Life and Death of Sunanda Pushkar

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Ravi Subramaniam interviewed author Sunanda Mehta about her popular book, ‘Life and Death of Sunanda Pushkar’. It was a great interaction between Sunanda Mehta and Ravi Subramanian. When one thinks of Sunanda Pushkar’s life, the first question that hits everyone’s mind is “Was it a suicide or was it not?”. The next one being, “Did he or did he not?”

 

Sunanda Mehta who as a friend knew Sunanda Pushkar very well said that the police investigation concluded it as a suicide but she did not believe that it was a suicide. She said,” Three theories have been discussed – accidental drug overdose, suicide, and murder” and I believe suicide is the least likely one, because she was not that kind of a woman. She loved life and she had good financial support. She had seen a lot of ups and downs. She loved her son more than anything in the world. She was a woman who was ruled by heart rather than the head.”  Accordingly to her, except for the Delhi police, the rest of the world doesn’t believe it was a suicide.

 

In her book, Mehta mentioned that Sunanda Pushkar had a phenomenal amount of wealth in Dubai. She had a property worth 150 crores. Mehta questions how can a person who has been accused of being bad at financial management managed to get property of 150 crores on her own without any help.

 

Mehta continued to explain that Sunanda Pushkar was there in the real estate business and she had seen a huge explosion in it. She used to handle bigger projects in the Dubai government. She got a lot of commissions from the land deals she arranged. She invested all again in property and the property worth 150 crores which were bought in Dubai includes 12 apartments. Most of these apartments were under a mortgage and probably in partnership with others. Her son Shiv is still struggling to clear the financial burdens since she didn’t make any will. Her accounts are frozen and he is not able to clear them out.

 

Sunanda Mehta being a famous journalist chose to write about Sunanda Pushkar because everyone was aware that she was married to Shashi Tharoor for three and a half years and judged her based on that which was extremely unfair. She was 45 when she married to Shashi Tharoor. She lived a long life before that during which she toiled to reach wherever she was. Mehta wanted to bring out that life of Sunanda Pushkar to the audience. She thought it was important for the people to know about Pushkar’s earlier life before judging her as a gold digger, socialite etc.

 

Sunanda Mehta says Sunanda Pushkar’s life has been defined by her death. The death mystery is still unresolved. The book was written after meeting and discussing the story with close family members. Sunanda Pushkar was very close to her son(Shiv) and she was a devoted mother till the end. Sunanda Mehta is still awaiting the reaction from Shiv as he is still going through a very tough time in Dubai because of the financial mess and he is still spending more time in courts to release the accounts and property.

 

The book doesn’t talk about how Shashi Tharoor felt about Sunanda Pushkar. He refused to talk about it since his lawyers advised him not to speak on the subject as the case is still on. When it started, her relationship with Tharoor was genuine. She was absolutely in love with Shashi Tharoor and vice versa. They were completely happy with the marriage initially. As time passed, somewhere in the middle of 2013, things started to change between them. Differences started showing up more often which started building a distance in the marriage. Sunanda continued to be in love until the end. After the separation, she completely changed from being a very cheerful woman to a suspicious woman. She became a typical insecure wife which drove her to the edge.

Sunanda Pushkar should be remembered as she was. She was an emotional woman who lived by her heart and a fabulous mother who lived for her son.

 

 

About the Author: Swapna Patil is an author of adventure travel and romance. “Why stay at one place and talk about it, when you can make your whole life more interesting by traveling and narrating those stories in words” is the motto she lives by. She is also a trek leader and flirts with words on the top of mountains and chooses poetry over prose. She currently writes for TheSeer.

The Indian Conservative

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The session started with a recollection of the conversation that  Jerry Rao had with the Chancellor of Asoka University, Rudrangshu Mukherjee. The said conversation centered around the current academic scenario in India with the bombardment of ideologies of the Left as opposed to the inculcation of conservative ideologies in the academic world. Excerpts from this conversation includes incessant requests by Jerry to inculcate conservative ideology in the minds of the young through a string of lectures that he would posit upon the students. This was met with an agreement and these meandering set of lectures were turned into the book ‘The Indian Conservative’. The book explores the legitimacy of the conservative ideology and its claims through contextualization of different kinds. 

