Tag: #blrlitfest2017

Perilous Interventions – The Use of Force and the Continuing Chaos

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“India’s aspirations to become a permanent member of the UN security council is realistic and doable”, says, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs during his conversation with Ambassador P.S. Raghavan at the Bangalore Literature Festival. The session was on the back drop of his book ‘Perilous Interventions: The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos’. Having had a 40 years long momentous career in diplomacy, the Minister spoke about his time in the UN Security council as representative of India and India’s diplomatic relationship with major countries across the globe. Continue reading “Perilous Interventions – The Use of Force and the Continuing Chaos” →

Conversations with People not like Us

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Madan Padaki, co-founder & CEO of 1Bridge, a last-mile services platform for Rural India was right when he said, “Conversations today are having a different meaning altogether. There is so much of impatience and distrust in conversations these days”. He was in discussion with Arun Maira, Former Member of Planning Commission of India and author of ‘Listening for wellbeing: Conversations with people not like us’. The book talks about how to have conversations with people who are different from us and have a different perspective.

Arun says the trigger to write the book came when his grandson pointed out that he did not answer the woman who was knocking at his car’s window begging for money. Arun had not even realized that someone was knocking. He says it was a shocking self- revelation about how he has been conditioned to not listen. Effective communication is not just about conveying your message across rightly but also about listening to the message being conveyed. Communication is incomplete without listening. Arun says, his friend who was surprised to learn that his brother was an ardent supporter of Trump was probably not listening to the conversations with his brother during family gatherings.

Arun quotes Tagore from Gitanjali,
“Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls”.

He says the consequence of not having a conversation has resulted in the divisions of the world as it is today. The structures of social media are only making the walls tighter every day. People are friends with likeminded people and are not ready to indulge with people who are different.

He quotes from Tagore again,
“Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit”

He talks about how the mind today has been trained to think fast that we have lost the ability to thinking slow. Thinking slow, he says, helps you with empathy and compassion.

Arun remarks that the media houses today are yelling at each in debates and discussion. Everyone yells and it looks like a tribal war. He wonders which one of them is listening.

Dalai Lama who wrote the foreword for Arun’s book observed that listening is first of the two wisdom tools advocated by Buddhism. The other two being contemplation and meditation. The way yoga which is about conscious breathing can help in healing a lot of ailments, something as simple as listening can fix the problems of the world.

Arun leaves his audience with a very profound message about listening. In his own words, the cultivation of skills for deeper listening begins with the listening to the stranger within us. How true can that be!

Death by Litigation – The Perils of Business Reporting

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Paranjoy Guha Thakurta – a leading Indian journalist and a political analyst, quite amusingly quoted the abbreviation ‘SLAPP’, as if it were one of his favourite jargons from the Oxford dictionary. For a journalist like Guha, SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation is no fun actually. Now globally prevalent, it is a lawsuit that is intended to silence and even harass critics, to the point when they withdraw their voice of dissent. Lawsuits come with burgeoning legal costs and journalists often have to fight them with their own money and this can take years in the court. To add, a journalist can also lose his or her job while all this happens. Continue reading “Death by Litigation – The Perils of Business Reporting” →

Writing Workshop

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Creative writing, that many would love to hone, brings in a certain kind of joy, and pride to the writer. Rajorshi Chakraborti’s session on a breezy Sunday morning was packed with exercises that not only helped budding writers develop skills but also experienced writers go back to the basics. Chakraborti was born in Kolkata and grew up in Mumbai. He currently lives in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of 4 books, two of which have been nominated in different categories for the Crossword Book Award. The fifth one is due in Australia and New Zealand in March 2018, and is titled ‘The Man Who Would Not See’.

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RBI, Government & Individuals: It’s Complicated

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While most expect a dry little discussion when it comes to economics or the Reserve Bank of India, the session with MS Sriram, YV Reddy, and TCS Srinivasa Raghavan broke all those assumptions hands down! With wit, humour, and extensive knowledge coming together, 45 minutes flew by in a bunch of laughs, and many, many head nods. YV Reddy served as the Governor of the RBI between September 2003 and 2008 and has also held various positions of high importance. He is also an eminent writer on economic issues, with his latest book being ‘Advice & Dissent: My Life in Public Service’. TCS Srinivasa Raghavan’s experience is also extremely vast. He’s the General Editor of RBI History, VOLUME 3, and a Consultant to RBI History, Volume 4.
Continue reading “RBI, Government & Individuals: It’s Complicated” →

The Way I see It

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It has been barely two months since the journalist Gauri Lankesh died. Yet her murder still sends chills down our spines when we think of it. Gauri Lankesh was shot in cold blood by unknown assailants, presumably for taking on religious fundamentalists. In the spirit of remembering and celebrating all she stood for, ‘The Way I see It—A Gauri Lankesh Reader’ was launched at the Bangalore Literature Festival today. ‘The Way I see It—A Gauri Lankesh Reader’ is a compilation of her writings. The book has been edited by Chandan Gowda, and the foreword has been written by Paul Zacharia.

Chandan Gowda, Paul Zacharia, and Kanhaiya Kumar launched ‘The Way I see It—A Gauri Lankesh Reader.’ Each of them received a copy of the book from Gauri Lankesh’s mother, Mrs Indira Lankesh. Seeing her fight tears while presenting a copy of the book to each panelist was a painful sight to behold.

Chandan Gowda gave everyone a small brief about the book’s contents, which consists of her early essays and news articles. Then Paul Zacharia reminded us of the inclement conditions that journalists have to face while reporting the truth. Gauri paid with her life for being a decent human being. If such is the state of modern Indian society, then the India where one could be fearless is gone.

