BLF2018 Archives - Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF)

Archives for BLF2018

An Equal World: Beyond 377

Decriminalization of homosexuality by the Supreme Court of the country is just the beginning of the battle. The panel discussion on Section 377 on the second day of the literature festival was one of the most interactive sessions of all. …

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Telling a Story, Shaping the World

Renuka Chatterjee was in conversation with authors Easterine Kire and Nora Bossong on the craft of telling a story and the stories that have shaped the world in some way or the other. Renuka Chatterjee is currently the Vice-President, Publishing, …

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Whose Lie is it Anyway: #Fakenews

The fact that even the Panchatantra and the Aesop’s Fables have a story about the shepherd boy who cried wolf when there was no wolf, underlines the fact that the phenomenon of fake news is not something ultra modern or …

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Outside Looking In: Eyes on India

India has been seen by the world through myriad prisms for a long time. From the epithet of ‘land of snake charmers’ and mystics to being touted as the next big emerging power, India keeps changing its imagery on the …

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The Business of Sex

Modern India is very forward when it comes to debating and coming to a resolution on any topics that might have raised a few eyebrows before. Not so much when it comes to the business of sex. The taboo around …

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Populism, Liberalism et al

Populism, Liberalism et al had Ashutosh Varshney and Narayan Ramachandran in session. Ashutosh Varshney is a professor of International Studies at Brown University. His ideas on populism, follies of liberalism; his political inclination and the difference between Indian and American …

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The Diary of a Political Idiot

Shoma Chaudhury, who moderated the session introduced the author Jasmina Tesanovic who is a journalist, feminist, political activist, and filmmaker. On Serbia bombing in 1999, Jasmina started the conversation saying that she believed it could happen to anyone, anywhere and …

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Outback Tales: Stories from Oz

Rajith Savanadasa started the session at ‘Adjust Maadi’ venue by asking the audience how many of them had been to Australia to unpack the idea of Australia and there were quite a few.

He asked Roanna Gonsalves who grew up …

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Who owns that song?

In a country such as India that is replete with diversity in its social milieu, it should not be surprising that some things get missed to the extent of becoming obscure. This is one such story that spun out of …

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Agatha Christie, Poirot and Me

Weird serendipity. That is how Sophie Hannah got the approval from the Christie family and began writing Poirot novels. Sophie’s maverick literary agent sowed these ideas into the mind of a HarperCollins editor, who immediately rejected the idea. A thorough …

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Winning on #377

This September, the Supreme Court of India passed a historic judgement of decriminalizing homosexual relationships between consenting individuals. It struck down on the IPC section 377 after a 17-year long legal battle. The Bangalore Literature Festival had Anjali Gopalan who …

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Pencils Drawn: Cartooning in Trying Times

Ponnappa and Ravi Shankar, the renowned cartoon artists of our country took out all their mind out and sketched out artistically the current political and cultural stature. As Ponnappa quotes “ I never take up religion , that is the …

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The Descent of Man

In a short and crisp session on ‘The Descent of Man’ at the ‘Naale Baa’ venue, poet, essayist, and critic Vijay Seshadri was in conversation with author Ranjit Hoskote. The dialogue hovered over and went into the contours of poetry …

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The Things We Do

On the velvet red couch were seated the wildlife couple, Romulus Whitaker and Janaki Lenin getting candid with the audience of diverse cultures united under the roof of literature, discussing their journey with reptiles.
Romulus is very popularly known as …

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The Young and the Restless

What happens when five young writers come together on one platform and through their literary works connect with the idea of youth, restlessness, and ambition? This was a pure collaboration of ideas where each author explored the theme in context …

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Kama: The Riddle of Desire

‘India is the only country that elevated Kama to a goal of life and had a god for desires”, quipped Gurcharan Das who was discussing about his latest book ‘Kama: A Riddle of Desire’. The book is the third in …

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In Search Of Wacky Female Characters

When one singular social pursuit has taken you to writing, you have most probably taken a journey similar to Sujata Parashar’s. Her years of working with women in red light areas, strong social activism on the front of female empowerment, …

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Quo Vadis Pakistan: Decoding our Neighbour

After many years, the political landscape in Pakistan looks upbeat. Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister promised a new Pakistan during the campaigns. However, according to Farzana Shaikh, who is a well-known commentator on Pakistan for the international media, it may …

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The Cows of Bangalore

The speaker for the session was Shoba Narayan who initially shared that her dream was to become a standup comedian. The speech was set around the Indian mythological spiritual animal: Cow; cow being a part of Indian mythology.

The speaker …

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