The theme of the book revolves around the right wing ideology and its persistence in Indian history. In the session, Jerry Rao spoke of  how political ideologies and its concepts such as Left and right are fairly recent in the macrocosm of history. He then discussed India and its ideology in contention in isolation, as he claims that there is an indigenous tradition of conservative thinking throughout Indian history. This claim is made with specific reference to the practices that revolved around equity. Jerry further alludes to the two texts that set the groundwork and are considered to be the foundational texts that set the tone for the Indian strain of conservatism; Shantiparva (the book of peace) by Vyasa and Tirukkural by Thiruvalluvar. These two texts act as the nucleus of the conservative ideology that seeps through the territorial boundaries of India and its citizens since its publishing. It has been part of the Indian political thinking and philosophical thinking. Considering that the philosophers of the ancient times were berated on their agenda of personal benefits and gains, Jerry defended their ideologies stating that their priorities were selfless and they mainly focused on social issues rather than personal gains. 

Through time, India had developed two main strains of conservatism within its territorial boundary, they were the Burkean or Traditionalist conservatism which emphasises the need for the principles of a transcendent moral order, manifested through certain natural laws to which society ought to conform in a prudent manner. Raja Rammohan Roy was an ardent follower of this strain of conservatism. The other strain of conservatism was adhered by Bankim and his Hindu nationalist philosophy which emphasized on the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent.

Post this, the idea of a utopic realm came into question to which Jerry said “belief in utopia leads to a dystopic outcome.” Further continuing his speech on the concepts of conservatism, Jerry brought out the differences between religious conservatism and non religious conservatism in which the former believes that creating a heaven on Earth is the responsibility of God and the latter claims the opposite, referring to the attempts of Pol Pot and Joseph Stalin in bringing heaven to Earth but the misconstrued ideology turned detrimental for humanity. 

There is a collective conservative skepticism towards the idea that group rights and beliefs supersede individual rights due to their association and belief in the concept of dharma, which is esoteric to an individual. In the Indian context, Rajadharma existed well before the introduction of the Magna Carta and its sole reason for existence was to eradicate the pervasive matsya nyaya (law of the fish). It is the fundamental law of nature that small fish become prey to big fish or the strong devour the weak. It can be equated to the ‘Law of Jungle’. In simple words, the strong will prevail over the weak.

The idea of India as Bharat is an ever-present one whose legitimacy according to Jerry, is similar to that of the Jew’s laying claim to the Holy Land, thus emphasising on India being a “sacred land.”The ideology of Bharat and its unifying ideologies existed before the preamble was written, thus securing its status on this dispute. 

Jerry spoke of his distaste towards the permeating ideologies of Marxism, Postmodernism and Freudian theories in the academic sphere and further berates the ideas of Derrida and Foucault, claiming that they are charlatans that make an attempt at brainwashing the minds of the young with their ideologies. He also discussed the challenges of being a conservative philosopher in the streams of academia and journalism as it is essentially dominated by the left that is totalitarian and elitist in its nature and spoke of the response he usually gets when he alludes to the Shanti Parva, stating that “I would be called a fundamentalist, a Hindutva practitioner if I used these works.”

Jerry also explored the defining qualities of democratic politics, which is the definition of an identity. (eg, the Akali Dal is a party for the Jaat and Sikh). Economy and philosophy are just add ons to the political idea as they aren’t prioritised for sustenance. 

Jerry concluded that there needs to be an influence in the nucleus of the several democratic political parties in India in order to create a shift to conservatism and thus prospering in the future. 

 

About The Author:

A self proclaimed meme lord that barely makes any but laughs at many, all Vishal Bhadri does is read, listen to music and cry during both the activities. Vishal has a poetry blog called Memory Palace that has all of his two poems in it. He is doing his triple major in Communications, Literature and Psychology at Christ University. He currently writes for TheSeer.

 

Writer, Playwright, Humanist: The Life and Work of Girish Karnad

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Vibrant with colours and ideologies, Bangalore Literature Festival celebrated Girish Karnad as a local and international personality at the same time. The session provided an extended glimpse on Karnad’s life and works as a writer, playwright, and humanist. The two venues at the literature festival were named after Karnad’s plays Tughlaq and Yayati. Convener for the session Preethi Nagaraj introduced Karnad by reading out a line from his autobiography. The other three panelists were personalities from Kannada literature and films who had personal encounters with Karnad.

