Another amazing day at JLF.
There's particular events that i've attended.
At first musical treat by Ekoham (Bhakti and Spiritual Traditions), pleasant traditional music.
After that...
"The Conflict of Dharma in the Mahabharata” Amish Tripathi and Bibek Debroy introduced by Namita Gokhale.
Described as ‘the greatest story ever told’, the Mahabharata avoids prescriptive
moralities. The individual dharmas of its myriad characters face constant conflicts of
ethical and human dimensions and these battles are at the heart of the epic.
Writer, economist and mythology scholar Bibek Debroy and Amish Tripathi, mega-
selling author of the Meluha trilogy speak about the ambiguity of interpretation of
human and divine laws and moral codes.
After that...
“Wanderlust and the Art of Travel Writing” Paul Theroux, Charles Glass, Samanth Subramanian, Akash Kapur, Sam Miller, in conversation with William Dalrymple.
Travel Writing is one of the Most Ancient Forms of Literature, but does it have any
relevance in the age of the internet, globalisation and Google Maps?
well answer is yes, there is no better way to discover things, idea, places by yourself and living the moment at the time you see it.
After that... the main session i was focusing on is this one.
Tharoor is marvellous speaker, that people want to listen him could be seen by great number of crowd. I laboriously managed myself to get in front rows, making my way through the crowd.
"India Shastra" Shashi Tharoor, Mihir Sharma in conversation with Amrita Tripathi
A discussion on India Shastra transpired between Shashi Tharoor and Mihir Sharma, as the pair discussed their latest books India Shastra and Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy respectively. The speakers delved into topics ranging from politics, education, literature to economics, as they discussed the challenges they believed India must overcome in order to redeem itself as a superpower in the 21st Century.
Mihir Sharma described his book as ‘a story of what has to change and what has already changed in the Indian Economy.’ After reading the introduction, Sharma praised the current Prime Minister’s successful transformation of Gujrat, but raised concern that ‘he’s never actually stepped up to explain how this will work at the national level. We may become the fastest growing country in the world as China slows down, but do we have a game plan?’
Shashi Tharoor revealed that his ‘book completes a trilogy of books about India,’ the first two being India from Midnight to the Millenium and The Elephant, The Tiger and The Cellphone. His latest work,India Shastra, is a compilation of 99 essays on every possible theme, held together in consistency byTharoor’s own ‘basic thesis about India.’ This thesis talks about India as a paradox, ‘where the singular thing about India is that you can only speak of it in the plural.’
The panel talked about the policies of the incumbent NDA government. Tharoor explained that the main reason behind his writing India Shastra was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overwhelming victory in the Lok Sabha elections. He referred to the visible schism between Modi’s eloquent and inspiring speeches and the implementation of them. On the subject of NDA government’s first budget, Tharoor said that the supposed ‘game changing budget was actually a ‘name changing budget,’ citing the BJP’s measures, which he described as a repackaging of what the UPA government had already passed.
Mihir Sharma observed that ‘Modi is the most popular leader in world history,’ which gave the incumbent government a great opportunity to transform India, in what he believes is the country’s ‘last chance.’ He added that there is a ‘great deal of frustration for young people about the struggle that they have to go through in order to achieve what they intend to achieve.’
The speakers talked about education in India, and Tharoor cautioned that understanding the importance of education was ‘not just an an economic challenge but a national security issue.’ The country, which is soon poised to have the highest demographic dividend in the world, needs to ‘equip the young men with training.’ He described India as a ‘young country ruled by old people,’ saying that he ‘wants to challenge the private sector to get into vocational training.’
The extremely engaging session concluded with Amrita Tripathi remarking that ‘we should send a copy of both books to the Prime Minister’s office.’
Surely glad that I was there.
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