Books and Authors - Current Affairs for January, 2017

The first Brahmaputra Literary Festival with more than 150 authors commenced on Jan 28, 2017 in Assam.

The festival is jointly organised by the National Book Trust and the Assam Government.

It will hold panel discussions, book releases, readings and culture events such as screening of films based on books.

Musical and dance performances will also be held.

The focus is on languages, literary, culture, society, performance traditions, politics, music and identity in NE states, India and the world.

This will also serve as a rich literary interface and a showcase of unique cultural and linguistic heritage.

Kiran Doshi, a retired diplomat and educationist from Gujarat, won The Hindu Prize 2016 on 15th Jan 2017.

It was for his third major work of fiction, Jinnah Often Came to Our House.

The book is set against the political turmoil of the subcontinent from the start of the 20th century closing with the Partition and Independence.

Shortlisted works were:

• Anil Menon’s Half Of What I Say,
• Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance,
• Kunal Basu’s Kalkatta and
• Manjula Padmanabhan’s The Island of Lost Girls.

The award was given away by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks at the ongoing The Hindu Lit for Life fest.

Earlier on 14h Jan 2017, contemporary artist Gulamohammed Sheikh inaugurated The Hindu Lit for Life 2017.

William Peter Blatty, the author of novel The Exorcist and writer of its Oscar winning film died at age 89.

Blatty was the author of several books. His leading success was the 1971 novel which told the story of a possessed 12 year old girl.

The novel was panned by critics. But it met with commercial success, selling 13 million copies and topping the NYT Bestseller list for 17 weeks.

Blatty won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay of the book for a 1973 film and later directed a sequel, in 1990 called The Exorcist III.

Blatty died on 12th Jan 2017 suffering from a rare form of cancer, multiple myeloma.

He also specialized in comedy, writing Promise Her Anything (1965), which starred Warren Beatty, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) and The Great Bank Robbery (1969).

He also wrote the Pink Panther sequel Shot in the Dark. Another cult film he scripted was Darlin Lili which starred Rock Hudson and Julie Andrews.

Best-selling author and commentator Tuhin A. Sinha has been appointed a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mumbai unit on 29^th Dec.

Ranked among the most prolific Indian writers experimenting with new genres, the 40-year-old Sinha has also dabbled with the entertainment industry, part-writing episodes of the seven-year-old teleserial 'Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai'.

Among his books are:

• A romance story "That Thing Called Love",
• A cricket thriller "The Captain",
• An offbeat romance story "Let the Reason Be Love".
• He has also co-authored a book India Aspires with Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari.

The author has also collaborated with him for ministry road safety and other socially relevant initiatives.

He has also worked with Reliance as a creative consultant.

Sinha launched an NGO, the Ignited India Foundation with the online auction of 2 Madhubani paintings.

Know More About BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress.

President: Amit Shah

Founded: April 6, 1980

Newspaper: Kamal Sandesh

Ideology: Integral humanism, Social conservatism, Conservatism, Hindu nationalism, Gandhian socialism, Hindutva

Political position: Right-wing politics

Alliance: National Democratic Alliance