I floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once wandered lonely as a cloud
That I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
-William Wordsworth
Chennai city has been bustling with events since the start of 2015. One such event for the reading minds was provided by The Hindu in the form of 3 days festival called 'Lit for Life 2015', http://www.thehindulfl.com. This yearly fest brought famous faces from the bestsellers writing scene like Amish Thripathi and Chetan Bhagat, bureaucratic faces like Vinod Rai and Sanjay Raru and also the journalist angle in the form of Rajdeep Sardesai and P Sainath.
Here are few of the events that we witnessed,
The discussion on Good governance with Vinod Rai, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sanjaya Baru was a welcome topic with each one pitching in their views frankly. The question time at the end made Rajdeep agree that media lacks governance. During course of the discussion he also emphasized the point that in the previous UPA government all ministers were in the 9 o'clock TV news as though government decisions were made there and the new anchors represented the nation; a truth all news watchers should know.
Jung Chang - the English author from China made the audience spell bound with her account of the ancient china and the birth of modern China through her research. Her current book is on the empress Dowager Cixi. She walked through her power point presentation on the empress with rare photographs from China. Jung Chang showed the gathering a shoe from ancient times for Chinese women. It has just the space for the index finger, through foot binding the rest of the finger bones were fractured to fit in to those shoes it seems. What a torturous practice..The next discussion on India's neighbors - Srilanka and Bangladesh showcased the prolific nature of the journalists - Salil Tripathi and Samanth Subramanian. Nirupama Subramanian, a senior journalist herself questioned them on their experiences in those countries. They elaborated on the kind of challenges they faced while reporting from those countries. Obviously the questions hour was all directed towards Samanth on Srilanka. Samanth said that during his meetings with Tamil politicians he has said that Indian Tamils know that politics is using Srilanka Tamil's issue for self gain only but they don't accept and continue to manipulate with the issue.
This Land, Our Country by P.Sainath was a no miss opportunity. The videos he presented left you wanting to know more of rural India. Huge task being done and available for all at http://ruralindiaonline.org, PARI. Sainath is the man behind numerous reports on farmers in India and their sufferings. So wanted to see him talk.
The food discussion with Chefs Aditya Bal, Kunal Kapur and Manu Chandra by the well know name in Hindu - Shonali Muthalaly displayed the passion and love these young Chefs have for food. All of them opinioned that there is no food called Authentic as ingredients and cooking methods have changed drastically over the years.
Tisca Chopra seen in Anil Kapoor's 24 was part of the panel along with Nimrat Kaur (Lunch box actress) to discuss on star light. Good to see the command over language these actresses had.
Author of the Shiva trilogy Amish was there to share his thoughts with Hindu's famous name Bharadwaj Rangan. No wonder the hall was overflowing and his fans all eager to ask him questions. The former investment banker was composed and willingly came out with admiration for Rajnikanth, love for his family and belief in Shiva as his almighty.
The Lit for Life team took this opportunity to express their solidarity for Perumal Murugan, a good gesture indeed. The fest had people from various walks of life and different age groups.
Nice to be sitting in the middle of the huge gathering of matured and brilliant minds and witness the events unfold.
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