MITWPU Book club launch

On the 19th of October 2019 I was invited to speak at the launch of the MITWPU book club launch on the MIT campus at Kothrud. It was wonderful to interact with a group of enthusiastic and bright students eager to become a part of the book club.

It was a two-hour programme which started with introductions, felicitations and talks by the MIT faculty about the importance of reading.

It was an honour to be felicitated by the Vice-Chancellor and an honour to be invited. Prof. Ajay Nagre initiated
this project.

Two other authors were also invited. One of them is Vinod Bidwaik who has written a Marathi book for rural students to improve their soft skills. The other is an alumni of MIT, Chayan Bahety, who has written a fiction book.

I talked about my book The Hawa Mahal Murders and its launch at the inauguration of PILF19 with Javed Akhtar who was the chief guest. The manuscript of my book won a contest at PILF18 and Vishwakarma publications awarded me a contract to publish my book.

During my talk I referred to some of the points the professors made about the importance of reading. Prof Nagre had talked about how reading fiction has the effect of enhancing one's creativity and imagination as opposed to absorbing canned stuff from the screen. Prof Thakur compared reading to meditation and how it improved concentration. I added two points. One, that reading improves one's language if one reads good books and secondly, reading fiction (as opposed to reading non-fiction) can develop one's character. This is because one learns about morality, especially when reading the classics. It helps us distinguish right from wrong.

The website of the book club was inaugurated during this time. A professional looking website which reveals the hard work the students put in. Instagram posts advertised the event.

I was quite relaxed speaking in the warm and informal atmosphere.