For Immediate Release

Avid Learning in association with Penguin Random House, Kala Ghoda Association and CSMVS is proud to present a panel discussion celebrating the launch of acclaimed author Amit Chaudhuri’s upcoming book- Friend of My Youth.

Read on for an exclusive synopsis of the book:

A writer arrives in Bombay on a book-related visit, and finds himself in search of the city he grew up in and barely knows, a city shaken to its core not long ago by the 2008 terrorist strikes even as he takes for granted his errant local friend, Ramu. A six-foot-tall Kannadiga and onetime junkie who cannot reconcile himself to modern-day adult life, Ramu is an unlikely hero, Bombay incarnate; the writer is his mirrored counterpart in an extraordinary narrative about this city by the sea.The book is a tribute to Bombay and its familiar haunts, characters and happenings. Friend of My Youth is at once an unexpected exploration and a concentrated reminiscence woven around a series of visits to a city that was never really home; a commentary on the power of memory and the stubborn interference of childhood with adult life; a paean to the transformative power of friendship by one of our greatest living writers.

The description of the panel is as below:

Join us for a discussion with the author along with Columnist, Writer, and Founder and Director of the Mumbai International Literary Festival, Anil Dharker as they revisit both a remembered Bombay and a present-day one, while discussing, too, where the novel as a form is today. A curated selection of images of Mumbai by Photographer, Fawzan Husain, from his book, Between Bombay and Mumbai- 25 Years in Pictures Through a Changing City, will be shown to beautifully and poignantly underscore the discussion’s theme of Bombay's past, of the post-26/11 city, and of friendship.

Where: Visitors' Center, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Kala Ghoda.

When: Thursday, 4th May 2017; 6:00 PM - 6:30 PM - Registration and Refreshment | 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM - Discussion

RSVP: [email protected] / +919769937710; prior registration required

Press Email / Call: Ayeshah Dadachanji on [email protected] / +91 9820155297

Bios of the Panelists:

Amit Chaudhuri is the acclaimed author of seven novels, including Odysseus Abroad and A Strange and Sublime Address, and two books of essays. He has been awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Betty Trask Award, the L.A. Times Book Prize and the Sahitya Akademi Award. He is a judge of the Man Booker International Prize.

Anil Dharker has been an engineer, an architectural consultant, a film critic, a promoter of New Cinema and an editor, successively, of Mid-Day and Sunday Mid-Day, The Independent, and The Illustrated Weekly of India. He has become one of India’s best known columnists, his columns having appeared in major publications like , , The Hindu, DNA, Business World, The , Khaleej Times and Gulf News. He has also written for international publications like The Independent, The Scotsman, The Glasgow Herald, and Foreign Affairs. He is the Founder and Director of the Mumbai International Literary Festival, now in its eighth year. Anil has worked in television as producer and anchor and was also Creative Director of the Zee Television network. He has authored a coffee-table book on Goa, a biography of industrialist OP Jindal (The Man Who Talked To Machines), a collection of essays on television (Sorry, Not Ready), a book on Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March (The Romance Of Salt) and edited an anthology (Icons: Men & Women Who Shaped Today’s India). Anil is on the Advisory Committee of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and has been on the Advisory Committees of Doordarshan and the Children’s Film Society. He has received several journalism awards and has been on the jury of various awards including HSBC’s award for the Indian of the Year. He is the President of Citizens for Justice and Peace, and was till recently, the Hon. Consul General for Luxembourg for Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa.

About Partners:

Avid Learning, a public programming platform and cultural arm of the Essar Group, has conducted over 700 programs and connected with more than 65,000 individuals since its inception in 2009. Driven by the belief that Learning Never Stops, AVID’s multiple formats like Workshops, Panel Discussions, Gallery Walkthroughs, and Festival Platforms create a dynamic and interactive atmosphere that stimulates intellectual and creative growth across the fields of Culture & Heritage, Literature, Art and Innovation.

Facebook : www.facebook.com/Avidlearning; Twitter : www.twitter.com/Avidlearning; Instagram: @avidlearning

Penguin Random House is a subsidiary of the well-established and well-respected global publishing house, Penguin Random House. As printers and publishers of adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction in the UK, US and India, they are one of the most recognized names in publishing. The result of a union between two publishing giants-Bertelsmann’s Random House and Pearson’s Penguin—Penguin Random House was formed in 2013. Penguin Books was the brainchild of British publisher, Allen Lane, in 1935. Penguin India was started in 1985, and is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent. In 2017, they celebrate thirty years of being in the region. Penguin India is a portal for classic fiction, modern fiction and narrative non-fiction, including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, illustrated and children’s books. Penguin India boasts a list of authors that are some of India’s favourite writers. Featuring three Booker Prize winning novels (The God of Small Things, The Inheritance of Loss and Life of Pi), and others by authors who have won virtually every major literary prize including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Penguin authors have also been recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honors. Penguin India titles are available in several Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Urdu.

The Kala Ghoda Association was formed in 1998 with the object of restoring, maintaining and preserving the architectural heritage and the culture of the art district of Kalaghoda, South Mumbai. Since 1999 the KGA, host the annual Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, the country's largest multicultural festival, created to draw attention to this unique and beautiful area. The Festival spanning 9 days, across a 1 km radius, draws visitors in large numbers, not just from the city but from all over the country and the world.

CSMVS (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya), formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, is one of the premier art and history museum in India. Founded in the early 1900s, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya is one of the premier cultural institutions in the country. Today this building is listed as a Grade I Heritage Building and has been awarded the '2010 UNESCO Asia – Pacific Heritage Award' for Cultural Heritage Conservation. It has been awarded first place for Heritage Building Maintenance by the Indian Heritage Society. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) aims to create awareness and sensitivity towards our rich heritage through a visitor-friendly museum for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment of the public. The Museum offers a perfect leisure day out for all its visitors where you can engage with a world-class art collection and participate in fun-n-learn activities.