Event Details

Book Discussion and Reading
Meher Pestonji’s Poems and Being Human in a War Zone

An NCPA Library Presentation

Meher Pestonji in conversation with Dr. Omkar Bhatkar

International exchanges on Zoom are changing the way literature is written, perceived and experienced. Virtual friendships built over weekly spoken word sessions lead to an interest in varied cultures and find their way into creative expressions. Meher Pestonji’s two books, Poems and a collection of short stories titled Being Human in a War Zone emerged out of exposure to unfamiliar geographies, sparking concerns that might have remained in the shadows had she not been interacting with poets across the world. She heard a poet’s angst about a missing brother in Ukraine, saw vivid photographs of wildfires in Greece and felt the anxiety of Americans at a shoot-out in their neighbourhood. These triggered her imagination to emerge as poems and stories.

Meher Pestonji is a writer, journalist and social worker from India. She has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years, covering a wide range of topics including art, theatre and film while concentrating on human rights concerns like housing rights, communalism and street children. She has covered the entire course of proceedings of the Srikrishna Commission which looked into the 1992-1993 Bombay riots. Her debut book, Mixed Marriage and Other Parsi Stories, a collection of short stories, was published by HarperCollins India in 1999 and garnered excellent reviews. Her play Feeding Crows won the first prize in the South Asia category in the BBC World Service and British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition 2009.

She has participated in poetry readings all around the world via Zoom, in addition to having her poems published in several anthologies.

Free entry on a first-come-first-served basis.