Book Talk on Booker Prize Fiction at SEUSL

By M. A. Kaleel

The South Eastern University recently organised a Book Talk on Booker Prize winning fiction, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida written by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka recently.

Prof. Nawas of the South Eastern University and Prof. Kennedy and Dr. Umashankar of the Eastern University participated as guest speakers. Vice Chancellor of the South Eastern University Prof. Ramees Aboobucker graced the occasion as chief guest.

Author Shehan Karunatilaka, now in Italy on holiday, shared a video clip with the audience. In it, he said The Seven Moon… took seven years for him to write and in 15 years he had only two books. He advised emerging, budding writers to find an interesting story and to write and rewrite. He told the audience that he grew up among books and he still reads many books on the go and showed some of them to the audience. He said there isn’t any magic bullet to become a good writer and it only needs lots of reading and writing. He also showed his diary where he writes down his ideas in longhand.

Librarians M. Rifaudeen and Dr. Mashroofa Majeed, deeply worried about the poor reading and writing habits among undergraduate students, had organized a series of Book Talks to promote these skills.