Tag: blrlitfest

Bestsellers – Wake Up, Life is Calling

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Is there any reader who doesn’t know Preeti Shenoy? Not at all. people of all ages love her work. 

Preeti Shenoy is a Banglore based, one of the top five highest selling authors in India. Having written in varied theme and life experiences, she is one of the most influential writers in India. Her books are a source of new hope and enlightenment to readers. They have been translated into several languages. She’s well known for her poetry and short stories. She is also an artist specialising in portraiture and illustrated journalling. 

Preeti Shenoy was in conversation with Vani Mahesh. Vani Mahesh is a good old friend of Preeti and also a fellow writer. Best-selling author Preeti Shenoy was slated to speak about her new book, ‘Wake Up, Life Is Calling‘. Wake Up Life’s calling is a sequel to Preeti Shenoy’s iconic bestseller ‘Life is What You Make it’. Roughly eight years later the author released the sequel. 

The book deals with the human mind and the immense power of positive thinking. The gripping narrative demonstrates with gentle wisdom how by changing our thoughts we can change our life itself. The author has researched so much on mental health for nearly for two years. Written in a simple language, this book revolves around the topics of friendship, truth, and mental health. It also reinforces the power of positive thinking and how it can change our lives.

Explaining the title, Preeti said, “I wanted something inspiring and positive that connects ‘life’ in it. But it had to be distinct from ‘Life Is What You Make It‘. We had about 30-40 titles and, when I heard Wake Up, Life Is Calling, I knew it was apt for the story. Preeti also said none of my readers knows that I’m an introvert. 

Preeti also unveiled the jacket of ‘Wake Up, Life Is Calling‘ logo for her readers. The flower symbolises life, both are beautiful. Then something terrible happens and scatters the petals, destroying the flower. 

There was also a rapid-fire round with the author. ‘Wake Up, Life’s Calling’ is all about love, hope, and dreams. In conclusion, the session was more inspiring, informative and fun. What Preeti conveyed is to be a dreamer and an achiever. 

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.

Line of Sight

TheSeer Team

We had Vaibhav Purandare in conversation with our esteemed guest of the hour, former cricketer and umpire of the Australian Cricket Board, Mr. Simon Taufel. Mr. Simon launched his latest book, Finding the gaps at the Bangalore Literature Festival. His legacy as an umpire at the international cricket has established him as a stalwart of the gentleman’s game providing the necessary momentum for the launch of his book. The book essentially attempts at transferring the rules, regulations and teachings of cricket and its surroundings to the everyday life of an individual. 

 

Considering the conversational narrative style of the book, there is a certain sense of personal touch to it. Simon expressed that cricket provided him with the perfect platform to write a book that covers the imperatives of living a successful life. Cricket, seen as a simulation of life, requires a certain sense of dignity, responsibility and resilience to achieve objectives at a personal level and organizational level. The book is a testament to the attributes of cricket which can be transported to the contemporary world. 

 

Simon further claimed that he genuinely enjoys sharing and providing information. Being able to invoke people’s potential was the primary reason for Simon to become a mentor off the field in the profession of life. He decided to quit the role of an umpire. He believes that mentorship and training to an individual is imperative in order to achieve success in life as it provides a sense of direction. The act of coaching, training, and professional development on and off the field of cricket has been an enticing and enriching journey for Simon. 

 

He spoke about the importance of books and the nuances that it contains which creates a reverence towards it. The conversational style and aptitude of a book renders as if the person reading the book is speaking or talking directly to the author. Simon said that the key to succeed in a specific area such as writing a book and acquiring knowledge for the same is to read and understand the works of acquaintances and peers from the industry. Justin Langer’s Seeing the sunrise had a great impact on the culmination of his journey in writing a book. 

