Chandigarh, August 22
A book of ten short stories titled “Unclaimed” by renowned journalist Dr Vandana Shukla was launched today at the Press Club in Chandigarh amidst an august gathering of writers, academics, family, friends and journalists.
Unclaimed takes the reader to the stories that we overhear and sometimes, to our horror, see them reflected in our family albums. The stories begin with a snapshot of moving life frame and then open into peculiar “angularities” of a person’s reality. They scratch the visible surface in their quest for shades of truth; often complex and disturbingly humane. In between there is a universe– constantly moving and changing with the chronology of human fatigue; hypocrisy and conflicts; through which the subjects try to balance, reconcile and wear the masks of the normal….
In her keynote address, Prof Emeritus, former Chairperson Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Pam Rajput, said, “At its heart, Unclaimed is a powerful literary exploration of how patriarchy shapes, controls and often violates women’s lives across different classes, generations and corners of Indian society. Though each story stands out on its own, together they paint a haunting, cumulative picture of gender-based violence, not always in its most visible, physical form but in the quieter, more insidious ways it seeps into homes, marriages, families and even institutions meant to protect.”
Dr Shukla needs to be congratulated for daring to touch the topic so subtly in the form of short stories titled ‘Unclaimed’, she added. In conversation with Dr Shukla, Suparna – Saraswati Puri, Author
Adi Shankara, Advaita and said, “The collection is bold yet emotive. The subject of each of the ten short stories provokes thinking. ‘Unclaimed’ compels you to sit-up and wonder, what is Normal and why.”
About the Book:
Unclaimed by Vandana Shukla, a collection of short stories, cannot be slotted to any pre-fabricated category; it is able to recognise the essence of human complexity—often polite societies dismiss or limit to private gossip. It demands a certain willingness to hear voices that are often ostracised; for telling disturbing truths. The stories take the reader through the binaries of shame and liberation; through violations of well-defined codes of intimacy in private spaces.
The narratives offer a peep into the cultural, feudal and class strains underlying gender politics in India. Despite fluidity of these issues; despite changes brought about with migrations and modernity, the changes show– only on the surface. They relate obliquely to the flash points of violations and then move on—to the façade of the normal.
About the Author
Dr. Vandana Shukla has been engaged in media production and writes on art and culture and gender issues. Her interests include travel and world poetry and music. Based on her study of Ladakh region’s social transformation, she authored A Monk Postpones Nirvana, published in 2018. The study was sponsored by The Fetzer Institute, Michigan, USA. Her upcoming book documents violent trajectories of the youth from the conflict zone of J&K.
For her multi- disciplinary research on the history of communalism in the Indian sub-continent and the literature produced on the theme of Partition of India, she received Ph.D. from BHU. She has been engaged in print media for over two decades in varying capacities. Author, motivational speaker and former civil servant Vivek Atray, author and former head Department of English, Panjab University, Manju Jaidka, also graced the occasion.