 

Jayant Kaikini, a poet, short story writer, public intellectual, and a lyricist in Kannada cinema regarded Karnad as a senior who had always been ready to provide a warm helping hand to all the newcomers. Furthermore, in the session, Jayant describes his encounters and experiences with Karnad and how he always supported the upcoming literature and artists. Girish Karnad believed that the entire world relies within the self and the self has the power to change the world. Jayant quoted Karnad, “…if I don’t talk I will be considered a fool if I do I will be proving myself” and tells us how he was critical of himself as a person.

 

Girish Karnad has been a part of the sensibility and psychological world of the Kannadigas, an image of inspiration and support, helping the Kannada literature to transform to a great extent. Karnad was a public intellectual and activist who in his last years in spite of declining health actively participated in protests. He was a man of remarkable personality and exhibited himself as a humanist as he always raised his voice against injustice. Jayant said that to understand Karnad as a person we should read his non-fiction works and autobiography, Karnad’s personal narrative is exclusive. We generally read or see his fiction works in the form of books and movies which gives us exposure to his excellence of creation while his non-fiction provides an extended glimpse of Karnad as a person.

 

Karnad as multilingual personality has motivated many people to acquire and write in different languages at once. Karnad is the only person who has translated his works from one language to another as mentioned by K Marulasiddappa. For him, Karnad has been a contemporary, not of competition but compliment. B Jayashree, a director, actress, and singer, enlightened us with the rich narrative of Karnad in his plays such as Hayavardana and Nagamandala. Jayashree also sang a song written by Karnad which was included in the movie from his own play Nagamandala where they both acted together. Screening of Karnad’s four-minute speech in this short session also found a place, which was his last time on camera extending gratitude on receiving Amar Ujala Award.

 

The session ended with the screening of his speech, which exhibited for us a detailed image of Karnad as an extraordinary man conferred with great ideologies. He was a writer par excellence and a versatile actor, very sensitive towards humanitarian aspects. Karnad has been regarded as oxygen to a sinking person even at times when he suffered from critical health issues. He was an ever-evolving, restless and rooted mind who gave a new identity to Kannada literature and cinema.

 

 

About the Author: Aditi Dua is a Masters student in English with Communication Studies who has a knack for aesthetics and poetry. Apart from being a literature enthusiast, she highly celebrates challenging ideologies and provide disputing ideas of death. Always available for a conversation over good coffee. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Happiness Express

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The session flagged off on time at The Red Couch stage with an introductory address by Khurshed Batliwala, popularly known as BAWA – one of the two authors of ‘Happiness Express’ who particularly based his focus on the topmost things that make us happy.

 

On the onset, he drove home the fact that sleep or the act of resting, which is one of the most underrated things of today, is, in fact, the secret to looking younger, smarter and physically appealing. The lack of sleep makes individuals older, uglier, and dumber. The vehicle succeeding sleep that leads to a happy life is meditation. Unlike staying awake and aware with no access to rest or rest which lacks awareness, and dream which is bereft of both, meditation is as natural as both awakeness as well as awareness. BAWA even shot a rhetorical question casually, regarding babies being born with an ability to meditate in a few generations. Sounds fun? Who knows! The speaker believes that meditation increases our luck potion and concludes on meditation by calling luck, ‘the hallmark of a meditator’s life’. The next stop that the ‘Happiness Express’ halted at was exercise and how it triggers good humour in us. He believes that all the cognition occurred to human beings while they were moving and he touched upon the health disorders like obesity or high blood pressure which is a result of sitting for long hours at a stretch. Further, he went on to speak how the ‘hippocampus neuron’ works in humans and how the brain works on the ‘use it or lose it’ principle. He cited examples from technology acting as a hindrance to our beautifully engineered brains, for instance, Google Maps as an app has posed serious threats to our natural means of finding our way out of a place. Imagine all the hunters from history never finding their way back home because they do not have access to Google Maps!

