Contact: Muriel Banares or
Carmen Ramos Chandler ,
(818) 677-2130
mbanares@exec.csun.edu

Distinguished Novelist to Speak at CSUN

Bapsi Sidhwa, the distinguished novelist who presents the protagonist in her autobiographical novel Cracking India, will speak of the religious and political forces that divided India and Pakistan in 1947 at Cal State Northridge on May 9 at 4 p.m.

Sidhwa¹s presentation will take place in the University Student Union Theater located inside the Northridge Center on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St.

Her discussion is a prelude to a free showing of the film Earth, which is based on Cracking India. Both Earth and Cracking India describe the tumultuous events that led up to the India and Pakistan separation through the eyes of 8-year-old Lenny. Lenny became the spectator of the rising tensions between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. The religious and ethnic hatred erupted and devastated 12 million lives.

Sidhwa will answer questions after the film.

She received the Sitara-I-Imtiaz, Pakistan¹s highest national honor in the arts, in 1991 and the Lila Wallace/Reader¹s Digest Writer¹s Award in 1994. She has taught at Columbia University, University of Houston and Mount Holyoke College. She is currently the Fanny Hurst writer-in-residence at Brandeis University.

For more information, call Phyllis Herman in the Department of Religious Studies at (818) 677-3925 or (818) 677-3392 or she can be reached by e-mail at phyllis.k.herman@csun.edu.