HIGHLIGHTS OF FAVOURITE TALKS AT THE TIMES LITERARY FEST 2015
written by ROMA SINGH on Dec 08, 2015
Woven around the theme ‘Enslaving Expression’ the Times Literary Fest this year saw many sessions and speakers, artists and writers exploring all kinds of artsy expressions. And while it is difficult to pick a favourite from the rather esteemed line up, we can’t help but be biased towards ‘Flit like a butterfly sting like a B’, an all women panel featuring Twinkle Khanna, Moni Mohsin (Pakistani writer currently residing in the UK) and moderated by their common editor Chiki Sarkar.
On day three of the Times Literary Fest 2015 when Moni Mohsin aka Social Butterfly and Twinkle Khanna aka Mrs. Funny Bones (both are social satire columns adapted into books), graced the stage it was all about wit, women, feminism, social satire and humour. And when two women authors of that stature, humour and panache take to the stage, we at Be Beautiful have every reason to cover it. We were there in person, documenting highlights of the talk for our literature loving readers. Here is listing some…
On day three of the Times Literary Fest 2015 when Moni Mohsin aka Social Butterfly and Twinkle Khanna aka Mrs. Funny Bones (both are social satire columns adapted into books), graced the stage it was all about wit, women, feminism, social satire and humour. And when two women authors of that stature, humour and panache take to the stage, we at Be Beautiful have every reason to cover it. We were there in person, documenting highlights of the talk for our literature loving readers. Here is listing some…
Similarities, social satire and the sub-continent
Both Moni’s and Twinkle’s literary works are laced in a thick layer of satire. Both have touched upon the social issues of the sub-continent and stirred the national conscience in their own individual capacities. Their common ground being that they both hail from similar social strata, Twinkle Khanna and Moni Mohsin use their wit and humour to fight the tragedies of their respective nations.
Both Moni’s and Twinkle’s literary works are laced in a thick layer of satire. Both have touched upon the social issues of the sub-continent and stirred the national conscience in their own individual capacities. Their common ground being that they both hail from similar social strata, Twinkle Khanna and Moni Mohsin use their wit and humour to fight the tragedies of their respective nations.
Humour is serious business
“Humour comes out of tragedy and satire comes out of rage,” says Moni Mohsin on the complexities of satirical writing. “Mine is a fictitious column and my brief was to respond to the current affairs but sometimes my imagination is overwhelmed by the awfulness of events and in the face of such awful events I lose my voice because how do you make it funny then. I feel that my craft breaks down at that time.”
“Humour comes out of tragedy and satire comes out of rage,” says Moni Mohsin on the complexities of satirical writing. “Mine is a fictitious column and my brief was to respond to the current affairs but sometimes my imagination is overwhelmed by the awfulness of events and in the face of such awful events I lose my voice because how do you make it funny then. I feel that my craft breaks down at that time.”
Humour as a weapon to awaken social conscience
Twinkle manages to tickle our funny bone almost every time but on using humour as a weapon to awaken social conscience she recalls, “Once there was apothole next to my house for months and I wanted to write about it and I during my research I realised we’d spent over 2000 Cr to fix potholes in the last few months and still nothing had happened. To make that relatable to people I had to make that pothole a human and named it Gattu after my ex-boyfriend who was also a pothole I fell into. So you have to find a way to make people find things interesting.”
Twinkle manages to tickle our funny bone almost every time but on using humour as a weapon to awaken social conscience she recalls, “Once there was apothole next to my house for months and I wanted to write about it and I during my research I realised we’d spent over 2000 Cr to fix potholes in the last few months and still nothing had happened. To make that relatable to people I had to make that pothole a human and named it Gattu after my ex-boyfriend who was also a pothole I fell into. So you have to find a way to make people find things interesting.”
Columns can trigger change
Moni Mohsin is positive “Yes, when a reader comes to me, identifies with the character and admits to honestly being that butterfly and puts away their LV bags then that is victory.”
Twinkle on the other hand believes, “My columns are about women and we might have different backgrounds and different economic situations but we deal with the same issues. So my columns are all about women, our responsibilities and though I don’t try there is a large side of me that has this feminist believe and I thing that comes across through my writings because it is part of me and for some reason I am always talking about feminism and menstruation.”
Moni Mohsin is positive “Yes, when a reader comes to me, identifies with the character and admits to honestly being that butterfly and puts away their LV bags then that is victory.”
Twinkle on the other hand believes, “My columns are about women and we might have different backgrounds and different economic situations but we deal with the same issues. So my columns are all about women, our responsibilities and though I don’t try there is a large side of me that has this feminist believe and I thing that comes across through my writings because it is part of me and for some reason I am always talking about feminism and menstruation.”
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