Mumbai, May 25: Priya Hajela, author of Ladies’ Tailor brought her novel to Mumbai with an intimate literary evening at White Crow, BKC this Saturday, attended by around 30 guests.
The highlight of the evening was a dramatized excerpt reading of the book, presented in collaboration with Studio Tamaasha. The performance drew audiences into the world of Gurdev, a Partition refugee who travels east from Pakistan to rebuild his life, stitch by stitch, as a tailor of women’s garments. The reading set the mood for a warm and wide-ranging conversation with Priya, which soon opened into the room, with audience members sharing their own family histories of displacement, resilience and new beginnings.
Ladies’ Tailor is a story of falling apart and coming together, of love found and lost, and of one man’s iron will to not just survive but to thrive. The evening was a testament to how deeply this history still lives in people, and to Priya’s ongoing project of returning to it.
Priya is currently working on two forthcoming books, a historical fiction set during the British period with Speaking Tiger, and a non-fiction account of the Sikh Gurus with HarperCollins India, continuing her exploration of history through the lives of those who lived it.