The curtain raiser event of the much-anticipated Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2023 saw author and MP Shashi Tharoor engage in an insightful conversation with historian and author Rudrangshu Mukherjee. Also present at the event was Tharoor’s son Ishaan with his toddler.
Curated by the Oxford Bookstore, the theme of the curtain raiser of the 14th edition of AKLF was 100 Years of Oxford Bookstore: Cover to Cover. The session was packed with fans, young and old, of Tharoor, who began by reminiscing about Oxford Bookstore and Kolkata.“I was in Kolkata from class nine to 11. That was the time I used to come to the Oxford Bookstore and read books at the library here. Then as parents when we would visit Kolkata my kids would absolutely devour books here. And the third phase of my relationship with the Oxford Bookstore started when I started coming here for events. This is the venue where I have done all sorts of discussions. It remains a brand that I care about,” he said.
The later part of the session threw light on the many books that Tharoor authored, right from The Great Indian Novel to Inglorious Empire and the latest one, Ambedkar: A Life; their genesis, the controversies and more.
Speaking at the event, Ishaan, a foreign affairs columnist, said, “My 14-month-old daughter is sitting here today. And she is the fourth generation of our family to come to the Oxford Bookstore. As a child when I used to live in the US, we would come to Kolkata on our summer breaks and my mother would bring me here. Oxford Bookstore remained a part of our childhood summer imagination and as grown-ups, the books here helped us build our imaginations too.”
Addressing the audience, Anjum Katyal, director of the 14th AKLF said, “A stimulating conversation between two prominent thinkers of our country, starting with reminiscences and personal experiences of Oxford Bookstore as we celebrate its 100 years, is the best kind of curtain-raiser for AKLF. This is just a taste of what lies in store, as we welcome everyone to AKLF at the Indian Museum from January 12-15."