 

Moving to the topic of personal accounts on the pitch, Vaibhav proceeded to ask Simon about the pressures of being the adjudicator in IPL. Specially with the volatile and loud atmosphere when judging. Simon’s insightful answer alluded to the importance of believing in oneself. IPL is so media popular that the umpire’s mistakes would not be taken well. But Simon said that he relies on these mistakes to provide him with the necessary feedback to get better and succeed. Simon posited the theory of “Gut-o-meter” which is believing in the gut instinct of oneself and making a decision regardless of the outcome. “…the key is to believe in yourself and just go with it”, said Simon. 

 

Simon spoke of the four Cs that one must take into consideration while making employment decisions. The four Cs being capability, competency, character, and chemistry. The latter two provide an insight into the personality of an individual, a key in many situations that require values, behavior and integrity to triumph over difficult situations. 

 

Simon explained different concepts that his book covers at length – concepts such as ‘right and wrong’, the value of respect for the profession, and the need for humility. The book also touches on the understanding of one’s position in the macrocosm of the universe and regulating messages that provide opportunities of transcendence for the game and the people involved.

 

To conclude, Simon ended with a statement that was an eye opener to the crowd and got loud applause. He said, “Keep it simple and watch the ball.”

 

 

 

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.

Indian Elections

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Ornit Shani speaks of the ramifications of the election system placed in India by the British Raj during their colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent. The election process in India is an established one that has been practised effectively since the beginning of Independent India.

 


In order to speak extensively about the contemporary process of election that takes place in the country, the fundamental regulations to be followed by the electoral board needs to be established which Ornit Shani with the excellent acquaintance of Srinath Raghavan posited through her speech. 

 

The prioritising factor when it comes to the capacity to contribute to the election process is the requirement of being a citizen of the nation. In this case, this requirement existed even during the British Raj. The other requirement is the age of an individual is required to be 21 or more in order to be able to vote in an election. To shine light upon the electoral process and its inception during the British rule, the question of the inculcation of the Universal Adult Franchise was brought up, especially during the 1930s, but the innate problem that deemed this worthless were a multitude of factors that in succession, established a clear distance between the inclusion of the UAF and the electoral processes of the Indian subcontinent. 

 


The first issue was a logistical one, which was the absence of sufficient personnel in the polling department. The second hindrance was the rampant illiteracy that pervaded through the houses and huts of India which deemed the erection of UAF next to impossible. In an imperialist and colonialist atmosphere, UAF required the creation of a joint list of voters that included people from all sections of the society, including the colonized along with the colonizers, which has its own juxtaposing issues. The creation of the Indian Civil Services was an attempt at clearing this issue in order to cater to the free flowing of bureaucracy within the nation state. According to Ornit Shani, what is to be taken into consideration is that the bureaucrats of the 1930s were essentially obstructionists in nature, meaning that their sole intentions were to deliberately delay or evade a process of polity. This resulted in the demands made by the authorities to create lists and instructions in order to make sure that their objectives are accomplished successfully. The democratic dialogue which was to take place during the time of elections was overturned and the order of disenfranchisement was passed in order to keep a political dominance and hegemony intact. 

 



Further, Srinath speaks about the treaties of accession that the princely states were to sign in order to be a part of this larger state. The clauses of the treaty of accession was based on the subjects of the provision of defense, external affairs, and communications. Yet, according to Srinath, nowhere in the treaty does it provide ownership or rulership of the territory itself to the party that drafted the treaty. The attempt at connecting people all across India through an electoral process was disturbed by several states. For example, Saurashtra created its own constituency in order to deviate from the central powers which created a hindrance. 



Another issue in the effective completion of the election process post partition was the inclusion of refugees in the electoral list. The requirement of citizenship in order to vote is something that the refugees lacked, and the waiting period of 180 days within the nation was not completed in order to provide citizenship. This inevitably resulted in the disenfranchisement of Indian voters due to the question of what really constituted an Indian.

 


A solution was reached that the refugees would be provided with a citizenship upon the agreement of their stay in the camp until further due process was completed. Being on the electoral role meant that an individual’s citizenship was guaranteed, which was an imperative requirement for many people who were deemed to be stateless due to the geopolitical situation. The creation of awareness for this was a rather difficult one and the result of the same is the ultimate reason for the existence of the election process in the Republic of India.

