At Islamabad lit fest, Shobhaa De speaks of the hate she faced after column on Modi

Author Shobhaa De regaled an audience here with tales of writing against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and said he wasn’t the kind of person you would take home to meet your mother.

On Saturday, the second day of the Islamabad Literature Festival, Ms. De said she received lot of hate mail after her column on Mr. Modi’s marriage in which she said she felt sorry for the woman who was abandoned at the age of 17. She said hate mail and attempts to delete her blog posts would not deter her from writing.

Referring to Indo-Pak ties, she said the ‘T’ word — trade — would hasten the two countries coming together and ties were so strong and abiding that whoever comes to power will realise that.

Other events at the festival included the launch of two books by author Intizar Husain, where he spoke about his interaction with Indian author U.R. Ananthamoorthy during the Man Booker Prize event in London in 2013.

Mr. Husain said everyone was surprised that he knew him and Mr. Ananthamurthy even gave him a warm hug. The next day they had to repeat the show of affection for some photographers. “I was happy to see a familiar face but I was asked why I was so friendly with an Indian. English audiences think the situation is such that we can’t even speak to Indians,” he remarked.

A 20-minute clip of a serial “Mai Manto” scripted by Shahid Nadeem was screened during the launch of the compilation of his works at a discussion.

The serial will be aired on Geo soon and is also shortened into a 90-minute film. Manto told his stories without glamour and only showed the suffering, Mr. Nadeem said. It was naked reality and he delved into his characters and talked about their lives.