This is a Book Launch, and Discussion with the author. The book is a novel in English titled "Twice it Happened" published by Vishwakarma Publications. The author is Gita Viswanath, who will be in conversation about her book with Nikhila H.

About the Novel: Twice it Happened narrates the prodigious stories of two women across generations who carry secrets. The circumstances in which they reveal them and the consequences of their revelation form the plot of this family chronicle. Spanning nearly a century, the story is narrated in different but interlinked sections of the novel. Through dreams, voices, and visitations on her thirteen-day journey to the other world, the spunky Nagamma, also an imaginative storyteller reveals her secret to her niece, Jyothi, who is a disenchanted, weed-smoking university professor. Jyothi’s cousin, Chitra, the second protagonist, uses the epistolary mode to share her story of giving up her children; alongside her delightful yet subversive stories of life in an army cantonment.

These stories are interwoven with apocryphal stories of large, close-knit families, creating incredible narratives of women, relationships and desires. The novel is multi-layered in its complexity and draws upon the rich and diverse traditions of storytelling prevalent in our societies.

About the author: Gita Viswanath is the author of "The Nation in War: A study of Military Literature and Hindi War Cinema" as well as a children's book called Chidiya. She has taught English at school, college and university levels for 12 years.

About the discussant: Nikhila H. teaches in the Film Studies Department in The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She writes and researches on gender issues and on cinema.