The eighth day of the Extensive Book Exhibition and Literature Festival in Damak saw a discussion on journalist Phulman Bal’s latest collection of stories, Kajol Khatun. The event saw critics and the audiences engage in discussion with the author.

Speaking at the event, critic Munaraj Sherma said, “Books that are based on the insurgency that we are beginning to see plenty of in the market are important as they help to revisit an important episode from history. Set against the backdrop of the war, Kajol Khatun advocates love and humanity.”

Meanwhile, another panelist Prakash Thamsuhang said that Kajol Khatun examines the psyche of those affected by the war with simplicity. “However, the ethos of the Tamang society that we got to read in his poems is absent in the stories,” he said.

The discussion was moderated by litterateur Naveen Prachi.

Speaking at the event, author Bal said, “I wrote most of the stories when the war was ongoing, so there might have been some limitations. The book does not examine the overall result of the war. I tried to enter inside the psyche of war victims and wrote the prose to that end.”

First published over a decade ago, Kajol Khatun was recently republished by Bookhill Publications.

Along with the panel discussion, the eighth day of the fest, organised jointly by Dikura Publication and Nepal Literary Group, also saw a children’s poetry contest.