Mumbai LitFest: Ratna Pathak Shah and Jerry Pinto on nostalgia

Ratna Pathak Shah and writer Jerry Pinto discussed nostalgia, social media and changing ideas of the past at Mumbai LitFest.

Pinto previewed his new book, *Yuri and the City*, while Shah read passages from *The Education of Yuri*. Discussing nostalgia in his writing, Pinto described it as a way of painting the past “in pastel shades of perfectly acceptable beauty”, adding that life had never been quite so simple.

Shah said younger people were becoming nostalgic for their parents’ lives, citing films such as *Chashme Buddoor* and a tendency to see earlier decades as safer and sweeter than they were. “Men and women don't interact like that. Not even then,” she said.

She also spoke about the pressures social media can place on young people, saying she would not have been able to deal with them herself.

The conversation was part of the Mumbai Literature Festival, being held from October 23 to 25.