Inter school Book discussion on Kalis Daughter at Springdales, Pusa Road

Springdales School, Pusa Road held their 24th Inter School Rosalind Book Discussion on 19 December, 2019. As many as 25 schools from Delhi NCR participated in the non-competitive event. The school has been organising the event for the past 23 years to encourage young people into the world of literature and creative writing. This year the discussion was based on the book, Kalis Daughter by Raghav Chandra.

The event was open to students of classes XI and XII. Two students from each school expressed their opinions, analyses and understanding of the text as well as the authors style, with originality and conviction. The moderator of the event was Dr Nirmalaya Samanta, ex-Springdalian from the 1977 batch and Associate professor of English at Ramanujan College, University of Delhi. The author, Dr Raghav Chandra, an IAS officer, was also present and shared his experience while writing the book.

Dr Chandra spoke of how he got inspired to write the book while he was working with tribes and persons of the scheduled castes during one of his assignments. He shared how his experience at the UPSC Academy in Mussourie helped him add real life events in the book.

Akshita Panwar and Vishakha Bisoya of class XI- D represented our School at the event. They spoke about what they liked the most about the book and how realistic they found it ( the book talks about the plight of a Dalit IFS officer who scaled heights solely due to her hard work and dedication, refusing to avail of any privilege available to her because of her caste). Akshita talked about the episode that led the protagonists father to call his daughter Kalis Daughter while Vishakha justified the title of the book and shared incidents where the protagonist was bullied in her school solely because she was a Dalit.

The fruitful discussion was enjoyed by all as every student had something original to say. The moderator and the author commended the participants on their ability to interpret the text so well and offer solutions to the problem of caste prevalent in the country.

Akshita Panwar, XI-D