 

 

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.

The 3 Worlds of Indian Citizenship

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This session was presided over by Niraja Gopal Jayal, professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Introducing her, Ramachandra Guha praised that she is an interdisciplinary scholar and her work is genuinely comparative.

Beginning with the meaning of Citizenship, Niraja said that Citizenship was once an electrifying term. Post-independence, it empowered people in the sense that they felt a patriotic belonging to a nation newly liberated from the clutches of colonialism. She opined that citizenship today is characterised by menacing undertones.

Niraja dealt with Indian Citizenship as a legal status, as an identity and as a right, each existing in a parallel world of its own. She stated the fact that India adopted birth-based citizenship. During the Constitutional assembly debates, heated arguments took place enabling a final decision. Drawing a timeline she said since 1985 however, India has witnessed a steady shift from birth based to decent based citizenship, which had become more pronounced off late with the National Register of Citizens ( NRC ) and The Citizenship ( Amendment) Bill, 2019 ( CAB ). NRC in Assam which purportedly aims at alienating illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is a form of carving out Muslim minorities. CAB legitimizes religious differences by outlining six religions qualified for fast track citizenship. All of these, she pointed out is a travesty of the constitutional concept of citizenship which envisioned equality for all citizens alike.

The second dimension of identity, in her view, is prefigured. Initially, She held that identity with India did not conflict with linguistic identities or religions for that matter. It was pluralistic. Fast forward to today, vigilante violence against minorities like Dalits, Muslims and women belonging to these sects is on the rise and the perpetrators enjoy impunity. “What places them above the law ?”, Neerja asks.

The third world of rights was overarching bringing within its sweep civil and legal rights, welfare schemes and legislations like Right to Information. Due to time constraints, Niraja respectfully skimmed through the last dimension to reiterate the dangerous implications of NRC on the 3 worlds of Citizenship.

Citizenship is a glorious term invoking a myriad political as well as patriotic sentiments. It is with conversations like these making us aware that we can begin to acknowledge the state of affairs as is and hope to strive for the lofty ideals enshrined in the Constitution.

About the Author: Charishma V is just another complex, creative pseudo-adult who can wear several hats. Her blog is at charishmavreddy. She currently writes for TheSeer. Instagram handle – @poetry_over_prose

We are Family – Ink and Kin

TheSeer Team

Families are seen as entities emanating the purest form of love. What happens when families are inked into a narrative where their pretences are stripped away and the complexities of relations between kin are rewritten?  

The panel for this session comprised of three authors namely, Aruna Nambiar discussing her new novel, The Monsters Still Lurk; Udayan Mukherjee discussing his novel, Dark Circles and Julia Prendergast discussing her 2018 novel, The Earth does not get fat. The moderator of the session was Tanuj Solanki, a novelist himself and recipient of Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar. 

Tanuj began the session with the observation that the relation between families and fiction is as old as fiction itself as we can see in the popular epics of Indian culture, be it the Ramayana or the Mahabaratha. His first question, directed at Aruna sought to understand what the ‘monsters’ in the title of the novel ‘The Monsters Still Lurk’ stood for. 

Aruna answered that the ‘monsters’ are metaphorical and went on to explain that they represent the real problems of aging such as fear of mortality which are often scarier than the imagined monsters under our beds. She chose to set her novel in the post-liberalization era as she considered it an interesting time and decided to span it across multiple generations to explore the multiple facets of aging to contrast the changing dynamics of society and changing relationships with children and siblings. 

Udayan who grew up in Kolkata upon being questioned on how the writing of the novel, “Dark Circles”, began and how the characters materialized, pointed out that families have layers of complexities. Every family has the strangest of secrets that remain buried. Curiously, he said that the younger generation was more revolted by his story than the older generation. 

Julia spoke next, explaining that the title of her novel was an African proverb that she had come across while doing a study on proverbs. ‘The Earth does not get fat stuck’ with her as something hauntingly beautiful. In her novel, she has dived into the dynamics of a dysfunctional family. She has also mentioned that it was not a conscious decision to write on such a gritty subject. 

