Join us at the bookstore to tune into this conversation between Nusrat Jafri and Thejaswi Shivanand as they discuss THIS LAND WE CALL HOME.
THIS LAND WE CALL HOME is Nusrat F. Jafri's debut non fiction book. It traces her maternal family history, through the lens of caste and conversions and the making of modern India.
Here are the details of the event-
DATE- 9 NOVEMBER
TIME- 6 PM
VENUE- CHAMPACA BOOKSTORE
Please RSVP here since there is limited seating for the event.
Read on to know more about the book and the speakers.
About the book
In this book Nusrat F. Jafri traces the roots of her nomadic forebears through the lens of caste and religious conversions over the last century. This affecting memoir explores religious and multicultural identities and delves into the profound concepts of nation-building and belonging. Nusrat’s family’s conversion to Christianity as a response to Brahmanical gatekeeping highlights their struggle for acceptance. The family found acceptance in the church, alongside a sense of community, theology, songs and carnivals, and quality education for the children in missionary schools. Parallelly, we see the family’s experiences during Gandhi’s return in 1915, the Partition, the two World Wars, the Emergency and the prime ministers’ assassinations. In a way, this is a story like and unlike the stories all of us carry within us; the inherited weight of who we are and where we come from, our tiny little freedoms and our everyday struggles and, mostly, the intricate jumble of our collective ancestry. Nusrat pays homages to her foremothers, the first feminists, and her forefathers, the ones who tried hard to fit into a caste society only to be spat out, and eventually chose alternative faiths in pursuit of acceptance.
About the speakers
Nusrat F Jafri, is a Mumbai based cinematographer, with twenty years of experience in filmmaking. Born and brought up in Lucknow, Nusrat, did her schooling from La Martiniere Girls College. She did her graduation from Delhi University and her Masters in Mass Communication from MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia.
Her latest short film, “Pilibhit,” starring Raj Arjun and Joyshree Arora, won her an IPTDA Award for the Best Cinematographer 2022, and a Critics Choice Award, nomination for the same film.
She lives in Mumbai with her husband, son and a cat named Jamia.
Thejaswi Shivanand is a library educator and curator of books at Champaca where he has been a regular part of the book club discussions and hosted several events with authors over the past five years. He has been part of initiating and sustaining different book-related communities for the past eighteen years. He currently works across India to nurture and support the growth of communities of readers in schools and libraries.