Amitava Kumar’s ‘The Blue Book : A Writer's Journal’ released

New Delhi: The purpose of art is to create both - bring you closure to reality - and also, at same time to create some distance, said renowned author Amitava Kumar at the launch of his new book, 'The Blue Book - A Writer's Journal' here at the India International Centre(IIC) recently.

Expressing his views about the central conceit of art, the celebrated writer said, "When someone reading or looking at your work is moved..and that your words and images will leave someone altered or changed is what art is."

"My words are out to keep alive a memory," he added.

The book, according to publisher HarperCollins, is a writer's artistic response to the present world: one that has bestowed upon us countless deaths from a virus, a flood of fake news, but also love and trust in the face of loss, travels through diverse landscapes.

Kumar, who is also a Professor of English at Vassar College in upstate New York, expressed his views on the Indian education system "When I was a student of political science in India, it was never that teachers tried to connect with what I used to see outside college."

He connected the latter part of the question, saying that they were not taught how to look or understand, for example, a scene of father caring a son in a cotton wrap as a political science student. "I think that is the weakness of the Indian education system," he added.

Amitava holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Hindu College, Delhi and earned two master's in Linguistics and Literature from Delhi University.

In reply to a question about his previous statements in a podcast, where he asked the listeners to stand in solidarity with students like Umar Khalid, who is booked under sedition law for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans and is serving a prison term. The author replied "In my opinion, he is more patriotic than all the people who say 'Jai Shree Ram'. He has a right not only to his view, but to his life, which is truly contained in prison. This is excess cruelty."

Kumar, who was born in Bihar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (General Nonfiction) as well as a Ford Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists in 2016. (UNI)