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6:30 PM
Goethe Darbaar | Writing the Journey: Characters, Choices, Changes
Literary Talk | With Jackie Thomae and Amitabha Bagchi
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Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi, New Delhi
- Language English
- Price Free entry. Registration is mandatory.
Literature allows us to travel without moving, to inhabit other lives and witness transformations that mirror or challenge our own. Novels become vessels through which we explore unfamiliar worlds, empathize with complex characters, and reflect on the decisions that shape human experience.
In this Goethe Darbaar, we welcome two acclaimed authors—Jackie Thomae (Brüder, Glück, Momente der Klarheit) and Amitabha Bagchi (Above Average, The Householder, This Place, Half the Night is Gone, Unknown City)—whose protagonists traverse landscapes of identity, belonging, and change.
In conversation with moderator Rishi Majumder, they will discuss how writing becomes a journey in itself: one that reveals, transforms, and connects.
The conversation will be accompanied by a dance-theater performance, इधर-उधर (Here and There) by Ashish Karnawat, that poses a fundamental inquiry: Where do we truly belong? The performer reflects on his personal identity crisis, shaped by two contrasting Indias: one polished, privileged and urban, and the other raw, grounded and struggling. "इधर-उधर" becomes both a personal and collective exploration of identity, belonging, and choices.
Join us for an evening of storytelling, reflection, and dialogue on the power of fiction to illuminate the many paths through life.
Read a review of Brothers here on our colum From the German Bookshelves: Explore more about Jackie Thomae's book here:
About the Artists
Amitabha Bagchi is the author of the bestselling Above Average and the DSC Prize winning Half the Night is Gone. He has translated the ghazals of Muneer Niazi into English. His most recent work is a novel entitled Unknown City which is a sequel to Above Average.
Jackie Thomae, born in Halle/Saale in 1972 and raised in Leipzig, has lived in Berlin since 1989. A journalist, TV writer, and author, her debut book Eine Frau – Ein Buch (2008) became a bestseller. Her acclaimed novel Brüder (2019) explores the lives of two half-brothers, Mick and Gabriel, sons of a Senegalese father in the GDR. Told in alternating perspectives, the story examines identity, race, and social dynamics. Brüder was shortlisted for the German Book Prize and won the Düsseldorf Literature Prize in 2020.
Ashish Karnawat is a performing artist and contemporary dancer born in Tonk, Rajasthan and based in Bangalore. His artistic approach is inspired by the randomness and absurdity of life, using his body, voice, mind, and energy he questions societal conditioning and explores the depths of human potential through humour and absurdity.
About the Moderator
Rishi Majumder
Rishi Majumder is the co-founder of the creative agency Oijo and the online history project Indian History Collective. He has also been a co-producer of the global music show BalconyTV as well as a part of the team that brought it to India. He has been an editor, columnist and correspondent with various media outlets, in India and abroad, and continues to write and speak on politics, policy and culture.
Location
3, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi 110 001
India