Interaction with author, Mr. Kiran Doshi

On 26th April, 2017, the students of classes XI and XII had an interesting interaction with Mr. Kiran Doshi, retired diplomat and educationist, . Mr. Doshi is recipient of The Hindu Prize 2016 for his new book Jinnah Often Came to Our House (2015). He has earlier authored the book Diplomatic Tales (2008).

Jinnah Often Came to Our House is a piece of historical fiction set around the time of the Indian freedom struggle. Its main characters are Rehanna, her father Sultan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself. The book captures the main events and tragedies during the war of independence, including the positions of freedom fighters like Gandhi, Jinnah and Subhash Chandra Bose.

The author explained that though the story was fictional, its protagonist, Sultan was based on his wifes maternal grandfather, who happened to be a friend of Jinnah. He said that at every stage he was careful about getting his historical facts right.

Mr. Doshi told the students how he came around to writing the book, the research that went into it and the great effort before beginning to write. Before talking about the book, he offered some advice to the students. He suggested that it is very important to have a good command over the language, to acquire as much knowledge as possible through life and above all never to give up.

He said that the book is a journey from 1904 to the partition in 1947, through the tragedies and decisions made during the freedom struggle. He told the students that to write a historical novel, one has to be accurate on facts, for which he researched a lot.

The students posed several interesting questions to the speaker regarding the book, Partition and even writing in general. Mr. Doshi happily answered all. To conclude, Mr. Doshi gave a few tips to students interested in writing both fiction and non-fiction.

It was an extremely interactive and informative session. Many of the students were seen walking back to their classrooms, as if in thought. Maybe they felt inspired to write?

Samarth Saxena, XI-B.