Renowned writer and academician Malashri Lal, former Professor of English and Dean of Colleges at the University of Delhi and the author of 26 books, will launch her much-anticipated second poetry collection, Signing in the Air, at the India International Centre (IIC), Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, on 11 February at 6:00 pm. The event will be held at the Seminar Halls,1st floor, Kamala Devi Complex, IIC, with tea and refreshments served from 5:30-6:00 pm. Entry to the programme is open on a walk-in basis.
After introductory remarks by the host, the Chief Librarian of IIC, the book will be discussed by the eminent speakers Namita Gokhale—writer, editor, and Festival Director of the Jaipur Literature Festival—and Rakhshanda Jalil, writer, translator, and anthologist. The session will be moderated by poet and publisher Kiriti Sengupta (Hawakal Publishers). The evening will also present a theatrical interpretation of select poems from Signing in the Air by celebrated NSD actor and theatre artiste Annu Priya.
Signing in the Air explores themes of imprint and erasure, climate anxiety, and mythic memory. The collection opens with a lyrical paean to India’s six seasons—shadowed by ecological loss—and journeys into reimagined narratives of Holika and Hidimba, foregrounding women’s voices with rare depth and restraint. In its five subsections the poems explore the paradoxes of continuity and resistance, social hierarchies, and feminisms.
Writer and Academician Malashri Lal says, “In these poems, I am trying to understand our illusion of signing our identity, whereas we are all mortal and impermanent. Less ego and more compassion in society will change the violent, disrupted world we are living in. Women are the likely leaders of such positive change. India’s living mythology carries tales of the divine feminine, a radiant energy that is transformative. It is also the fountainhead of gender equality. My poetry delves into the origins and tugs restlessly at the modern crisis”.
Malashri Lal’s previous collection, Mandalas of Time, was nominated for the Rabindranath Tagore International Literary Prize 2025, reaffirming her position as one of India’s most vital poetic voices.
The event will be anchored by Meghna Chaudhary, creative consultant in brand strategy and communications.