 

Dinesh Ghodke, BAWA’s co-author in the ‘Happiness Express’ took over to speak on how paying adequate attention to food makes a huge difference. He went ahead to shed considerable light on the fact that no generic diet exists and we can be our own diet-detectives instead. Food should be grounded in its quality of being able to refresh and not make one lethargic. It is only the response of our body after an hour of food intake that we can declare what it has done to our body. He provides that today, the biggest markets are for pain relief. It is the endorphins that are charged when we exercise and exercise in turn helps in handling pain better. Meditation is one-stop-shop and it facilitates other bodily functions such as assimilation and digestion. It also has accelerated effects such as sound sleep and better learning abilities.

 

In the penultimate round of their talk, BAWA touched upon the other details of their book which runs the readers through anecdotes, stories of life and how the two IIT-graduates got into exercise.

 

The 30-minutes session was concluded by opening the floor to address the audience’s questions. To one of the questions regarding the ill-effects of lying down right after eating, BAWA highlighted that one definitely should abstain from lying down immediately after a meal and that the nap should not be for more than 45 minutes. Other concluding highlights were making organic farming and consumption of organic food a priority by bringing in the mention of Bengaluru’s Sri Sri Ashram which has trained 20 million farmers in organic farming and also alongside that, offers home garden courses. BAWA’s humour created great ripples of laughter amongst the audience as he answered another question from the audience in which he addressed the issue of Indians’ obsession with grades than with learning. It’s all about who vomits better in the exams whatever they mug! As a piece of concluding advice, he said that there is no cure for plain vanilla mentality and recommended the Netflix show – The Game Changers for better understanding of the importance of maintaining a healthy diet.

 

 

 

About the Author: Upasana Mahanta is an MA in English with Communication Studies student from CHRIST (Deemed To Be University) – Bengaluru, who firmly believes that there is nothing more exhilarating and liberating as poetry. She finds solace in writing poems and travel blogs and has amongst her laurels a 1st Prize in the English category of the All India Poetess Conference, Meghalaya Chapter’s Seventh Poetry Competition cum North East Poetry Festival. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Making Sense of Trump

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An uninhibited conversation of Edward Luce, an English Journalist and Financial Times chief US Commentator & Columnist with Writer and Editor Keshava Guha.

 

A conversation about Trump today is so on trend that you do not need to build up, you can get straight to the point and everyone follows, and that is exactly how Mr. Guha led the discussion this morning. Kicking off the session he quite pointedly asked, what is the significance of Trump and his actions today and will any of this be significant 30 years from now, or are we all just stressed about something that may not have a greater impact. 

 

Mr. Luce jumped straight into it. He said without any reservation that what the American citizen is going through is TDS-Trump Derangement Syndrome. He was of the opinion that Trump believes that there is no such thing as bad publicity and plays on it and the average citizen is being played. He was quick to add, “Trump has not really done anything yet of the size of the disaster of the Iraq War, but is capable of something bigger and that is what he believes should be the cause of worry.” He assertively declared that Trump is a symptom of a greater underlying problem in America, not the disease everyone is trying to cure. He went on to add that the common citizen is feeding into the idea of pluto-populism and that Trump is basically a plutocrat. 

 

Mr. Guha next delved into the comparisons and contrasts that can be drawn between Prime Minister Modi and Trump. Mr. Luce replied that Trump is not a threat to the US liberal democracy, Modi on the other hand with his core ideologies, might be. More importantly he says, “Trump is the least popular leader in the world right now, he is seen with an eye of disapproval and has a serious chance of being impeached in a few days. The Indian Prime Minister however enjoys huge approval at home and all over the world. He reflects on how this difference of perspectives speaks about how the people of the world see these personalities and their world vision. Where this contrast could lead us remains to be seen.” 

 

They spoke about the upcoming US elections and how it will be less of a Democrat vs Republican fight and more of a war of populists, the left-populist or right. Mr. Luce was of the opinion that the Democrats have always needed a leader that they love and in that context, Joe Biden may be ahead of the race. He went on to comment on Biden’s election campaign being based majorly on an anti-Trump pitch. He said that Biden is trying to drive home the point that if they can get rid of Trump, America’s problem is solved. He believed that it may not be true and went on to say that this may not be the narrative people need right now. it also overlooks key issues that exist in the country. He then added that Elizabeth Warren with her liberal ideas was more of what America needed but not what they wanted. He reiterated that the symptom that Trump embodies needed to be dealt with.

