LOS ANGELES: Hindi novelist, Kamlesh Chauhan’s second book, ‘Saat Pheron Se Dhokha’, was launched May 21 at the Peacock Restaurant in Diamond Bar under the aegis of Jagriti.
An evening of singing and music, the function was attended by over 100 guests.
Kamlesh Chauhan is the founder of Jagriti, an organization she started several years ago to offer refuge and a support structure for women who had been victimized by domestic violence. Chauhan has since been embraced by the Indian community of Southern California as a community activist. She is a published poet and writer. Her first novel, ‘Saat Samundar Paar’ won her acclaim in India and in the U.S.
The function started with lamp lighting by Dr Parvin Syal, President of Jagriti, accompanied by Chauhan, Cypress City Councilman Dr. Prakash Narain and Los Angeles County Commissioner Mahesh Parekh. This was followed by welcome address by Amit Mehta, winner of the 2010 Mr India Global Title, who praised Chauhan as being a role model for the Indian youth in California. Sunny Singh then emceed a karaoke style singing of new and old Indian songs, rendered by singers Gurdeep Grewal, Imtiaz Khan, Deep Rajput and Avtar Chadda.
The book was officially launched with brief addresses by three speakers. Dr Kiran Rami, a college English teacher, spoke about the theme of domestic violence in the novel. She praised Chauhan for her courage in writing a novel about an issue most women don’t talk about. Harshi Gill, a writer and literary critic, spoke about infidelity in the novel and lauded the writer for exposing different layers of infidelity at an emotional level as perpetrated by the key male characters. Community activist and writer Dr Parvin Syal addressed the issue of children in a broken family. He spoke passionately about the sensitive portrayal of the effects of domestic violence on children and encouraged the audience, particularly men, to read this novel to understand an abused wife’s perspective. The book was released by Gaytri Saggar, author of a novel, ‘Lost to Them’.
Manju presented a bouquet of flowers to Kamlesh Chauhan, who was then honored with citations from the LA County Board of Supervisors and from the City of Cypress.
The author spoke briefly about the inspiration behind her writing. Her experiences with Jagriti had exposed her to many tales of women subjected to domestic violence and abuse. These stories, coupled with anecdotes related to her by her parents, encouraged her to write this novel. She thanked all those present for their love and support in making this a successful event. The New Jersey based media channel T.V. Asia filmed the event for later broadcast.
Featured artistes presented songs and Aslam and Sunny Singh also performed a few numbers.
The successful event wrapped up with dancing to music provided by deejays Abid and Asif Masih.
India Post News Service