The panel then spoke of the technicalities of choosing a third person narrative and what are decisions that a writer has to make upon choosing the voice for a narrative. 

Tanuj brought up the aspect of resentment that elders in the family feel when their demands are not conceded to. To this, Udayan added that resentment is absolutely fundamental in a family or any other long term relationship for that matter. Julia, on the other hand, commented on the lack of resentment of her narrator and said that  at the end of the day, “Dark Circles”, is a story of love and love doesn’t tend to give up. 

This session spurred many emotions as my mind wavered to reinspect the nuances of familial relationships in the modern day. 

 

About The Author

Charishma V is just another complex, creative pseudo-adult who can wear several hats.Her blog is at charishmavreddy. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Instagram handle – @poetry_over_prose

 

Early Indians

TheSeer Team

The audience seated at the Yayati stage arena on the first day of the Bangalore Literature Festival’19 were greeted by Tony Joseph, the author of the best-selling book, ‘Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From’ for a 30-minutes session alongside Chandrahas Choudhury, novelist and columnist based in New Delhi who moderated the session.

 

Tony spoke about the contents of his book, ‘Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From’ which is an account of the origin of modern Indians. There were varied discussions on what brings us together and on the ancestry of growth, not thought. Several questions on the disappearance of ancient civilisations of the Harappans, the Mesopotamians, etc. and whether they were our ancestors or not was also addressed. Tony’s book answers these questions and discusses these subjects in elaborate detail. He also touched upon how the Harappan civilization is known to grow naturally by agriculture and that further answers several other intertwined questions such as – ‘who were the first farmers and the first Indians?’.

 

He elaborately discussed three sets of migration that has great contribution in understanding the ancestry of the modern Indians and Chandrahas remarked how we were the first Indians to learn about those Indians from history Tony had written about in his book.

 

The session was concluded with general remarks on how geneticists in the modern times are capable of finding ancient DNA that has in turn changed our understanding of origin and brought in significant developments which in a nutshell can be explained in terms of ‘archaeology and encounter of technology’.

 

 

 

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.

Misadventures of the Urban Woman

TheSeer Team

Realities of urban women can be conflicting and complex, it can also be comic and contain melodies of everyday life. In the session, two well known women authors from different genres came together to discuss their recently published books, which ironically catered to similar ideas. 

One of the authors, Sudha Menon is a celebrated Indian author of several non fiction books and for the session she brought alive her recently published book , “Feisty at Forty”. and provided insights into her book. Another one was Khyrunnisa, a prize winning author of children’s fiction and columnist, who diverted from her usual  style to write the book “Tongue and Teeth- the funny side of life”. 

Both the authors voiced the struggles women faces when they reach fifty and narrated how how life has started to change for them as well. They expressed how the everyday habits of grooming, dressing up, choosing colours became a matter of grave concern, as outsiders always have an invariable opinion on them. They also relayed how personal choices like the choice of lipstick colour, the colour of one’s hair, and what kind of dress to wear becomes more of a public and political choice than personal. It becomes the subject of mockery when it does not conform with what society expects from women at that age.  

Both Khyrunnisa and Sudha Menon expressed that with age they have developed a humorous lens towards life. These are reflected in their respective books. The authors told how they have shared several personal life experiences in the books, hoping to provide the audience a very relatable context for getting insight into women in their  fifties. 

Khyrunnisa related how with this book, she shifted radically from children’s literature to what she calls as a self reflective text, which gave her more time to think about herself.  

The title of the book, as told by the authors, referred to the day-to-day adventures which stood out from routine; it has nothing to do with misery or as the word might suggest something very unfortunate. The short stories are mostly humorous and funny in nature. Both the books are written in simple and direct language which directly addresses the audience either in a dialogue form or crisp narrations of an incident

In conclusion, I would like to say that Sudha Menon and Khyrunnisa are very influential personalities who leave a strong impact on the women in society, teaching us that we shouldn’t be insecure of our growing age rather cherish its beauty. 

