Author of “Jaffna Street” delivers lecture at CUK

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Ganderbal: The Department of Politics and Governance organised a lecture by Dr. Mir Khalid, author of “Jaffna Street” on “The Why and How of Writing” at Green Campus of the varsity here today.

Department Coordinator, Dr. Khalid Wasim Hassan, introduced the speaker and his book “Jaffna Street” to the students.

Dr. Mir Khalid talked about his book “Jaffna Street” and said the aim of writing the book was to create a tradition of sociological and oral history, which could be used by people from around the world to gain information about the conflict.

The “How” part of the lecture was answered by the author in these terms–the human mind is conditioned to observe and think which results in development of analytical faculties and emotional intelligence. This results in enriching the imagination, reinvigorating beauty and redeeming our expectation to an unfathomable amorphous collective future. He then mentioned the source of inspiration for his book was from a passage in Joan Acocella’s, Mikhail Bary in “Life Stories”. This paragraph, with its brevity and clarity and the idea it sought to put forward, that is, individual excellence that is achieved by humans with internal conflict and angst.

The author then gave tips to avoid while writing i.e. one should avoid privilege seeking, mediocrity, chasing celebrity hood, confusing acclaim with achievement, insular attitudes.

“One should gain familiarity with English language idiom, prevalent colloquial word play in fiction, non-fiction and poetic levels and the ongoing situations in different cultures.”

Dr. Sameer Ahmad proposed the vote of thanks.