(From top) Shabana Azmi enjoys shayari with Pakistani author Kishwar Naheed; host Sundeep Bhutoria with some of the other Asian women writers at the dinner. Pictures by Aranya Sen

An evening that began with talk of women and their writing and shayari ended with Shabana Azmi bursting into melodious and meaningful poetry.

On Saturday, a dinner at 4B Little Russell Street — home to Prabha Khaitan Foundation —became a meeting ground for women writers from five different countries, with Shabana as unofficial moderator — and poet!

“When women write, it is a personal journey. Everything is inspired from what is experienced, or observed,” said Shabana, who described herself as “a daughter of a writer (Kaifi Azmi) and the wife of a writer (Javed Akhtar)”.

A night before the January 31 official launch of Speaking For Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writing, authors Donia Gobar (Afghanistan), Manju Kanchuli (Nepal), Kishwar Naheed (Pakistan), Kunzang Choden (Bhutan) and Putsata Reang (Cambodia) agreed that their writing was a personal journey.

“However, when women write it is also political, historical and social,” added one of the authors.

From writing as catharsis, the conversation moved to the difficulties of dialect translation. “We are not a mono-lingual country, so why should publishers not retain the Indianness in a book? For example, in the Punjabi language, khasmanikhanu means a husband-eater, and using the word gives a peep into the culture,” said Sukrita Paul Kumar, one of the editors of the book.

Shabana replied: “Having accepted that point completely, the question is of communication. It’s all very well to say that we are multi-lingual and that’s how we speak, but if you are communicating to a culture outside, it’s about facilitating communication.” The actress recalled the translation of a play about two elephants and a child at the Moscow Film Festival. “The actual line was: Babuji, haathi mere peechhe haath dhoke pada hai. And the direct translation was: Sir, sir, the elephant is after me washing his hands!”

Point made, Pakistani writer Kishwar Naheed then set the mood for the literary with shayari on the Taliban. “Jo bachchon se bhi darte ho… she began, with echoes of “Wah, wah!” filling the room. Afghani author Donia Gobar even shed a tear. “My husband also cries often out of emotion,” revealed Shabana later.

At the end of the day, women needed to share their world view with the audience, felt Shabana. “Whether arts or politics, the man’s gaze has always ruled. It’s time that the woman’s gaze —and not necessarily the feminist gaze — is celebrated. Because even though the concerns are the same, the sensitivities are different,” she said.

Dinner followed with Sundeep Bhutoria and wife Manjari playing the perfect hosts. After which personally autographed copies of Kaifi And I were gifted to the women writers. But not before Shabana — who was officially declared the life of the evening — broke into an Urdu nazm, touching the highest notes with ease.