 

Bringing the discussion to an end, Mr.Guha finally asked, “…how will the US accept the election result whichever way it goes?.” Mr. Luce remarked that in either case people will be left polarized and we are looking at a time when the western world is already as polarized as it can be. He concluded by saying – “What it will take is a Modi like personality to win the US election. It is interesting times we live in”.

 

About the Author: Pashmi Dutta is a reader, writer, political enthusiast. Trying to talk with ease about things that make us uneasy, she has her blog at PashmiBlog and currently writes for TheSeer.

Mind Without Fear

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Rajat Gupta having been managing director for almost ten years of management consultancy giant McKinsey, drew from his experience throughout the session and shared insights on how not to get carried away by the result but enjoy the process. Rajat touched upon the philosophy of Bhagavad Gita “karm karo phal ki chinta mat karo”and how by truly understanding it he found it very liberating.

 

He was convicted for insider trading and spent two years in jail. In the session he talked about how he took it as an opportunity to know himself, he also discussed as how while being in solitary confinement, he discovered strength in solitude. On being asked how he dealt with failures, he replied “acceptance of mistake is the first step to overcome them” and positive frame of mind are vital for the comebacks.

 

Rajat mentioned that we should always be looking for an opportunity to do something good, Rajat revealed how his philanthropic activities gave him more satisfaction than other works that he was involved in ever could.

 

About the Author: An avid reader and traveller, Prashant likes to write and often expresses his opinions ranging from entrepreneurship to travel on his blog www.stonedsaint.com. He writes scripts for Edtech companies and also happens to be a  marketing geek while struggling to clear his engineering backlogs. He currently writes for TheSeer.

Forbidden Love

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Which is forbidden love? Is it Romeo and Juliet’s star-crossed attraction or Khilji’s obsession for Rani Padmavati or the love of those women who explore love outside their own culture? What does forbidden love actually mean? Is it the love that Oscar Wilde experienced?  Can love be forbidden at all? 

 

Paramita Satpathy, who authored seven short-story collections and won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2016 for her work titled ‘Prapti’ in Odia briefed about her book ‘A Boundless Moment’. Sticking to the context, the speaker stated that love is more than what is really said. She also said love may be in any form but if it works one should go ahead.

 

The next speaker Ekarat whose novel focuses on depression and love had many enchanting stories of love to tell. He expressed his views on the belief of love.

 

Author Nandita Bose got the audience intrigued with her answer to the question of forbidden love. She divided the question into three entities – society, literature, and moral, and questioned who on earth was the flag-bearer of morality. She quoted the examples of Lord Krishna and Radha.

 

Princess Meera being an allrounder, loved Lord Krishna out of Bhakti and loved him beyond all force. Anukrti Upadhyay ended the discussion well by reading out her work ‘Bhaunri’ which was shortlisted for Atta Galatta Best Fiction. The session ended on the note that love is not about the body, possession or attraction. All love needs is honesty and we should let it live eternally and for real.

 

About the Author: Bhuvanashree Manjunath is an Engineering student, also an avid reader, poet, and a blogger. She also works as a book reviewer. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Colour Matters

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Disambiguation of the persistence of colour and society’s dependence on the same for determining an individual’s thoughts and actions is much needed today. The trials and tribulations of time and history are a testimony to that. Artefacts predating the 20th century are witnesses to the struggles between race and ideology and their ramifications on different communities with different cultural and religious associations, some personally made and some by the vicissitudes uncontrollable by the mortal being.

Anuranjita Kumar sheds light into this subject through her eye-opening book of anthologies that centres around her personal experiences and also offers perspectives from different lenses within the society. The session starts on a lighter vein with the author Anuranjita and the moderator of the session, Subodh Sankar remarking on the pleasant weather of Bengaluru and comparing it with the toxic air quality in Delhi, which evoked a hearty laugh from the audience.

