✍️By Special Correspondent
The 47th Kolkata International Book Fair witnessed a panel discussion, ‘Women Supporting Women’, featuring acclaimed actor Barun Chanda, danseuse and social activist Alokananda Ray along with educationist Dr Kaberi Chatterjee, Goutam De, former Director, ICCR and acclaimed author Soma Bose. The panel discussion was moderated by Sohini Das.
The panel discussion was based on Soma Bose’s highly acclaimed debut book of short stories, ‘Frenny & the Other Women You Have Met’. Soma Bose spoke about her relationship with her grandmother and how she was inspired to write the book and the way she supported Soma’s mother in dealing with domestic issues and so she upheld the fact that women do support each other in overcoming hurdles. Spma says, “A lot of times there has been discrimination between working women and not working women. It is always that people who are working are given accolades and people who aren’t working are not given any value. So, I really wanted to focus on the women who are at home looking after their families. They are doing a tremendous job and this book is for them. This book celebrates them.”
Alokananda Ray ofcourse advocated the future is a gender neutral space where it would not just mean men & women but also transgender, for whose benefit she has been actively working for the past few years. She said that women can make their choices and they should own up to their choices rather than blame men or circumstances.
Barun Chanda also batted for equality and he did not consider women as objects only rather equal in workspace and domestic life. The rise of women power was creating equality and increasingly workspaces are being dominated by women which are bringing about parity.
Dr Kaberi Chatterjee spoke about her experiences of women empowerment and the continued fight for attaining equality which she felt was quite a distant dream as of today and disagreed with Barun Chanda.
The panellists also released the book ‘Frenny & the Other Women You Have Met’ on the occasion at the Kolkata International BookFair premises.
