Features
By Roshini Muthukumar and Sneha Ramesh
Bangalore: “Rain, Rain, poda deiyy… Rain, Rain poda deiyy..” was ringing in the minds of people present during the launch of Nirmala Govindarajan’s new book, Taboo, on January 25th at a classic hangout in Bangalore -- Koshy’s, along with a dramatised reading that was performed by famous theatre persons.
Taboo, is a story that journeys through underage trafficking and slavery; love and sex; and crime and power. The author, Nirmala Govindarajan, started writing this book two years ago. “After my mother passed away in 2018, I started to travel often and I came across many people and their stories. From the small streets in southern India to the mountains of northern India, this book stems from facts and everything that I saw,” she said.
Nirmala Govindarajan is a documentarian, journalist, and an author who has written two books. Her first one, Hunger’s Daughters, was published in 2018, and both her books deal with subjects of social relevance such as exploitation and trafficking.
During the event, Nirmala had close friends, family, and like-minded readers from various book clubs in the city to support her. Prem Koshy, the owner of Koshy’s -- a close friend of Nirmala -- was the chief guest for the day. Prem said, “Nimi’s book is incredible. It allows the reader to see the reds and greens of life. It was so touching that I had to go back to some parts and read them again for the intensity to settle in my mind.”
Nirmala Govindarajan's new book -- Taboo
Well-known theatre persons such as Kirtana Kumar, Darius Sunawala, Ashish Chandra Sen, and Darius Taraporavala performed a dramatised reading of excerpts from the book during the event. The reading was accompanied by music, performed by Rahael Roy Thomas.
“It was a pleasure to listen to the dramatised reading, it was my first-time attending such an event. It felt like I was watching a play when the music was played along with the reading,” said, Pratheeksha, who was present at the event.