Speakers Style II – City Scripts -2023

LISTEN TO THE Keynote Speakers

Suresh Jayaram is an artist, art historian, arts administrator, and curator from Bangalore. He is the Founder, Director of Visual Art Collective/1.Shanthiroad Studio. He is involved in art practice, urban mapping, archiving, curation, and arts education. His keen interest in environmental and urban developmental issues influences his work. He has worked on the horticultural history of Mysore state and Bangalore city, edited a book on GH Krumbiegal "Whatever he touched he adorned" (2010), and authored Bangalore's Lalbagh - A Chronicle of the Garden and the City in 2021. Currently, he is working on a book on Cubbon Park.

Archana Pidathala

Archana Pidathala

Archana Pidathala is the author of two cookbooks Five Morsels of Love (2018) and Why Cook (2022). Her book Five Morsels of Love won the 2017 Gourmand World Cookbook Award. She is also the founder of Five Morsels Press, an independent publishing house based in Bangalore, India.

Samhita Arni

Samhita Arni

When she was eight, Samhita Arni started writing and illustrating her first book. The Mahabharata - A Child's View went on to be published in seven language editions and sell over 60,000 copies. Samhita's second book, Sita's Ramayana, a graphic novel developed in collaboration with Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar, was on the New York Times Bestseller list for Graphic Novels. She is also the author of a mythological thriller, The Missing Queen, and The Prince, a work of historical fiction set in South India. The Prince won the 2020 Neev Book Prize. In 2021, India Today magazine listed Samhita as one of the "The Next 100 Young Achievers" who symbolize India Tomorrow. Samhita is the Creative Director for the Starlight Effect, and lives in Bangalore with her two cats, Chutki and Zen.

LISTEN TO THE Event Speakers

Suresh Jayaram

Suresh Jayaram

Sohnee Harshey

Sohnee Harshey

Sohnee Harshey is a feminist researcher and aspiring educator. Currently, she leads the communication strategy work at Nirantar and The Third Eye in New Delhi. Prior to this, Sohnee was part of the founding team of Economic and Political Weekly’s digital initiative Engage where she was involved in creating new knowledge formats to demystify social sciences research.

Asha Nehemiah

Asha Nehemiah

Asha Nehemiah is a popular author with children of all ages from 3-12 years. Wonderfully funny characters get into wacky adventures in her stories. Her best-loved mysteries include The Mystery of The Secret Hair Oil Formula, The Mystery of the Silk Umbrella and the short stories from Zigzag and The Boy whose Nose was Rose.

Sharanya Deepak

Sharanya Deepak

Sharanya is a writer and editor currently based in New Delhi, India. She writes about food, language, and the commodification of culture. She is an editor at Vittles, a food and culture publication based between the United Kingdom and India. She is currently working on a book of essays. Her work is available on her website: https://www.sharanyadeepak.com/

Archana Pidathala

Archana Pidathala

Abhishek Anicca

Abhishek Anicca

Abhishek Anicca is a writer, poet, performer and activist. He identifies as a person with locomotor disability and chronic illness which shapes his creative endeavours. He has written on disability and illness for several publications and his poetry has been widely published in Hindi and English. He uses spoken word poetry and solo performances as a tool of activism. He edits Dislang, a magazine that uses personal narratives of persons with disabilities to resist different forms of ableism. His first book, a collection of personal essays on disability and illness tentatively titled 'The body comes first' is scheduled for release in late 2023.

Annie Zaidi

Annie Zaidi

Annie Zaidi is the author of ‘City of Incident,’ ‘Prelude to a Riot’ which received the Tata Literature Live Award for fiction (2020), and the editor of ‘Unbound: 2000 Years of Indian Women’s Writing’. She received the Nine Dots Prize in 2019 for an essay that was developed into ‘Bread, Cement, Cactus: A memoir of belonging and dislocation’. Other published work includes a novella ‘Gulab’, a collection of short stories ‘Love Stories # 1 to 14’, and a collection of essays ‘Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales’.