As if extending its own support, the weather outside Delhi’s Samrat Hotel was sultry, heavy with the promise of rain, and inside, the atmosphere charged with the promise of an equally tantalising discussion. Gathered for the launch of Sreemoyee Piu Kundu’s new book, “Sita’s Curse”, the audience was in for a discussion quite like Kundu’s novel — unapologetic and frank.
Sharing the stage with Kundu were personalities who’ve made a mark by staying true to their art and their convictions. Apsara Reddy, India’s first transgender woman to head a national daily and an acclaimed TV host from Chennai, theatre person Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, the force behind the Eve Ensler play “The Vagina Monologues”, and veteran actor Adil Hussain added their voices to the evening, elevating the discussion to a level both intellectually and conversationally stimulating.
The launch kicked off with Kundu sharing with the audience the video of her book trailer. Composed of a hauntingly beautiful background score coupled with the dream-like sequences, the trailer prompted a wave of appreciative claps, and then, the lights came on and the conversation began in earnest.
Reaching Delhi after six other launches across the country, “Sita’s Curse” is already been making waves, a sort of testimony to the fact that perhaps there was a space waiting to be filled, one reserved for the genre Kundu has written in. To Reddy’s question, Kundu said, “I don’t know. I don’t know why it hasn’t reached India before this. It’s a space that needs to be filled.”
Kundu’s book, while incredibly sensual and erotic, is also a tribute to the average Indian housewife, bringing to light her often repressed but very alive desires. Her protagonist, Meera Patel, is based on her memory of a very real woman she’d see on her way to work every day, till the Mumbai floods of 2005.
Discussing the oft-curtailed desires of women today, Kundu and her co-panellists discussed issues and practices that have taken a firm and seemingly unshakeable root in Indian society today. With Kundu’s book as a reference point, the evening was filled with conversations about the role of religion, godmen, women relatives and husbands in the playing out, or not, of women’s sexuality. Pausing only for the enjoyable book reading by Adil Hussain, the deep tenor of his voice a perfect fit for Kundu’s lilting, sensual words, the speakers kept the conversation light but engaging, throwing questions at each other and answering them with a refreshingly frank ease. Amidst good natured ribbing and jokes, the conversation managed to touch upon important issues that plague society today, ones that prevent the expression of what is, as Kundu put it, a very natural and primal urge in all human beings, male and female.
