Arundhati Roy launches memoir on her mother Mary Roy in Kochi
“Almost everybody I love is gathered in this room. For a normal person, this would be her wedding or a funeral, but thank God I am not normal…” said author Arundhati Roy, standing before a packed auditorium in Kochi’s St Teresa’s College, where she flagged off the global launch of her memoir Mother Mary Comes To Me. Organised jointly by Penguin and DC Books on Tuesday, September 3, the event introduced the book– a personal and political recollection of Arundhati’s late mother, educator and activist Mary Roy.Arundhati first addressed the attendees seated on a different floor of the building, as they could not find space in the main hall. She then walked into the Mother Mary Hall of the college, where her publishers said she insisted on launching her book.“While this book is coming out, it is written in the time of one of the most horrible genocides happening in Gaza in full public view…As I prepared to come on stage, the High Court once again denied bail to Umar Khalid and to many of my friends…” Arundhathi said, before she read from Gangster, the first chapter of her book.“In these pages, my mother, my gangster, shall live. She was my shelter and my storm,” Arundhati read. Mary Roy is known for her battle against Syrian Christian inheritance laws, which earlier denied daughters a share in ancestral property. She was also the founder-director of Pallikoodam, a school located in Kerala’s Kottayam.Introducing the book and its author, acclaimed novelist KR Meera, called the memoir a stunning reminder to write about her own mother. “To introduce Arundhati, one needs to invent a whole new language. This book is a befitting reply to the government that banned her book,” she added.The book reading was followed by a conversation between Arundhati and Manasi Subramanian, editor of the book and an editorial member of Penguin India. The discussion touched on Arundhati’s writing process, her challenging childhood, and her negotiations with life and fiction. When asked how she is not bitter after living such a complicated life, Arundhati said, “Terrible things are happening to people… what have I got to be so bitter about. It is what it is…”Arundhati’s brother, Lalit Kumar Christopher, whom she calls LKC in her books, sang Let It Be by The Beatles, which inspired her to name the memoir. The author also took a few questions from the audience before signing copies for readers eager to get a close-up glimpse of her.
“ALMOST everybody I love is gathered in this room. For a normal person, this would be her wedding or a funeral, but thank God I am not normal…” said author Arundhati Roy, standing before a packed auditorium in Kochi’s St Teresa’s College, where she flagged off the global launch of her memoir, Mother Mary Comes To Me.
Organised jointly by Penguin and DC Books on Tuesday, September 3, the event introduced the book, a personal and political recollection of Arundhati’s late mother, educator and activist Mary Roy.
Arundhati first addressed the attendees seated on a different floor of the building, as they could not find space in the main hall. She then walked into the Mother Mary Hall of the college, where her publishers said she insisted on launching her book.
“While this book is coming out, it is written in the time of one of the most horrible genocides happening in Gaza in full public view…As I prepared to come on stage, the High Court once again denied bail to Umar Khalid and to many of my friends…” Arundhathi said, before she read from Gangster, the first chapter of her book.
“In these pages, my mother, my gangster, shall live. She was my shelter and my storm,” Arundhati read.
Mary Roy is known for her battle against Syrian Christian inheritance laws, which earlier denied daughters a share in ancestral property. She was also the founder-director of Pallikoodam, a school located in Kerala’s Kottayam.
Introducing the book and its author, acclaimed novelist KR Meera, called the memoir a stunning reminder to write about her own mother. “To introduce Arundhati, one needs to invent a whole new language. This book is a befitting reply to the government that banned her book,” she added.
The book reading was followed by a conversation between Arundhati and Manasi Subramanian, editor of the book and an editorial member of Penguin India. The discussion touched on Arundhati’s writing process, her challenging childhood, and her negotiations with life and fiction. When asked how she is not bitter after living such a complicated life, Arundhati said, “Terrible things are happening to people… what have I got to be so bitter about. It is what it is…”
Arundhati’s brother, Lalit Kumar Christopher, whom she calls LKC in her books, sang Let It Be by The Beatles, which inspired her to name the memoir.
The author also took a few questions from the audience before signing copies for readers eager to get a close-up glimpse of her.
