Eminent poet & critic Mr. K. Satchidanandan launched the book ‘Colours of Loneliness and other Stories’ written by Sahitya Academy Award winning author  Paramita Satpathy at Lecture Room-2, India International Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. The book is a collection of stories by the author, translated from Odia by Ms.  Snehaprava Das. The title has been published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) and is available across major bookstores in India, and online. The author spoke about the book in a candid conversation with Mr.  Chandrahaas Choudhary at this launch, while also actively interacting with the discerning audience. Ms. Shivangi Sharma of OUP welcomed the guests and Mr. Abhishek Tripathy conducted the program for the evening.

Sharing her experience while writing this book Paramita Satpathy said that the stories in the collection are translation of 14 such stories out of almost one hundred stories she had penned. The undercurrent in most of the stories is loneliness and therefore both she and the translator thought that the name of the title be Colours of Loneliness after one of the stories in the collection. She also sais that as a writer melancholy in human lives influence her the most. She said that the works of  world class writers like Alice Munroe, Dorris lessing, Tony Morison, Amrita Pritam, Ismat Chugtai,  Mahasweta Devi, Sara Joseph and others shaped her feminine sensibilities.

Talking on the book Mr. K. Satchidanandan said Paramita’s work is a significant contribution to modern  Literature. She has in a very subtle manner expressed her anguish towards the wrong done to the marginalized and the poor. The themes of her stories are varied from one another and together in a spectrum they create an anxiety in readers to go through them.

Mr. Chandrahas Choudhury said that Paramita in a very adept manner has brought out different shades of loneliness that people experience. Fiction and poery can delve well into  human thoughts which have been very artfully displayed in Paramita’s stories.

The stories in this collection straddle many layers of human experience.. Some stories  even deplore the evils of a social system like sexual abuse of children, dowry deaths female foeticide  while others protest the crude invasion of urbanization into the peaceful territory of nature. Thus , it was a houseful event attended by known names in the field of literature, art and government.