The theme of the session was set when Anuranjita asked the audience to guess her association to a sect from her surname, which has certain ambiguity in its association with several communities across India. Providing an anticlimactic answer after listening to the several opinions provided by the audience, she went on to highlight the importance of a surname in society as certain predispositions are established upon acquiring the knowledge of one’s surname. To create an air of resistance against this stigmatizing ideology and alluding to Baudrillard’s idea of simulation, she spoke of how her surname “Kumar” has ambiguity around it in order to make sure that her identity and its further associations are not conducted on the basis of her surname, which implies that the social structure is not adhered to. She spoke of the common practice of one’s identity being defined by their surname and its detrimental effects in society. As she said aptly during the session, “once your surname is revealed, unconscious inherent biases are already working.” She also remarked that surname came into existence to help people organise information.

Through the idea of reflections, Colour Matters is a concoction of stories that speak of the consequences of racism in one’s life by presenting several accounts from different sections of society. In the book, the author Anuranjita narrates several disheartening incidents that take place during people’s attempt at migrating to foreign soil. Each chapter of the book begins with the letters that make the word Colour.

The first story, Connect speaks about the life of Sunita, a maid-servant who is hesitant to share her food with another person due to the latter’s religious association and the hierarchy set in place, thus questioning the humanity of people who creates disparities due to race, religion and other socio-cultural factors. The second part, called Openness has an interesting story by the name of Are we scared of Muslims?

In the session, Anuranjita drives across the fact that race, religion and such stereotypes should not be the determinants of an individual’s capability and prospects in their life. Her academic background in Psychology, helps her to find a reason why such stereotyping exists; she alludes to Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs, stating that when there is a need for safety and security, there inherently exists a “Us versus Them.”

“For someone to be superior, someone has to be inferior” is the statement Anuranjita concludes the session on, giving the audience food for thought. The question and answer session saw discussions on Lacan’s theory of psychoanalysis, which offers an interesting take on the moulding of an individual and their association to things created during the mirror stage.

To conclude, the imperialist idea of Us vs. Them, Superior vs. Inferior persists within our society and has taken form through the means of racism and this needs to be eradicated for peaceful coexistence.

 

About The Author: A self-proclaimed meme lord that barely makes any but laughs at many, all Vishal Bhadri does is read, listen to music and cry during both the activities. Vishal has a poetry blog called Memory Palace that has all of his two poems in it.  He is doing his triple majors in Communications, Literature and Psychology at Christ University. He currently writes for TheSeer.

Pankaj-Kapur

दोपहरी – Dopehri

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One of the first sessions of the 8th edition of BLF begins at the Tughlaq, venue named after the popular play written by Girish Karnad. Who could be more apt but Pankaj Kapur, the eminent theatre personality and a very popular screen actor to grace the venue for the reading of his debut novella Dopehri. 

 

Dopehri meaning an afternoon is a story of a journey of an old woman, Amma Bi from dealing with loneliness in her big mansion to self realisation. Though the storyline seems to be intense, as Pankaj starts reading you cannot stop smiling, laughing intermittently. Be it her (Amma’s) way of chewing pan, looking at the door waiting anxiously for clock to tick 3 in the afternoon or her banter with her house-help Jumman, it’s no less than watching a movie on the screen with Pankaj impersonating them in his fine baritone. The story written in Hindi and Urdu has a poetic flow, detailing every character with a humorous quirk. Not only humans but intangible things like sunshine, the big mansion door, the age old car in the porch have a significant presence in the story as Amma Bi addresses them in her thoughts and observations to cut through her loneliness. 

 

As Pankaj shows a great sensitivity towards the emotions of the story characters, so does he for the audience and the world in general. He believes that irrespective of the era and the circumstances we may be in, freedom of speech, freedom to think, to choose and to live should always be protected. Before starting the reading, he expresses his concern over the notion of environment and religion through two poems.

 

The first one tells the unfortunate incidents of degradation of nature and environment where the moon is surprised to see what the humans have made of the earth –“ghoorta raha chaand ghoomti zameen ki taqdeer ko”. The poem ends at a pensive note where even the god wonders of his creation- “kya mene banaya tha, kya inhone bana dala”.

