Author Anita Anand through her books, sophia and the latest kohinoor: The world's most infamous diamond, offers insights about the inimitable women of the duleep singh family.
Seated right at the centre of the stage at a literary festival in Mumbai, Anita Anand seems a bit shifty, shuffling through her cue cards. She cricks her neck to face the podium in the far corner, listening to William Dalrymple, with whom she is sharing the stage as well as the authorship for their latest Kohinoor: The World’s Most Infamous Diamond. The much-admired Dalrymple— the first of the “Laurel and Hardy duo” (in Anand’s words) to regale the packed audience with the history of the cursed Kohinoor diamond—would seem a tough act to follow for most.
But Anand, a broadcast and radio journalist with BBC who turned author with her 2015 book Sophia: Princess, Sufragette, Revolutionary, seems to have lost all hesitation by the time she takes the microphone. Pacing the length of the stage, she holds the audience in rapt attention, her eyes gleaming with excitement as she narrates gruesome tales of the torture that the cursed Kohinoor inspired. “There’s something quite compelling about people behaving in the most extraordinarily appalling ways; doing things you would never dream possible. I mean, there’s nobody I can think of, who would pour molten lead on someone’s head for committing any sort of crime,” she exclaims, when we meet for a chat in the author’s lounge later.
Esta historia es de la edición January 30, 2017 de India Today.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición January 30, 2017 de India Today.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
The Politics Of Reservation
Caste Quotas Have Become The Most Fractious And Polarising Issue In Election 2024, With The Potential To Influence The Final Outcome
BACK IN ACTION
Besides making a thrilling comeback with Tipppsy, Deepak Tijori is working on pushing the boundaries with new projects
THE POWER OF PATIENCE
A steady approach has helped badminton player Lakshya Sen secure a spot in the upcoming Paris Olympics
Great Balls of Fire
The sport of PICKLEBALL is set to get a boost in India with the launch of the World Pickleball League here
Man of Many Ideas
Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav questions simplistic notions of Lala Lajpat Rai's politics in this well-researched book
THE HINDU NATIONALIST
Janaki Bakhle's Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva is a deep dive into the creation of the ideologue
LOVE CONQUERS
IKKA's third album Only Love Gets Reply brings together bigwigs like Diljit Dosanjh, Badshah and Karan Aujla, among others
The Great Indian Village
Everyone's favourite OTT show, Panchayat, is back for a third season on Amazon Prime Video. Expect a lot of laughs
VISUAL CONSTRUCTS
CLASSICS OF MODERN SOUTH ASIAN ARCHITECTURE ARE PORTRAYED IN THESE VOLUMES
TROPICAL TROPES
Tropical Modernism, an exhibition at the V&A, London, looks at the adoption of this architectural style in post-independence India and Ghana