Kerala Legislature International – K. R.

Acclaimed author and journalist Meera delivered a speech at the ‘Meet the Author’ session on her latest book, Kalachi, during the fourth edition of the Kerala Legislature International Book Festival (KLIBF) held at the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. The session was conducted by writer Sonia Rafiq.

During the conversation, prompted by Rafiq’s question as to how people have forgotten the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, Ms Mira responded by drawing a parallel with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The story takes place in a village where the residents appear to be sleeping and are haunted by the ghost of a headless soldier. Similarly, he said, we are living in a phase where people are unaware of what is happening around them or what has happened.

Many people are persuaded to believe stories that have been selectively dug up and presented to them as truth. “In modern times, the news we hear is often like a story, similar to Yakshi stories, carefully drawn from a single source, using selected words and omitting some details,” Ms Meera said.

He illustrated his point with an old version of the Cinderella story, which is quite different from the modern one. In that version, Cinderella was bathing when a bird snatched away her pair of shoes.

Then the shoes fell into the lap of a king. Seeing this as divine intervention, the king sought out Cinderella and married her.

Ms. Mira said researchers believe later versions of the story were modified to teach children that luck favors those who do well according to social norms.

Moving from stories to broader reflection, Ms. Meera remarked, “We all have only one home, planet Earth. ” He said that even in this age, humanity naturally lacks the maturity to see our planet as a whole, beyond meaningless divisions and boundaries.

She also cautioned against the misconception that feminism is born out of hatred towards men. She emphasized that feminism reminds us that hatred is completely wrong.