Arundhati Roy discusses democracy

Tiny, with a shock of silver-lined hair and an almost ethereal appearance, Arundhati Roy captivated an audience at Mission High School Friday night as she told a story of repression and the changing face of democracy in India.Approximately 1,000 people joined the world-renowned Indian author in the school’s auditorium on 3750 18th St. for a discussion from her latest collection of essays, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers.

Among the audience members were actor Woody Harrelson and novelist Alice Walker. What makes a really great writer, person, and rebel–is someone who listens more than he or she talks,” said Walker in her opening words for the evening. “Someone who goes to where the silence is, and tries to understand why it is there.”

If listening is one thing that Roy does well, telling a story is something she does even better.
Throughout the evening, Roy touched on heavy topics such as the “mutation of democracy” in India, Kashmir’s struggle for independence  and the oppression of it’s people by the Indian governement, as well as the displacement of thousands of people from the Narmada Dam project.

Full report here Mission Local. org