 

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

കേവലം ഒരു പിടി മണ്ണ് അല്ല – Putting Kerala on the Literary Map

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So much is lost in translation. Yet, it is equally true that words can only take flight when they reach a global audience. The session ‘Putting Kerala On The Literary Map’ involved the moderator, C.K. Meena in conversation with Malayalam authors, Johny Miranda and Unni R (stage name of Jayachandran Parameswaran Nair) and endorsing the benefits of translation. Ironically, the rawness and earthiness of Unni R’s and Johny Miranda’s Malayalam responses were lost, when they were translated in English to the audience.  

 

The session began with C.K. Meena expressing her displeasure at the name of the session which connotes that Kerala has not entered the world literature space. Later, she herself clarifies that the name is intended to reflect how Malyalam authors have entered the world literature space after they were translated. 

 

The virtues of translations were expounded by both Malayalam authors present on the stage who gave a window into Kerala’s rich history with translation. Unni R educated the audience further on this when he highlighted how Kerala was the first state in India to translate Marx’s Capital. 

 

However, both the authors expressed that though Kerala openly embraces translations of all literary works, Malayalam novels themselves were not translated into other Indian regional languages or English if they were not recipients of any award. This has the consequence of limiting the scope of many Malayalam novels. The session also saw the authors crediting publishers like Westland and Amazon, for opening up Malayalam literature to the World. 

 

 

A noteworthy moment of the session was when Unni R expressed his relationship with the city of Bangalore. In his own words, “Bangalore used to mean good weather and Brigade Road to me, now it is the city where Gauri Lankesh was shot”. He seemed to be commenting on the general animosity that is prevalent today towards writers or factions that don’t subscribe to popular opinion. After this comment, he was quizzed on his political inclination by the moderator, to which he expressed that he shies away from being in the left-right political spectrum. He also spoke on how important it is to be a humanist at present, hinting towards the situation in Kashmir. When he refused to comment further on the situation, the moderator, C.K. Meena immediately quipped, “when you say that you can’t say about something, you are actually saying something”
. 

 

Throughout the session, there was a general census that translation is important in this age of globalization and that it  gives power back to the writing from the author and the language. This took me back to Roland Barthes, ‘Death of the Author’ where Barthes argues in favour of the literal death of the author to bring writing in the forefront. 

 

 

 

About the Author: A wanderer at heart, Vibhuthi is the author of Rainbow, an anthology of poems that was published in 2009 by Nishaganti Publication. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Yoga Vs. Bhoga

TheSeer Team

One of the most interesting sessions at the festival was a talk by Devdutt Pattanaik, at eight in the evening which was also the concluding session. A mythologist, speaker, illustrator and an author, Devdutt Pattanaik enchanted the audience with his charismatic personality. As simple as he looks, the theories he spoke of were complex and transcendental in nature. 

He began the session by narrating a story of a sadhu to a bespelled audience. The setting of the story is Mount Kailash, which is a snow-covered mountain with no human inhabitation. The protagonist of the story is an ascetic, who is smeared in ash and requires nothing. Pattanaik then described how this man possesses an other-wordly calmness and has no hunger or desire for anything – this is an introduction to Shiva- the greatest of all gods. 

Pattanaik conveyed the concepts of human desires and hunger, and its complexities in a simple manner. He said that if there is no hunger there is no desire. In his own words“yadi bhookh nahi hai, to lakshya bhi nahi hai.” He described the world as a bazaar or a marketplace where there is a commerce of give and take i.e. demand and supply. He also explained the distinction between animate and inanimate. The distinction, as he told, lies in presence and absence. Fetching examples from Mahabharata and Ramayana he narrated stories and made people reflect on complex theories. 

Further elaborating on the story, he said that Shiva (Mahadev) wants nothing. The conflict in the story is that if someone doesn’t need anything, how can they be invited to yagyashala?  How can you invite the sadhu to a feast as he does not eat? 

