Talking Books, held at Great State DIVE brings together readers and authors for casual but serious conversations, at a bar! Nandini Nair, the Arts & Books Editor of Delhi-based Open Magazine, curates this event. It has the intimacy of a drawing room conversation, and the energy of a bar. Readers can purchase their copies of the books during the event courtesy of the folks from Pagdandi Book Store. This month’s edition of Talking Books will feature Neha Dixit in conversation with Nandini Nair.

Neha Dixit is an independent journalist based in Delhi. She has covered politics, gender, and social justice in print, TV, and online media for 17 years. Most of her work is investigative, narrative and long-form. The Many Lives of Syeda X, published by Juggernaut, is her first book. Researched for close to a decade, the book examines the life of an ordinary working-class Indian woman. Dixit traces the story of Syeda, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension. Syeda left Banaras for Delhi with her young family in the aftermath of riots triggered by the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In Delhi, she settled into the life of a poor migrant, juggling multiple jobs a day – from trimming the loose threads of jeans to cooking namkeen, and from shelling almonds to making tea strainers. She has done over fifty different types of work, earning paltry sums in the process. And if she ever took a day off, her job would be lost to another faceless migrant. Through deep research and great empathy, Dixit creates an authentic portrait of untold urban millions in India.

Neha Dixit has won over a dozen international and national journalism awards including One Young World Journalist of the Year Award 2020, the International Press Freedom Award 2019 from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist 2017, among others. She has contributed to many non-fiction anthologies. 

THIS TICKET ADMITS ONE AND COMES WITH A COMPLIMENTARY PINT OF BEER BY GREAT STATE ALEWORKS.