MK Binodini`s life and legacy to be discussed at Jaipur Literature Festival

New Delhi, January 16 (MIC): The eighth edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, the world`s largest free literary festival to be held from January 21 to 25 at the historic Diggi Palace, Jaipur will see three eminent writers from Assam, Manipur and Tripura discuss MK Binodini`™s life and legacy.

Around 77 authors from different countries and India are taking part at the 5-day grand event.

Nobel Laureate Sir VS Naipaul, 2013 Man Book Prize Winner Eleanor Catton, acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi and celebrated American travel writer Paul Theroux will take center-stage along with some of India`s leading authors, including prominent Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh, 2014 Man Booker Prize nominee Neel Mukherjee, best-selling novelist Amish Tripathi and celebrated author and translator Arshia Sattar, as well as internationally loved German children`s author Cornelia Funke at the festival.

L Somi Roy from Manipur and Pradyot Deb Burman from Tripura will discuss Binodini`s life and legacy with writer and poet Janice Pariat from Assam.

`Binodini: Forgotten Kingdoms, Remembered Histories` is the title of the session which has been scheduled at Mahindra Humanities Durbar Hall on the first day of the festival from 11.15 am to 12.15 am.

MK Binodini Devi (1922-2011), was born to the erstwhile royal family of Manipur.

A singularly talented novelist, essayist, and playwright, she wrote scripts and screenplays and was also a sculptor. With a creative output spanning a major part of the past century, `Imasi` remains an important part of the literary heritage of Manipur and the North Eastern States.

Her son L. Somi Roy has translated her memoirs of palace life titled `The Maharaja`™s Household: A Daughter`™s Memories of Her Father`™. Zubaan Books, New Delhi had published the book this year. Churachand Maharajgi Imung (2008) was the last book published by Binodini, as she signed her works during her lifetime.

Part memoir, part oral testimony, part eyewitness account, Binodini`™s The Maharaja`™s Household: A Daughter`™s Memories of Her Father provides a unique and engrossingly intimate view of life in the erstwhile royal household of Manipur in northeast India. It brings to life stories of kingdoms long vanished, and is an important addition to the untold histories of the British Raj.

L Somi Roy is a media curator and film producer and writer who divides his time between his native Manipur and New York. He has curated for MoMA, Lincoln Center and the Whitney Museum, among others. He is the Founder of IMASI: The Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi Foundation in Imphal.

Janice Pariat is the author of Boats on Land: A Collection of Short Stories which won the Sahitya Akademi`™s Young Writer Award and the Crossword Book Award for Fiction in 2013. Seahorse, her first novel, has been recently published by Vintage Books, Random House India.

Pariat was born in in Jorhat, Assam, and grew up between Shillong and several tea estates in Assam. She was educated at Loreto Convent, Shillong and The Assam Valley School. Thereafter she obtained a BA in English Literature from St. Stephen`s College, Delhi and an MA in History of Art and/or Archaeology from SOAS, University of London. She is the editor of online literary journal Pyrta, which she founded in 2010.

Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Burman is the current head of the Royal house of Tripura. He is the general secretary of the Tripura Congress and also the editor in chief of leading Magazine/news portal TNT-The Northeast Today.

A regular at the Harvard University, he speaks on various social issues such as Illegal mining, Forest rights, AFSPA, Migration and Tribal Rights. He is also the chairman of the Royal Tripura Foundation which runs a school in a remote village in Tripura .A keen musician and a sportsperson he also promotes various rock shows in the Northeast and is the Director at the Anglian Olympic Medal Hunt, which manages some of the best sports talent in the country.