Devdutt Pattanaik expressed how when you understand yoga in a practical sense, you will outgrow feelings of hunger. Hunger, as he said, can signify anything from ambitions, power, wealth, health, or pleasure. He said that in the contemporary times hunger is celebrated and people are eager to acquire more and more even though they have the needful in abundance.

The author identified Yoga as a way to outgrow the pangs of hunger; it is a way to feel content with what we have and not seek more. He expressed his disappointment at how in India, people in the guise of yogis seem to be making million dollar businesses, which entirely refutes the idea of yogi. 

Pattanaik also spoke about the concepts of consumer and commodity. He illustrated this by giving an example of the relationship between two people, how each one of them is a consumer at one point and the other, a commodity and their shifting roles. He said how relationship is not about one person being the commodity and one being the consumer, but it is about both being both a consumer and a commodity.

Devdutt Pattanaik is such a dynamic personality that his great ideas conveyed in a short description. His knowledge of mythologies and his ability to relate it to the contemporary times, enhances our understanding of both the past as well as the present. It was a pleasure to listen to a man of great knowledge like him on a topic which helps us to connect to our roots. 

 

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

The Gangster’s Gita

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Once an underworld don known as ‘Agni Sreedhar’, initially interested in reading at the age of 7, became an expert at the age of 17, at various mythological studies. At the age of 25, Agni Sreedhar’s brother got attacked by gangsters. When sreedhar went on to complain about this, policemen told him about the issues that he would have to face in case he complained about the gangsters about whom even journalist, P. Lankesh mentioned in one of his articles. It was this event in his life which made Sreedhar join the path of underworld. This was a destructive path for Agni Sreedhar.

 

Agni Sreedhar had to be behind bars for almost 1 year and 8 months. But this didn’t restrain him from reading books. He was with his boss, the then underworld don Jayaraj who was admitted to the hospital due to illness. Usually, prisoners try to get admitted at jail ward to continue their activities. His boss was allowed to go out once a week escorted by police. However, Sreedhar was not interested in going out like others. After some deep thinking, Sreedhar decided to go out. Everybody was thinking as to where would this guy go, who hardly ever thought of stepping out.

 

Unlike his fellow prisoners who went out to prostitute centres or bars, Sreedhar wanted to go to a bookshop called ‘Gangaram’ at MG road. Apparently, the bookshop is usually closed by 8 PM, but Sreedhar made the bookshop keep open until 8:20. He purchased books worth around Rs. 5000. (This was during 1987) Policemen were very happy about him, which he mentions to be one of the cherished moments in his life.

 

Sreedhar prefers immersing himself in what he feels interesting. He has also gifted books to many IPS officers that raised their eyebrows in wonder. He mentions of himself as two personalities. One, a gangster, and the other a nonviolent person. He defines non-violence as ‘a man recognizing the spirit of man in all the men’. 

 

Translator Prathibha Nandakumar who has been translating his books since his jail times mentioned Sreedhar as one of the distinct writers who doesn’t use any flowery language. Sreedhar closed the session with these thoughts, “we are either ‘slaves of situations or masters of situations’, and usually people are ‘slaves of situations’”.

 

 

 

About the Author: Rohini Mahadevan is political science graduate and works as a content writer. She likes reading books, drawing, painting, and writing short creative pieces. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Upcountry Tales: Once Upon a Time In The Heart of India

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A conversation between Mark Tully, journalist and broadcaster who was the BBC’s Delhi correspondent for twenty years and Tony Joseph, author of the best-selling book, ‘Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From’.

 

Tony started the session by telling us that the nature of Mark’s writings is fictional and not reportage even though he has a deep sense of Indian culture. This set the tone for what was in store for us.
He went on to ask Mark about why he found India worthy of his stories and how he relates to all our current issues. Mark revealed to us that his Grandfather was actually born in Aurangabad and was an opium agent! This he says was his first introduction to India. It made him want to write about India, but not urban India. He chose as his subject the lives of those who live in rural India and the appalling nature of the governance and politics that affect their lives. He made no bones in expressing his opinion, being a foreigner speaking about Indian culture in an audience predominantly Indian.

