Digital media to divergent views, Bangalore lit fest had many musings
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Digital media to divergent views, Bangalore lit fest had many musings
The second day of Bangalore Literature Festival looked forward into the future of food, relationships, media and more.
Participants began the day with morning exercise in the form of a ballet class conducted by The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet.
New media journalists Mini Menon, Shradha Sharma and Siddharth Varadarajan discussed the disruptive power of the digital media. The panelists talked about how technology had democratised news and given space for new ideas to be heard. Sharma, founder of YourStory, said, “In the next five years, I expect that Indians will start paying to access good content.”
Journalists Josy Joseph and Neena Gopal discussed Neena’s recent book ‘The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi,’ in which she gives a first-hand account of the incident.
“My white saree was stained with blood and all the people in front of me had been killed. I stumbled past the bodies to find Rajiv Gandhi. There was hardly anything left of him. Just his Lotto shoes, his Gucci watch and his head,” she described.
Aishwarya R Dhanush, daughter of superstar Rajinikanth, discussed her book, ‘Standing on an apple box,’ which was released on Saturday. “I would not want to direct my father in any movie. In the role of a director, I would be expected to interact with him in a certain way. I like the equation we share now and do not want to change that.” She is, however, looking forward to the Rajinikanth movie she and her husband Dhanush will be producing.
In the evening, the debate at the festival shifted towards ideology and political leanings. Rajiv Malhotra, Hindu activist and author of several books on Indology, said “Leftists and pseudo-liberals control the discourse too much. We need world-class intellectuals who speak based on research.” Malhotra said chauvinistic right-wingers, with their talk about Pushpaka Vimana, discredit Hinduism. He hinted that the decision-makers at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) were set to change in 2017.
“ICSSR has a budget of crores of rupees which mostly go to Leftist organisations. If the change comes through in ICSSR, we are hoping that this trend will get modified.”
Expecting the presence of former president of JNU students’ union Kanhaiya Kumar, a large number of people gathered for an evening session titled ‘Contrarian Views’.
However, Kumar did not make an appearance. The anchor announced that he could not make it because he was unwell. “We were not informed that he will not be coming. We got to know only an hour after he was supposed to land,” one of the organisers of the festival said. Kumar was replaced on the panel by journalist Mihir Sharma who engaged with actor-turned-politician Ramya, Amnesty International director Aakar Patel and Swarajya magazine CEO Prasanna Viswanathan about what it means to have a view contrary to public opinion.
Prizes awarded
The Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival 2016 book prizes were awarded to Kannada poet K V Tirumalesh, Perumal Murugan and Vinay Sitapati. Tirumalesh received the ‘Literary Achievement in Kannada’ award for his poetry collections. Murugan received the award for his book ‘Pyre’ in the fiction category and Sitapati’s book ‘Half-Lion: How P V Narasimha Rao Transformed India,’ received the prize in the non-fiction category.
Participants began the day with morning exercise in the form of a ballet class conducted by The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet.
New media journalists Mini Menon, Shradha Sharma and Siddharth Varadarajan discussed the disruptive power of the digital media. The panelists talked about how technology had democratised news and given space for new ideas to be heard. Sharma, founder of YourStory, said, “In the next five years, I expect that Indians will start paying to access good content.”
Journalists Josy Joseph and Neena Gopal discussed Neena’s recent book ‘The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi,’ in which she gives a first-hand account of the incident.
“My white saree was stained with blood and all the people in front of me had been killed. I stumbled past the bodies to find Rajiv Gandhi. There was hardly anything left of him. Just his Lotto shoes, his Gucci watch and his head,” she described.
Aishwarya R Dhanush, daughter of superstar Rajinikanth, discussed her book, ‘Standing on an apple box,’ which was released on Saturday. “I would not want to direct my father in any movie. In the role of a director, I would be expected to interact with him in a certain way. I like the equation we share now and do not want to change that.” She is, however, looking forward to the Rajinikanth movie she and her husband Dhanush will be producing.
In the evening, the debate at the festival shifted towards ideology and political leanings. Rajiv Malhotra, Hindu activist and author of several books on Indology, said “Leftists and pseudo-liberals control the discourse too much. We need world-class intellectuals who speak based on research.” Malhotra said chauvinistic right-wingers, with their talk about Pushpaka Vimana, discredit Hinduism. He hinted that the decision-makers at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) were set to change in 2017.
“ICSSR has a budget of crores of rupees which mostly go to Leftist organisations. If the change comes through in ICSSR, we are hoping that this trend will get modified.”
Expecting the presence of former president of JNU students’ union Kanhaiya Kumar, a large number of people gathered for an evening session titled ‘Contrarian Views’.
However, Kumar did not make an appearance. The anchor announced that he could not make it because he was unwell. “We were not informed that he will not be coming. We got to know only an hour after he was supposed to land,” one of the organisers of the festival said. Kumar was replaced on the panel by journalist Mihir Sharma who engaged with actor-turned-politician Ramya, Amnesty International director Aakar Patel and Swarajya magazine CEO Prasanna Viswanathan about what it means to have a view contrary to public opinion.
Prizes awarded
The Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival 2016 book prizes were awarded to Kannada poet K V Tirumalesh, Perumal Murugan and Vinay Sitapati. Tirumalesh received the ‘Literary Achievement in Kannada’ award for his poetry collections. Murugan received the award for his book ‘Pyre’ in the fiction category and Sitapati’s book ‘Half-Lion: How P V Narasimha Rao Transformed India,’ received the prize in the non-fiction category.