Times lit fest creates benchmark

The Times of India literary festival took Delhi by storm on 11 and 12 February, drawing various authors, book enthusiasts, and more. The theme of the 7th edition of the festival was «One World, Many Words.»
One of the highlights was the session featuring writers Rakhshanda Jalil, Mridula Garg, and Swapna Liddle. Mridula Garg, a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, spoke about how the label “women writer” has often been used to pigeonhole women writers, and prevent their work from receiving a proper literary assessment.
She argued that the assumption that all women writers share the same worldview is both limiting and inaccurate. She pointed out that her novel “Anitya,” was not initially labeled as the work of a female writer. It shed light on the simplistic labels that do little to capture the richness and diversity of literature.