 

Tony then quizzed him about some excerpts from his book where he spoke about life, balance, and compromise. Mark declared that he did in fact believe that life is all about balance. He remarked that we need balance between secularism and religion, if we wanted to grow as a nation. He asked what sort of a nation do we want. A Hindu one, then what kind of a Hindu one? A secular one he said, was not possible as secularism has not found a space for religion and India is a deeply religious country. He also argued that secularism is what has kept religious pluralism alive, a concept very much part of Indian culture. His opinions were balanced, presenting both cases with equal enthusiasm.

 

The discussion then moved towards Indian traditions as Tony asked him about his thoughts on how Indians were ignoring their own tradition to become more western. Mark answered it with a personal story of how when he once visited a communion at a Church in India, he was shocked to see a Sardarji also taking communion. He thought about how the reverse was something he had not seen in the western world, and this is what he said we needed to hold onto, what he terms as experiential religion. He said that he felt from his understanding that in India we experience God and religion and not just learn about it, and that’s what our true tradition is.

 

Tony then opened the floor for questions and the first one was- “Sir, your opinion on the Ayodhya Verdict?”. Mark was quick to answer, “No triumphalism please”. He said we needed to find a balance in this historic decision today and enjoy our points of commonality with everyone. That thought tied the whole session beautifully together.

 

 

 

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.

India Automated

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The session commenced on time at The Red Couch venue with Pranjal Sharma taking the lead who is an economic analyst, advisor and writer, focusing on technology, globalisation, and media. He guides projects on economic forecasting, business intelligence, and public diplomacy with Indian and global organisations. Pranjal creates and develops research projects that interpret policy impact on industry and society. He is a frequent speaker at events run by leading chambers of industry on policy advocacy and leads public discourse at several platforms in India and abroad. These include AIMA, the St Gallen Symposium, Horasis Global Summit and the web submit. 

 

His book ‘Kranti Nation’ published in 2017 was an instant hit amongst the youth. He briefed  about his vision behind his latest release which is “Automated India”. He began his argument by explaining the need for an automation injection to the country. He backed his support towards an automated nation by bringing in the facts regarding the current employment state of the country and drawing parallels from the past and present. He made his perspective clear by elaborating on the loopholes of current education and empowerment state of the country. Making the listeners aware about the rising automation he claimed that a 3-4 year college course degree can not calculate the potential of any aspiring millennial. He defended his stance in favour of establishing automation in the country irrespective of the huge population and its ability to absorb automation by talking about the aids that the automated world has to offer. He enlightened the listeners by telling them about the loopholes in current structure of private sector which has led to a lot of fraudulent events like Punjab National Bank scam monitored by Nirav Modi. Pranjal talked about eliminating discretion through automation as well as making it relatively easier for the government sector to conduct safe online auctions. According to him, his book covers the 4th industrial revolution which is absolutely egalitarian. With rapid development in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technology, automation is at a tipping point. Today, robots can perform a slew of functions without considerable human intervention. Automated technologies are not only executing iterative tasks, but also augmenting workforce capabilities significantly. In fact, automated machines are expected to replace almost half of the global workforce. Multiple industries, from manufacturing to banking, are adopting automation to drive productivity, safety, probability, and quality. 

 

The session concluded with an open question and answer round where a lot of questions were put forward to Pranjal regarding the aspect of robots and automated technology taking over human beings and eventually ending up controlling us. In the interactive round, he explained to the audience about his perspective of human retaining their powerplay position, because he claimed that the element that makes us human would still remain irrespective of the technological advancements. One of his central arguments which caught a lot of attention was the need to adopt the automated section in the country replacing many everyday affairs as well as activities like manual scavenging which needs to be abolished as soon as possible, thus the listeners had a major impact on their perceptions towards the injection of automation in the country.

 

 

About the Author: Abhinav Kumar is an MA in English with Communication Studies student from CHRIST ( Deemed To Be University), Bengaluru who believes in “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world”. He is interested in sports journalism and travelogue writing. He currently writes for TheSeer.

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