Litfest Delhi 2016 News

Biography and the Making of Indian History

Iconic Indians and the Idea of India
After exploring in his previous book the ‘Idea’ – that is, the political and social processes that shaped India, Khilnani now investigates the making of its ‘Icons’.
Manmohan to Dulat: ‘Great book but it’s full of you’
India has an unnecessary obsession with secrecy, said former RAW chief.
‘India’s rulers hold power, yet remain insecure’
Patrick French spoke of recent interactions with political leaders of India’s ruling dispensation.
Seth suggests AAP is “more drama than delivery”
Ashutosh found himself defending the Aam Aadmi Party and explaining the idea behind it for the entire duration of his session at Times Lit Fest Delhi, 2015.
'Pandavas did not kill a single Kaurava in the right way'
The panellists did not add or subtract from the epic but drew their inferences from the text itself.
Indian thrillers have a mostly male audience
They told him, we have a Dan Brown so we don’t need an Ashwin Sanghi.
‘Ramayana is like chaat, savour it!’
“Mythology is nothing but cultural truths,” says Devdutt Pattanaik, acclaimed mythologist, in a conversation with Dileep Padgaonkar.
Young minds being nurtured at Times Lit Fest
The second day of the Times Lit Fest Delhi 2015 held an engaging workshop for the youngest minds of the city on Sunday.
“Net won’t replace traditional media but inform it”: Chinmayi Arun
Audience interjections from the very young to the decidedly grey made for a discussion with broad appeal at the Times Litfest Delhi session.
Cinema as Agent of Change
The four panelists – writers Gautam Chintamani, Jai Arjun Singh, Maithili Rao and Fahad Samar – spoke of the “seduction of Bollywood”.
'Politicians hold office, yet remain insecure’
At the session “India: A Portrait” at the times Literary Festival on Sunday, author Patrick French spoke of recent interactions with political leaders of India’s ruling dispensation.
Not easy to write about sex: Ananth Padmanabhan
The crowd and the applause seem to have answered the question of the Sunday morning panel discussion at the Times Litfest Delhi: “Is Sexuality in Indian writing still under the covers?”
"Would like to make a film on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead"
Ram Gopal Varma says that wasn't the idea behind his recently released autobiography.
'Our educational outlook is Eurocentric'
China, the Asian equivalent of the Joneses with whom India is constantly measured against, continues to remain an inscrutable entity for us, observed author Amitav Ghosh.
Re-imagining republics icons
Bharatiya Janata Party member and Observer Research Foundation chief Sudheendra Kulkarni thinks Sardar Vallabbhai Patel ranks lowest on a list of the “Republic’s icons.”
‘Kashmir Today: Towards an Indian Future?’
“To take that veto away, we have to have a well-crafted and well-thought out policy towards Kashmir.”
How to get published
The biggest asset a new author can have is a thick skin. It'll serve them well as the publishers and agents turn their manuscript down.
‘Why Tolerate? Let’s Accept!'
Malekar was addressing a session at the Times Of India Litfest on ‘The Speaking Tree: Modern Indian Search For Spirituality’.
Gandhi was the biggest prude: Ira Trivedi
Gandhi cropped up repeatedly in the conversation on Love and Longing in Indian Writing. Ira Trivedi declared him “the biggest prude” and responsible for the obsession with “Hindu purity” and “prudish
‘Men market themselves better, we need some help’
Author and former CEO of P&G Gurcharan Das was born Ashok Kumar. Thereafter, his grandmother began suspecting that her daughter-in-law, Das’s mother, had a crush on the Bollywood heartthrob of
Middle class and the Sheena, Maria, Aarushi syndrome
Like Sheena Bora’s murder, there was something about the Aarushi and Neeraj Grover cases that gripped public attention.
Writers bring sanity, says Vice-President Hamid Ansari
Vice-President Hamid Ansari stressed India’s “plural ethos” as he inaugurated the first edition of the Times LitFest at the Maidens Hotel, Civil Lines, on Saturday. He described the event as a
Writers are not responsible for riots. Rioters are. Rioters don’t read books: Taslima Nasreen
The Bangladeshi writer, who has spent much of her life in exile, battling fundamentalists in her country and ours, was part of a panel discussion on the writer as political hostage, moderated by
'Delhi is for all due to Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb'
The story of Delhi, like the city, is work in progress.
Women face real intolerance: Amish
Fans of Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy and his recent book ‘The Scion of Ikshvaku’ were in for a treat at the Times LitFest.
‘Unknown Sachin Tapes’ offer peek into opinionated, emotional Tendulkar
These and other memorable vignettes of a storied career were played out at the ‘Unknown Sachin Tapes’ session at the Times Lit Fest.