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The
Counsel of Strangers – Gouri Dange – A Reading
by the Author
26th September 2010, Sunday, 11:00 am to 1:00
pm |
Sometimes the best counsel comes from strangers. A book about six
guests at a boisterous Indian wedding - people with a jagged journey
behind them and a mapless one ahead. Come hear Gouri Dange who is
in Delhi to read from and discuss her second novel. Gouri is a writer
and practicing counsellor based in Pune and Mumbai. Her columns,
features and fiction - exploring aspects of human and animal behaviour,
interactions and relationships - appear in national and international
magazines and newspapers and anthologies, as well as on the Internet.
She has people-watched all over the world. In her counselling as
well as in her writing, she is particularly interested in the human
ability to grow and develop, as well as the equally human tendency
to resist growth and change.
Her debut novel, 3 Zakia Mansion (Penguin India), is currently being
translated into other languages. Her non-fiction ABCs of Parenting
(Jaico Books) is in its second edition.
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As Gouri tells us, The Counsel of Strangers
is a book about six reluctant guests at a boisterous Indian wedding
up in a hill resort. It is the last place that they want to be,
troubled as they are, by the recent events in their lives. They
are strangers to one another. In a bid to side-step some of the
festivities, they look for somewhere quiet, where they can drop
the pretence of normalcy. They slip away to a spot, a viewing gallery
suspended over the forest and river below . This is when they meet
each other and begin to talk. As dusk turns to night and then dawn,
their stories emerge. There is, for each one of them, a jagged journey
behind them and a mapless one to come.
The six people are a 72 year old retired air force man; a 60 year
old woman academic; a 58 year old nurse; a 41 year old voice-over
artist woman; a 30 year old TV anchorman; and a 14 year old schoolboy.
Here are six stories refracted through the minds of the others.
From this emerges fresh direction and illumination for each one,
so that they see some glimmerings of the way forward. They are profoundly
affected by the opinions and choices suggested by each other. The
viewing gallery becomes, for that night, a raft, a lifeboat, pitchingand
listing in the dark, but conveying its six occupants safely to firm
ground at dawn. They have become something of a loosely-jointed
family in these few hours. And yet, unlike families, they are not
encumbered by protocol, etiquette or agendas. They have stilled
their minds and listened deep and long, to one another. And they
have been able to spontaneously call, right out into the night air:
"fair, foul, right, wrong, rubbish, bravo...do, don't, stop, go"
and other such un-filtered pieces of opinion and advice, that are
pure and precious.
Sometimes the best clarity and counsel comes from strangers.
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Gouri Dange
can be contacted at write2gouri@gmail.com.
Some of her non-fiction writing can be accessed at gouridange.blogspot.com
Date: 26 September 2010, Sunday
Time: : 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Venue: Maximum Store Pvt. Ltd., 5-J/1, Ground floor, Shahpur Jat,
New Delhi - 110049
RSVP and confirm your attendance at communicate@themaximumstore.com
or +91 98183 18196, +91 11 26493150, 46168026 |
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| Other Events this
month @maxiMum |
| A Talk: Nancy Sood on Life and the principles of Louise L. Hays |
| Discover the Power within You! - the Personal Excellence Workshop by Neha Rehani |
|
Beautiful from This Angle by Maha Khan Phillips – a Penguin
book reading |
| Caferati Read Meet - A Fetish for Food |
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