 

The second one talks of our interpretation of the religion and whether the religion is affecting us or the other way round. He engages the audience by asking them to repeat after him the titles also the refrain in the poem – “sukoon mile“.

“Mazhab benaam ho jaye
To sukoon mile
Har khuda me hai khuda
Yeh baat aam ho jae
To sukoon mile”

 

At the end humanity is above all and which he puts as “Insaan insaan ka ho jae to sukoon mile”.

 

The novella published by HarperCollins is a story he has been enacting on the stage for a while now. Motivated by some of his theatre friends and his wife Supriya Pathak, he penned it down as literature. Pankaj debuts in the world of books through Dopehri and is full of hopes when he says “It’s the sunshine that cuts through the darkest of the night.” 

 

 

About the Author: Bhumika Soni is a literature enthusiast working in the field of data analytics, I have always found words more charming and powerful than numbers. Still searching for The Enchanted Tree created by Enid Blyton to travel to various magical worlds. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Satyajit Ray Sci-Fi

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It is only fair that someone having as iconic a stature as Satyajit Ray also must have had a life full of equally iconic incidents. In 1962 Ray was all set to be the first ever Asian to venture out with the most ambitious science fiction project. Satyajit’s screenplay genius bowled the entire Hollywood industry and who’s who of America wanted to be associated with this film.

Shantanu Ray Chaudhari, an ardent Satyajit Ray fan, author and editor took the audience to a lesser known tragedy that India’s stellar filmmaker faced. Satyajit had come up with one of the best screenplays for a science fiction story set in rural Bengal. The story was about a poor, village boy and his tryst with an extra-terrestrial being that descends from a spaceship and the tender relationship that ensues. Sounds familiar? That is exactly what Satyajit felt when years later in 1977, during the Berlin film festival he happened to watch a Spielberg movie that was very similar to his much anticipated ambitious sci-fi project which for mysterious reasons had gotten shelved.

Shantanu during this session took the avatar of a storyteller enchanting the audience with the world of filmmaking and science fiction, describing the poignant tragedy of losing out on a chance in creating history in the filming world.

 

 

About the author: Monica Kamath is a curious being who strongly believes that a right time, right place and a right person can create wonders. True blue Bangalorean, a multi-linguist who can speak more than five Indian languages, love to understand people, dialects and cultures. Blog link – https://medium.com/@monicskamath. She currently writes for Bookstalkist

Life, the Universe and Everything: The Influence of SF on Society

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Science fiction has been one that catapults the reader into a world of possibilities. Be it time travel, or the world of superheroes, there is always something for everyone. What we miss is, however, the impact it has on society. Is it a reflection of what is going on in the society, or is it the other way round? Gautam Shenoy, along with established Science Fiction (Sci-Fi or SF) writers Bruce Sterling, Krishna Udayasankar, and Samit Basu, examines the multiple facets of how Sci-Fi brings a part of it into the working of the society.

How each of the writers looks at writing Sci-Fi is different. Sterling uses the example of the classic Jules Verne and how his free-spirited writing became rigid and boring when he became a politician. Consciously writing to reflect the society may not necessarily bring about the changes that are desired, as much as the free-flowing ones do, he says. Krishna Udayasankar who writes with an inspiration from Indian Mythology, says that mythology is used as a lens through which socio-political impact is seen, along with looking at how it can change. Samit, on the other hand, uses time travel as one that helps him keep a safe distance from the controversies of today.

That brings us to the question of social engineering. Could science fiction also help in social engineering? Could it actually bring about changes in society? In regard to this, Shenoy recounts an incident from the past when a college Vice Chancellor accused an SF writer of slacking off, and not coming up with more otherworldly writings, and that lead to Project Hieroglyphic. Sterling accedes to the fact that SF writers are often expected to bring exaggerated ideas in a world where dystopian SF literature is assuming popularity. He also speaks about how he doesn’t want SF to lie, but be one which can use its brainpower to bring solutions.

As much as we speak of the society and it being influenced by SF, do works imbibe and reflect the fears and anxiety of the society, Shenoy ponders and provides examples of movements such the one on the Handmaid’s Tale. Samit denies; in a country such as India, it is very hard to internalize something on those lines given the existence of many realities, and the uniqueness of each of them. He mocks when half of what we read like the news itself is fictional, how would a fictional piece assume such impact? However, Krishna says that the power of the familiar is one that is largely important. It is enough to entertain the thought of an alternate possibility.

