi language dying out and how it could be improvised to transform it into a global language, and how India was growing as a reading nation. The author and the moderator read their favourite excerpts from the book followed by the audience asking posing questions to Uma Mishra and Navneet Gairola. The session concluded with notes by Swati and Neeti Mishra about the efforts of their mother in assembling the book and how close it was to their lives. Co-Founder Neha Raj presented the author and moderator with mementos, which were followed by a book signing session.