Jnanpith award winning author Dr Pratibha Ray’s twenty-first novel Sesha Ishwara, published by Adya Prakashanee, was launched by Bhashayan at function here on Monday.
Bhashayan is a literary organisation based in Bhubaneswar dedicated to showcase the rich literary heritage of Odisha with an objective to build a network of Odia literature all over the country.
The launch of Sesha Ishwara began with an innovative audiovisual presentation on the book, an apt initiation into the world of Masak Nomad, the protagonist of the book.
The book explores the psychosocial factors of religious terrorism in the violent by-lanes of the world in a most unusual way. It is a postmodern novel of religious and ideological factionalism and the search for global peace.
The book depicts that the scourge of terrorism spreads the world over, immutable and ever increasing. Innocent lives are snuffed out in wars of religious bigotry and fundamentalism. Wading across the Hindu, Muslim and Christian worlds unfolds the story of Masak Nomad’s search for God.
Eminent writer Satakadi Hota presided over the function. The speakers included Dr Prafulla Chandra Mohanty, Prof Harekrushna Satpathy and Prof Basant Kumar Panda who discussed on different and distinct aspects of the book and lauded the universal appeal of the theme on which the novel is based.
Debaprasad Dash hosted the programme in his inimitable manner and engaged the author Pratibha Ray in an interesting dialogue about the book. Bhashayan secretary Dr Adyasha Das extended a vote of thanks.