BLF 2017 Reports Day 2 - Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF)

BLF 2017 Reports Day 2

Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine

Author and Journalist Prashant Jha says, “After 75 days of groundwork in Uttar Pradesh, I did anticipate a BJP win but not this massive a win”. He recollects how the former President Pranab Mukherjee once told him that you could …

Continue reading

Border Tales

When a national security expert, a journalist, and a feminist come together to discuss their perspectives on Borders, you can expect some uncensored truths. The session, ‘Border Tales’ saw Bishwanath Ghosh and General Kamal Davar putting across their perspectives on …

Continue reading

Nature and the City

Journalist Dhanya Rajendran moderated a discussion with Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament and Harini Nagendra, Professor of Sustainability, Azim Premji University. The session was titled ‘Nature and the City ‘ and the discussion was focused around two books – Jairam’s …

Continue reading

Lanka’s Princess, Vamp or Winner?

“Without Shurpanakha, there would be no Ramayana, don’t you think?” asked Kavita Kane. “There wouldn’t have been a war if Shurpanakha hadn’t met Ram and Lakshman in the forest. She’s the main trigger of the entire series of events in …

Continue reading

Quo Vadis Higher Education?

Quo Vadis literally means “Where are you going?”. But where the current Indian higher education system is heading to, is something that concerns Pankaj Chandra – Vice Chancellor and Chairman at Ahmedabad University and Ex-director at IIMB.

On the second …

Continue reading

Tailing Veerappan

“Veerappan was a bloated figure. He was too blown up like a balloon and had to be punctured”, says Vijaykumar who was Chief of the Special Task Force (STF) that was behind the encounter of the dreaded bandit Veerappan during …

Continue reading

Women in Contemporary Literature

Poet, Novelist Anjana Basu sat down with Historian, Creative Writer Ambai and Scientist, Fiction Writer Indira Chandrasekhar to discuss ‘Women in Contemporary Literature’. When Anjana wondered if the depiction of women in literature had changed in the recent times, Ambai …

Continue reading

India’s Democracy XI

In the kickoff event of Bangalore Literature Festival on Day 2, Prem Panicker, Rahul Dravid, and Rajdeep Sardesai began the session amidst the massive crowd who welcomed them with huge applause that steadily reached a crescendo. Prem presented Rahul as …

Continue reading

Saris or Pantsuits?

Saris or Pantsuits was a conversation between the author, Radhika Nathan, the writer of ‘The Mute Anklet’, and ‘A Time to Burnish’, and a behavioural science expert, Gayathri who loves studying the impact of perceptions on people.

 

Characterization, Radhika …

Continue reading

A Life Like No Other

Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sonal Mansingh needs no introduction. Her deep knowledge of several dance forms and classical music stands out. Her ‘Naatya Katha’ addresses several socio-cultural issues and is a solo dance theatre. Sonal Mansingh’s biography comes from Sujata Prasad- …

Continue reading

Literary Fiction – An Endangered Species?

The evening session started with Italo Calvino’s words for classics ‘books that are treasured by the readers who loved it and also for the first first time readers, those books are classics.’ Imraan Coovadia asked about the relevance of classics …

Continue reading

Aadhaar – Dystopia or Utopia

The title can be simplified to ask if Aadhaar is slavery or not but this is not how our moderator Charles Assisi decided to put the topic into discussion, he said that when Henry Ford created a motorcar, the pertinent …

Continue reading

The World of AK Ramanujan

For a time, I was transported back to the world of AK Ramanujan attending the session ‘The World of AK Ramanujan’ presided over by Girish Karnad, Guillermo Rodriguez, and moderated by Chandan Gowda. Girish Karnad’s personal acquaintance with AK Ramanujan …

Continue reading

Mrs. Funnybones

“Twinkle Twinkle little star
I am going to hit you with a car.”

Yes, Twinkle Khanna did say that, very eloquently in fact. To an unfortunate man in the audience who drew her ire by cracking jokes on her name, …

Continue reading

Comically Yours

Bachi Karkaria, Chhimi Tenduf-La with Amit Verma entertained the audience with their wit and humor in the hilarious session ‘Comically Yours’ at Speak Out that added laughter to the already lovely atmosphere.

 

Amit Verma quipped about Bachi coming from …

Continue reading

Follow Us