When speaking of sci-fi, can it also help teach science? When Shenoy quotes examples of many scientists writing sci-fi pieces, Sterling opines that the trend is not really a healthy one. It is an oxymoron to have scientists who propagate truths to go ahead and write fiction. Good science fiction comes from anthropologists who can indeed understand the culture of a society and therefore can write pieces that take back messages into the society its stems from.

Shenoy moves on to examine the superhero culture as well. A rather interesting set up of Superman fighting the Nazis or a Black Panther fighting the Ku Klux Klan, Shenoy indulges in a conversation with the writers to understand how they work in the backdrop of the society. Superheroes today are modern myths and the ideal immigrants. Their presence is rather live, and keep the story alive, they say. However, Basu jokes, a superhero in India is considered one only when he fights in the west!

This genre, however far and distant it may seem, is integral to the society, as society is to it. Science fiction writers have risen to a level where they have become advisors and their words have become ones that have considerable weightage.

 

 

About the Author: A believer in the subtlety of magic in everyday living, and Shobhana seeks the same from the books she reads, and the poetry she writes. Immerses herself in music, literature, art, and looking out the window with some coffee. She curates her poetry, and occasional verses in her blog Thinking; inking. She currently writes for Bookstalkist.

Chit-Chat on Bofors and Rafale

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Ten years. That is how long Chitra Subramaniam worked on the Bofors scandal, from Geneva in Switzerland. She was 29 and pregnant when she began her investigation. She continued to follow the paper trail and money trail to their end, even after the Hindu fired her. Her husband sponsored her entire investigation and she did some ground-breaking work in bringing out all the dirt and setting some heightened standards for investigative journalism. The Bofors scandal led to the change of certain Swiss laws.

It wasn’t that there were no scandals before that, but Bofors came at a time when the country was looking up to Rajiv Gandhi with great hope after having lived through a cynical age during his mother’s government. Rajiv was portrayed as a clean person. So, when she held the papers that connected him to the scandal, Chitra said she was shaking. After her extended period of work, a box load of documents arrived in India for investigation. Although no one knows what happened of those documents, the Rafale deal has stirred up the public attention again. Everyone had almost forgotten about Bofors until somebody compared the Rafale deal to that of the Bofors.

According to Chitra, there is corruption in every deal including the Rafale. Yet she considers the Bofors and Rafale deal as chalk and cheese. In Bofors, for the first time, the prime minister of India was personally involved and stood accused of corruption. The Rafale, on the other hand, is not clear if politicians were involved. There sure are a lot of unanswered questions including the involvement of the Reliance group, but this story must be built piece by piece and not jumped to conclusions without following the conventional rules of journalism. She also insisted that the audience should read the works of Abhijit Iyer Mitra who probably knows the most about the Rafale scandal.

Chitra said the VP Singh government rode on the Bofors scandal but did nothing about it. And nothing is stopping the current government in doing anything about. However, the politicians are like ‘all scorpions stuck in a bottle’. They have together turned a lot of our institutions corrupt. They can’t moralize each other.

Chitra laughed when asked if the European countries are as clean as they are portrayed by the corruption index. She took the examples of Sweden, France and Italy to establish how the European countries are rather more corrupt.

Chidanand Rajghatta, the current Foreign Editor and U.S Bureau Chief of The Times of India, who was moderating the discussion with Chitra brought up an important point about how Indians are not ready to pay for news and expect it to be available for free. He thought that this hunt for free or cheaper news is causing financial constraints on the media houses which probably is the reason why they don’t dive deep to bring out the truth. But, Chitra said that the media houses have enough money when they want to have them and that cannot be the reason. She said people here indulge in a lot of gossips. Everyone thinks they know everything and everyone has an opinion about everything. People no longer follow the two-source theory of journalism. They write something because it all online now and can be edited later if needed. She also said that these media houses are constantly under pressure especially if the establishment is family-run. But they should be careful because social media has become the new watchdog. An eternal optimist that she is, Chitra reiterated that the media must continue to question and do their job.