However, it was Kanhaiya Kumar’s rousing tribute to Gauri Lankesh that touched minds and hearts. Kanhaiya Kumar confessed that he had been approached to write for the book, but couldn’t because he found it extremely difficult, to sum up his friendship with Gauri Lankesh in a few words. It was Gauri who had been a genuine friend during the hard days he had faced in jail. Gauri had nurtured him and cared for him like a mother, and she often visited him in jail.

According to Kanhaiya, she was extremely dedicated to her work, yet happy and free-spirited. She loved her family and had deep respect for her parents. Kanhaiya was particularly touched by her acknowledgement of her mother’s contribution towards her upbringing.

Gauri was a journalist with great integrity. Her newspaper did not have any advertisements— such was her commitment to quality and impartiality. She was critical of various political ideologies, yet accommodative towards them at the same time. When asked if she was afraid, Gauri told Kanhaiya, “If my fear of death increases, my will to fight decreases.” Such was the strength of her fighting spirit

Kanhaiya urged us to keep Gauri’s memory alive by taking the fight forwards and being courageous. He urged us to derive strength for taking on the establishment, from our love and grief.

About the Author – Madhumati is an avid reader who dabbles in poetry every now and then.Her poems can be found at It Can get Verse. She currently writes for Bookstalkist.

The Writer’s Role in Speaking Out

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As it is said often, the pen is mightier than the sword. According to the Malayalam short-story writer Paul Zacharia, it is the duty of writers to speak out because they are the wielders of the pen. Writers should confront vested interests in the government, the political system, religious organizations, and businesses. However, confronting these vested interests is not easy because they have the power and the heft to manipulate the psyche of all those within their reach, even writers.

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Chasing Bin Laden

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In an interview with author Rohini Mohan, Adrian Levy, an investigative journalist for 20 years, shared his thoughts about his explosive new book, The Exile, an insider look at Osama bin Laden and the workings of Al-Qaida. The book was written like a spy thriller that travels through every corner of the living rooms of Bin Laden, his family and Pakistan/Afghanistan generals to clear the preconceived notions about Al-Qaida members in hiding in Pakistan and Iran between 2001 and 2011.

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Blogging Podcasting Anyone?

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In India, blogging became a widespread hit when it first came into being. It is easy to write a blog, it is mostly free, and it is fun. For today’s everyday netizens, especially for those who like to read and write a bit, blogging has always been a huge getaway and has remained omnipresent in their daily lives of for the past decade or so. It pretty much still is, right? Hold on to that thought for a while.

On the second day of Bangalore Literature Festival, Amit Varma – a very popular and established novelist based in Mumbai – gave a short speech on the current state of blogging and podcasting and then had a detailed Q&A session with the audience. Amit strongly believes blogging has shaped the way modern-day netizens think or communicate. A blog could transcend geographical and cultural boundaries and could create disruption, and challenge the status quo.

Blogging checked and challenged the main-stream media in a way nothing had ever done before. People were no longer dependent on mainstream media for information or perspective. On the other hand, creative content writers could set aside rules and restrictions that come attached with the mainstream and could enjoy this new found freedom to express their wish & will, without anything to worry about. Blogging simply meant better writing or reading experience. It meant freedom.

But according to Amit, the likes of social media giants such as Facebook & Twitter have unfortunately and unknowingly killed blogging. To easily reach audiences, and to get quicker response and feedback on creative content, most of the blogging lot has shifted to mainstream social media. There are niche blogs for specific content like technology or Photography, but the core essence of blogging, when anybody could open up his or her PC and write his or her mind out without caring for who is going to read or comment, is missing. In today’s social media, writing a speech is easy and making a mockery out of something or somebody is even easier. Notwithstanding the benefits of social media, it does create polarization.

Blogging indeed is a bit passive, whereas, on social media, everything is instant and real-time, and hence the shift. Instant gratification as some might call it. Somebody could argue that social media makes it easier to get audiences, but the whole point of blogging was to not care for audiences! The author also argued that social media gave rise to fake news and confirmation bias i.e. the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories. “People believe what they want to believe” – said Amit in a pessimistic tone, and pointed out to the market for fake news. There is a ton of unverified information on social media and based on that same information, people are getting divided and polarized every day. Creating social unrest at such a huge scale was never so easy.

So what can we do, except turning a blind eye?
Some people are actually doing something about this. Amit mentioned of Pratik Sinha’s Alt News – an anti-propaganda and fact-checking website. Their job is to fish through the internet for fake news and expose the truth. But thanks to social media, the sort of scale at which fake news works in present India, more such people and websites are needed and hopefully, they will come.

Amit went on to talk about how nascent is podcasting in India and there is a lot of scope for such a culturally new concept. But according to him, creating content for a podcast – an episodic series of digital audio or video is a more serious business than casual blogging.

When asked about the future of podcasts in India, the novelist said that the key lies in the quality of content and the overall presentation. Working on these two parameters will drive growth and help create such an eco-system.

Finally, the author finished mentioning that the advances in technology are a huge relief. Even though present-day governments are deploying more restrictions, and can try to control and monitor our everyday lives in future, we can use technology to pass on the right information to people and empower them. But whether they will make the ‘right’ choices, is something the author seemed surprisingly pessimistic about. Maybe he wants us, the netizens, to answer that question for him.

About the Author: Soumik Seth is an avid follower of music, current affairs, stock market, economy, and filmography. He currently writes for Bookstalkist.

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